Singapore Press Holdings is using its new on-press digital printheads to deliver a range of personalised special editions for readers.

Currently SG$199 buys a Valentine's Day love message on the front page of the Straits Times, or an auspicious SG$88 a Chinese New Year greetings in Lianhe Zaobao... spaces for which advertisers typically pay up to SG$28,000.

The publisher launched the service with a 21^st birthday message for Cassandra Sim, who received a surprise visit from SPH representatives delivered an exclusive framed copy of the flagship Straits Times, together with a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of champagne, which cost her boyfriend and his mum and "introductory" SG$1000.

Head of product innovation and pricing at SPH's integrated marketing division Jerry Siah says the aim is to build an emotional connection with readers by placing them front and centre in the company's main newspapers: "This is a great way for people to convey heartfelt messages to mark special events, such as anniversaries, birthdays, convocations, congratulatory greetings, wedding proposals, marriage vows, and many more," he says.

A Personalised Print Christmas edition for the 2016 holiday season was more modestly priced at SG$100, of which SG$10 was being donated to the Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund.

Hector Tan, who is a assistant manager of product innovation and pricing, told GXpress that the current offers deliver two personalised copies (pictured) of Lianhe Zaobao on Chinese New Year Eve (January 27) or of the Straits Times on Valentine's Day (February 14).

High-speed Kodak S30 inkjet printheads have been installed in three towers of SPH's Goss Colorliner and KBA Commander presses by Peter Clark's Graphic Innovators Australasia. Clark was chief executive of PMP Printing in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s, and founding director of AIW Printing, the heatset printing business which has just been sold into a merger with IVE Group and Phil Taylor's Franklin Web.