‘I can now better appreciate’ challenges faced by newsrooms, journalists: Khaw

SINGAPORE – Five years of steering SPH Media Trust (SMT) did not make Khaw Boon Wan a “media man”, but he can better appreciate the sector’s challenges.

“I am still not ‘a media man’, I still do not have the journalistic instincts in my blood,” said the chairman of SMT.

“But I can now better appreciate the challenges faced by newsrooms and the heartaches of our journalists.”

These include the pressure against time and from all sides, such as newsmakers, readers and non-readers.

“For example, some find us too US-centric; others too China-centric. With Trump in the White House, I got less complaints now,” he quipped.

Still, there is no shortage of divisive issues, such as the use of dialects, use of plastic bags and capital punishment, he said.

He noted that some even harass journalists online, which he said is “uncalled for”.

“My heart also goes out to the young journalists who have to juggle between work and family. Not easy to juggle.”

Khaw was responding to SPH Media’s reporters as he announced his decision to retire and hand over his chairmanship to chief executive officer Chan Yeng Kit.

This is subject to regulatory approval, and expected to take effect from Oct 1, 2026.

Media ‘particularly challenging’

The 73-year-old, whose previous career spanned healthcare, public housing and transport, was known as “Mr Fix-it” for having solved challenges like SARS, HDB flat supply and rail reliability.

While every challenge was difficult, the media assignment was “particularly challenging” as success requires both providers and consumers to be aligned, he said.

“It is like promoting a healthy lifestyle: We have the messages, we do our best to communicate them, but ultimately the consumers must agree to act on them,” he said. “We must appeal to both their heads and their hearts.”

In the media marketplace, SPH also has to compete against big firms with deep pockets that offer “attractive alternate lifestyles, even alternative facts”, he noted. “Not easy at all.”

He pointed to how kaya toast, coffee and newspapers were once mainstays of Singapore’s breakfast scene. Today, Singaporeans still reach for the first two, but smartphones have replaced the broadsheet.

To stay relevant, SPH Media’s titles reach their audiences through their smartphones, but this has meant competing daily with gossip and entertainment videos – and the competition is intense.

“There is no turning back to the era when Singaporeans got news only from SPH newspapers, and advertisers used SPH exclusively to catch Singaporeans’ attention,” said the former minister.

“While we can still produce good returns for our advertisers, we have to be more creative in our products, and work harder to close the deal.”

The silver lining, Khaw said, is that the loss of monopoly has been good for consumers, and also for the media organisation.

“It has caused SPH to innovate, producing engaging digital and social content, while collaborating with generative AI partners.”

No silver spoon

Khaw said that as an “old-school, LKY-inspired” politician, he believes in public media’s important mission to help galvanise the people through facts, logical analyses and rational policies, and that has not changed.

He described his own habit of skimming fiction to unwind, but also reading reports and books carefully in order to be able to draw useful insights on serious topics.

“There is no shortcut. I am afraid a generation that does not read will be a lost generation,” he said.

SMT, a company limited by guarantee, was carved out of public-listed Singapore Press Holdings in 2021, in response to the global digital disruption of traditional publishers.

It was under those circumstances that Khaw, who retired in 2020 as the Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Minister for Transport, took over as chairman of the reconstituted company.

The publisher had three priorities then: Address the stiff competition for advertisers’ revenue from platforms like Facebook and Google, enhance its digital products, and grow their reach among the young.

All these called for a major upgrade in SPH’s digital media capabilities, technological competence and a transformation in newsroom culture to support greater experimentation, recounted Khaw. It also required money.

“We were burning cash and we needed new funding sources. Those were difficult times, with much anxiety within the company,” he said.

Fortunately, the company reached a fair arrangement with the Government, which provided grants to support the capability development SPH critically needed, said Khaw.

In 2022, the authorities announced that they would provide up to $900 million funding to SPH over five years.

Even so, there was no silver spoon for SPH, which has to work hard to earn the Government’s continued support, said Khaw.

Then Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo had said her ministry would closely monitor SMT’s performance through key performance indicators such as reach and engagement, particularly of its digital platforms.

The grants are also reflected in the ministry’s annual budget book, as part of its overall grant disbursements to other organisations.

At the same time, SPH has also reached out to the community for support, especially in mother tongue education, said Khaw.

He now better appreciates the commercial struggles, for a job that cannot be left entirely to foreign journalists nor to artificial intelligence, no matter how smart the machine.

“It is not a cheap operation to have talented journalists to gather news, fact-check, distil the insights and tell the stories in captivating ways,” he said.

That said, SPH newsrooms do need to learn to use AI to help do some of their tasks, and raising staff productivity is an important step going forward, Khaw added.

Asked if SPH Media can ever be profitable without government support, he said profitable models elsewhere are rare and largely built on serving global elite audiences. This is not a relevant model for SPH, especially given its vernacular media objectives.

He credited deputy CEO Kuek Yu Chuang for constantly urging SPH’s commercial team to “create our own tailwinds”, which has continued to strengthen commercial performance.

“Meanwhile, the Government remains supportive. That is a great relief,” he said.

Asked where he thinks the market should end and the state should step in, Khaw replied that the authorities should step forward wherever they see market failure with impact on Singaporeans’ interests.

He cited social media, and the harms it inflicts on children through excessive use.

“You cannot trust the companies to fix these problems voluntarily. Big Tech reminds me of Big Tobacco, whom we battled when I was in the Ministry of Health,” he said.

“They are only motivated by profits. Sadly, ethics is not a big factor for them. The states must therefore step in.”

In such cases, the question becomes a technical one, of how to regulate effectively without stifling innovation.

Situation has stabilised

As to the challenges he laid out when he joined SMT – including to grow younger audiences and win attention despite a more fragmented media environment – he said SPH’s newsrooms have done better than he originally feared.

For instance, its news titles’ coverage of the 2025 General Election was widely consumed, and seen to be objective, professional and balanced, as reflected by the data and outreach metrics.

International awards for SPH titles were also highly satisfying, he added, and offered further validation from global peers.

“Our facilities are now fit for purpose for an agile digital media company,” he said.

“From being a factory churning out words in print, we now produce content in all platforms, wherever Singaporeans gather, in various formats and in different tones.”

With the situation stabilised, Khaw said this was the right time for him to move aside and let Chan and his team have enough time to consolidate trust and credibility with the audience, the newsrooms and SPH’s stakeholders.

But the work is far from finished, and he cited outreach to the young and keeping up with technology as things that are a work-in-progress.

“We still have much to learn and to reskill,” said Khaw. “It is a continuing journey of discovery and experimentation.”