newspapers Newspapers have been published in Singapore since 1824, when the English- language Singapore Chronicle was launched as a medium for official notices and information on trade and shipping. The history of Singapore’s newspapers reflects the country’s linguistic diversity and also the growing use of English.

Singapore’s leading newspaper is the English- language daily, The Straits Times (and its Sunday edition The Sunday Times). It had an average daily circulation of more than 386,000 (and more than 392,000 for The Sunday Times) in 2005. The other English papers are The New Paper, The Business Times and Today. English- language papers accounted for 64 per cent of Singapore newspapers circulated daily in 2003.

Chinese newspaper publishing started with Lat Pau in 1881. This newspaper lasted 52 years. The main Chinese daily today is Lianhe Zaobao, averaging a daily circulation of 181,000 (and over 193,000 for its Sunday edition) in 2005. Lianhe Wanbao and Shin Min Daily News are the other local Chinese papers.

The Malay- language Berita Harian (and its Sunday paper Berita Minggu), sold around 60,000 copies a day in 2004. The Tamil- language Tamil Murasu had weekday sales of almost 9,000, with Sunday circulation exceeding 15,000. Together, Malay and Tamil newspapers account for four per cent of total newspaper circulation.

The publicly listed Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) publishes all of Singapore’s daily newspaper titles, except Today. Today is a free newspaper published by Mediacorp Press, a government- owned company in which SPH has a 40 per cent stake.

Newspapers’ editorial direction and social roles have changed over the decades, affected by both global media trends and socio- political shifts within Singapore. From the start, Singapore newspapers imported publishing conventions, as well as editors and journalists, from Britain, India and elsewhere. This gave them a physical appearance and mix of content similar to other newspapers around the world.

Newspapers in recent decades have become less explicitly ideological and more commercially driven than they were before independent Singapore. Then, it was not uncommon for a newspaper to be published at a financial loss in the service of the publisher’s political cause.

The main shift in Singapore’s press history has been the alignment of newspapers with the nation- building mission of the People’s Action Party (PAP). Before PAP rule, newspapers were disparate in their loyalties, reflecting Singapore’s status as an immigrant settlement with no vision of a united, independent nationhood.

Chinese- language newspapers, for example, were more caught up with the politics of China than the fate of Singapore. The Straits Times had just begun to localize its editorial leadership and remained tied to British- dominated commercial interests. Newspapers addressed their respective communities without much concern for multi- cultural understanding. The most cited example of this in Singapore’s press history is probably the Maria Hertogh riots of 1950, in which ethnic rioting was catalyzed partly by insensitive reporting of a controversial custody battle.

After independence in 1965, the PAP focused the press on creating a sense of nationhood among Singaporeans. The government also intervened to ensure representation for Singapore’s official languages. When declining readership threatened the viability of Chinese newspapers, the government engineered their merger with the highly- profitable Straits Times group, resulting in the creation of SPH. SPH later took over the ailing Tamil Murasu.

The PAP believes that the press should not undermine an elected government’s ability to set the national agenda. Local newspapers are licensed, and this has resulted in charges from some quarters that local newspapers fail to reflect the full range of political debate (see press freedom).

While not averse to using laws to influence the editorial direction of the press, the state has not nationalized newspapers either. The editors of mainstream newspapers maintain that they are primarily pro- Singapore, and that they support the PAP government only to the extent that it serves Singapore’s interests. However, their uniform closeness to government remains controversial. Newspapers in Singapore are generally well- managed, priding themselves on offering accurate and comprehensive coverage, attractive design, and good printing.

In addition to the local press, several foreign and regional newspapers are easily available in Singapore. Around 30 such newspapers and news periodicals are printed in the country, including The Asian Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and International Herald Tribune. Media companies also use Singapore as a hub for their news- gathering operations.

While most cities have a wide range of non- mainstream publications, Singapore’s alternative press is relatively limited, due partly to laws that require every publication— including newsletters released at irregular intervals— to obtain a government licence.

The longest- running opposition party paper is The Hammer, published three times a year by the Workers’ Party. Campus newspapers include Nanyang Technological University’s Nanyang Chronicle and Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s Tribune. An independent current affairs newspaper for children, What’s Up, has been published monthly since 2003.

Newer media and communication technologies have changed the reach and role of newspapers. Radio and television are now frequently the people’s first source of news, prompting newspapers to provide more interpretation, analysis and opinion. The Internet has enabled the exchange of more diverse opinion, bypassing newspaper editors who act as gatekeepers to the public sphere. However, early predictions of newspapers’ demise have proven to be off the mark.

While television and online audiences are highly fragmented, newspapers’ continued ability to reach a mass audience makes them a key medium for advertisers. The resulting revenues support resources for operations on a scale that other media cannot match. Newspapers, therefore, continue to employ the bulk of full- time journalists in Singapore, and remain highly influential as political and cultural media.

In 2005, there were nine Singapore newspapers, publishing at least five days a week. Total daily newspaper circulation, as a percentage of the total population, rose from 31.1 per cent in 1993 to 40.8 per cent in 2003, when it averaged 1.7 million copies.

Photo credit: Sin Kam Cheong