40 reporters from the editorial team at Straits Times were retrenched today (Oct 13) after their parent media group Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) announced a massive retrenchment yesterday.
Among the 40 reporters, seven are from entertainment section Life!, five are of sub-editor positions, four are from the news desk, and seventeen are from business section Business Times.
This is the biggest retrenchment exercise of the Singapore mainstream newspaper since it’s creation by the British during colonial times. Straits Times is seeing falling readership due to it’s lack of credibility and the public’s increasing discernment from fake news published on the government-controlled newspaper. The government papers is also seeing increasing pressure from the rise of popular independent news sites like States Times Review.
According to a source close to Straits Times news desk, the retrenchment was sudden and announced only yesterday at 9am when the staff reported for work. This caused massive resentment among the retrenched and uncertainty among the current employees. Many current employees do not know if they will be next as readership for the mainstream propaganda papers continue to decline.