Is SPH planning to hire 10 new foreign correspondents after retrenching 130 staff members?

While Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) is in the middle of a mass retrenchment exercise, as it plans to layoff 130 staff members, Warren Fernandez – SPH’s editor-in-chief of the English/Malay/Tamil Media Group held a townhall meeting with The Straits Times (ST) newsroom staff yesterday at 5pm.

This is the second such townhall meeting in two days at the group that has been reported to have resorted to retrenchment in a time of profits, as the firm’s full year net profit rose by 32 percent to S$350.1 million from the previous financial year.

According to a tip-off by an unnamed source within SPH to local news site Mothership, frustrated staff became even more exasperated as they were told that ST is performing well and that the paper will hire 10 new foreign correspondents:

Additionally, the source reported that Fernandez blamed the IT department for locking staff who were terminated on Thursday and Friday out of their work computer system, suggesting that the IT department could do better.

The source also alleged that AsiaOne’s closure was not discussed at the meeting.

The online news aggregator site is said to be due for closure as early as next month, in spite of the fact that AsiaOne underwent a comprehensive revamp just over four months ago, in May this year.

https://theindependent.sg.sg/sph-shuts-down-asiaone-just-4-months-after-revamp/

https://theindependent.sg.sg/sph-mass-retrenchment-to-save-costs-is-like-applying-a-plaster-to-a-gaping-wound/