Products are constantly updated – last month the ‘Straits Times’ led the market with an issue brimming with 3D colour illustrations – and millions of dollars have been ploughed into state-of-the-art print technology.
It’s a point emphasised last month by chairman Dr Tony Tan when SPH was celebrating the recommissioning of the first press in its upgrade and renewal project: “Our core business is in print, and our newspapers and magazines still bring in the bulk of our revenue and profits,” he says.
The group publishes 17 newspaper titles in four languages, reaching almost four out of five of over-15s in the island state, as well as more than 100 magazine titles in Singapore and the region. Delivering value to readers and ensuring its newspapers are the marketplace of choice for advertisers calls for continuous improvement of print products and facilities. The last couple of years have seen giant new presses added, older ones upgraded, and the installation of one of the largest CTP systems in the world.
The two new 85,000 cph KBA Commander press lines – totalling 28 printing towers and four folders -installed at the print centre on the Jurong Port Road in 2002 represented one of the most ambitious projects in the German manufacturer’s 193-year history.
He says recent upgrades and investments – such as Agfa’s high-speed Polaris XCV-S platesetters with automated Glunz & Jensen punch benders and online 88-plate stacking system – and flexibility being able to print single-width at Genting Lane and double-width in Jurong, make SPH one of the most flexible newspapers houses in the world.
At Jurong, the current major project is the upgrading of the four Goss Colorliner presses installed in 1996 to provide five full-colour towers on each. A total of 24 new printing couples are being installed – increasing full-colour capacity from 32 to 40 broadsheet pages straight – with press and paster control systems being upgraded at the same time. With the first of the four back in commission, the focus is on completion of the project by the second half of next year.
There’s a common denominator here in the size and complexity of the projects. But each of the contractors will tell you that SPH sets and achieves the highest standards, both of its partners and itself.
“We’re known in the industry as a customer which sets high standards,” says Anthony Cheng, the company’s executive vice-president of production. “Our objectives are very simple – we want each project to be a success.”
The secret is meticulous planning in the design of a new press installation or the conceptualisation of an upgrade, and Cheng – who is chairman of the recently-formed South East Asia Newspapers Association – leads from the front: “We need to look at every single technical detail in order to be able to exclude possible problems for operation and maintenance,” he says.
Additional material Peter Coleman
Ongoing investment in a story of continuing growth
Armenian merchant Marterus Thaddeus Apcar is credited with the idea of publishing what is believed to be Asia’s oldest newspaper, but although he ordered a press from England to print it, he died before it arrived in Singapore.Fellow Armenian Catchick Moses bought the press and launched the ‘Straits Times’ in 1845, with Robert Carr Woods, an English journalist from Bombay, as its first editor.
But despite its position as the country’s highest-selling paper today, the story is by no means straightforward: There were many changes and troubled times, especially when Singapore was separated from Malaysia in 1965, leading to the creation of the ‘New Straits Times’ in Kuala Lumpur.
With independence, several Singaporean newspapers merged into Singapore Press Holdings, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year. And with more papers to print, the existing Crabtree letterpress rotary was replaced by a Goss Urbanite line. Produced alongside the the English language ‘Straits Times’ were the Chinese ‘Lianhe Zaobao’, Malay ‘Berita Harian’ and 'Tamil Murasu’.
Growing circulation demanded a new printing site and new presses, and in 1982 a new building in Jurong, on the west of the island, was opened, with new Goss Colorliner presses installed. An all-colour KBA Commander was installed next to it in 2002, and the Colorliners are currently being upgraded.
Two years ago, a flexible 16-tower manroland Uniset – the world’s longest – was installed at at Genting Lane, where it prints international newspapers and SPH products including ‘Berita Harian’, ‘Berita Minggu’ and ‘My Paper’.
Singapore Press Holdings, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2009, is South East Asia’s largest media organisation.
Beyond print, the internet editions of its newspapers enjoy over 225 million pageviews with 14 million unique visitors every month.
Apart from the SPH AsiaOne portal, online and new media initiatives include an online marketplace for products, services and employment, ST701; local search and directory engine, rednano.sg; Stomp (Straits Times Online Mobile Print), a portal that connects, engages and interacts with readers on the Web and via mobile phone messaging; omy.sg, a bilingual news and interactive portal and The Straits Times RazorTV, a free access interactive webcast service offering live chat shows and video-on-demand clips.
It also has a 20 per cent stake in free-to-air broadcaster MediaCorp TV Holdings (Channels 5, 8, U and TV Mobile), and a 40 per cent stake in MediaCorp Press, publisher of free newspaper ‘Today’.
In radio, SPH holds 80 per cent of SPH UnionWorks which operates entertainment stations Radio 100.3 in Mandarin and 91.3FM in English. Out-of-home advertising is covered through wholly-owned subsidiary SPH MediaBoxOffice, Singapore’s largest outdoor motion display advertising network media company.
It also owns the Paragon retail/office complex in Orchard Road, Singapore’s main shopping belt, and is developing a 43-storey residential condominium, Sky@eleven through subsidiary Times Development.
Main picture: SPH chairman Dr Tony Tan and executive vice-president, production Anthony Cheng (foreground) view ststic displays of the press upgrade project. With them are deputy chairman Professor Cham Tao Soon and chief executive Alan Chan. Pictture courtesy ‘The Straits Times’ © Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Reprinted with permission.
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