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June 16, 2000 VOL. 29 NO. 23 | SEARCH ASIAWEEK And Then There Were Two The government allows a bit of media rivalry By ASSIF SHAMEEN Singapore It's a giveaway paper, to be published by a joint venture of four government-linked corporations (GLCs). It won't seriously challenge any daily put out by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), the near-monopoly newspaper publisher widely seen to be pro-government. And officials still stress, as Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said recently, that "the media should not set the national agenda" and criticize officials from outside the political arena. So what's the big deal about Today, due to hit the streets later this year? Ask Seah Chiang Nee. The veteran columnist was editor-in-chief of the Singapore Monitor, the last major alternative daily which closed in 1986. "It is a big step for Singapore," he says, "but it is still not the full liberalization we are expecting." The word on the street in recent months is that the authorities want to loosen up on local media, in the hope of showing the city-state to be less restrictive -- and more hospitable to global media and online ventures. Then it would have a better shot at its ambition to become a media and information technology hub for Asia. "Allowing government-linked companies to publish a freesheet is at best partial liberalization," says Seah. Last week the government unveiled a media sector review intended to spawn a bit more competition. Minister of Information and the Arts Lee Yock Suan said the government "has decided to retain the present media structure, with SPH as the core newspaper group and MediaCorp. [of Singapore, or MCS] as the core broadcaster." But SPH will be allowed to air up to two free TV channels and two new radio channels. In return, MCS can publish Today. MediaCorp. will team up with three other GLCs: commuter-train operator Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT), bus company DelGro, and SingTel Yellow Pages, the directory publishing unit of Singapore Telecom. Targeted at readers aged 20 to 40, Today will be given away on trains and buses starting October or November. MCS will provide editorial content, SingTel Yellow Pages will get ads, and SMRT and DelGro will distribute the 250,000 daily print run. Turnover of $43 million is forecast for the fifth year. "It won't be much of a threat to any SPH newspapers or SPH itself," says Vickers Ballas strategist Richard Chiam. Adds Michael Sia of SG Securities Asia: "Today will be a downmarket paper competing with the afternoon tabloid New Paper rather than the flagship Straits Times." The liberalization move came on the day SPH's Net subsidiary SPH AsiaOne was listed. Will Today meet the same fate as the Monitor? A freesheet, says Seah, could generate a larger readership and more ads, but "serious journalists don't like working for a paper that is given away. There will always be a problem with journalists' morale in a freesheet newsroom." Vickers' Chiam adds that Singaporeans will be skeptical of a giveaway paper. Some wonder whether the government is allowing a freesheet because it won't be taken seriously. The bottom line? Says a stock analyst: "Over a few years, it will probably break even and nobody can say Singapore doesn't have competition in the media." SPH seems to be in fighting mood. Besides the TV and radio channels it expects to launch in two years, the company is starting two newspapers. Project Eyeball is for the dotcom generation and will be a 24-hour paper available online and in hard copy. The second is like Today: a free downmarket tabloid called Streats, to start publication in September. Aimed at commuters, it is expected to break even by the third year. Target circulation: 200,000 copies a day. SPH chairman Lim Kim San is a former minister and confidant of Lee Kuan Yew. Group CEO Tjong Yik Min used to head Singapore Internal Security. Despite new media ventures, longstanding restrictions remain. Foreigners are still virtually barred from local media. Just last year the government vetoed plans for a free paper by SMRT and a European company because under the law foreigners may not take part in the management of local media or control more than 3% of their stock. Why not? Seah argues. "We can let foreigners take even 99% as long as a Singaporean entity has a golden share to veto decisions. Foreign participation will bring professionalism in marketing as well as journalism." Minister Lee counters: "Much as we welcome foreign talent -- and many international media already operate here -- the regular reporting on Singaporean affairs for the Singapore audience has to be done by Singaporean media. Our objective is, therefore, to strengthen local media so that they can hold the attention of local audiences." In fact, domestic media already compete with outside coverage -- on the Internet. Says Seah: "At chatrooms of some Singapore websites, you have foreigners talking about Singapore, discussions on taboo subjects like race and religion but in a more mature fashion." He sees "valid reasons" for restricting the media, "but there are enough safeguards." Is further loosening ahead? Lee says "too much competition is unsustainable [and] may lead to a lowering of standards" in the scramble for readers and viewers. He adds that there isn't enough local talent to set up many high-quality media entities. Still, Lee says, Singapore may review a ban on satellite dishes when the sole cable-TV license expires in 2002. That's assuming video won't be streaming across the globe right into living rooms in the Lion City via the Net long before then. Write to Asiaweek at mail@web.asiaweek.com
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