SINGAPORE – There are no attritions intended in Singapore Press Holdings’ latest restructuring exercise, Minister for Communications and Information S. Iswaran said on Monday (May 10).

“The terms of the proposal, as I understand it as of now, is (that) you have the entire team move over… and therefore no attritions are intended,” he said in Parliament, responding to a question from Ms Nadia Samdin (Ang Mo Kio GRC) on whether the transfer of SPH’s media business to a company limited by guarantee will lead to further downsizing.

In fact, the objective of this restructuring is more to build on SPH’s existing capabilities, and to see how new talent can be attracted to augment the existing pool, he said.

The first order of business for SPH Media, which will come under the company limited guarantee if SPH shareholders give the go-ahead, would be to look at the aspect of human resources.

“This must be given importance, and this is something that we, from the government perspective, think is critical,” said the minister.

“It doesn’t make sense to talk about quality journalism if you do not have quality journalists and editors in the newsrooms. And that’s key,” he said.

Mr Iswaran added that the ability to attract, retain and develop journalistic talent can take the news media industry forward by allowing for the quality of news reporting to be boosted, and also for the media’s analysis of global events and local events to offer a distinctly Singapore perspective.

How this will be done is a question that the company itself must take forward, he added in response to Ms Jessica Tan (East Coast GRC), who asked about what is being done to ensure talent retention.

Read key highlights of the ministerial statement on SPH media restructuring here

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