State Of The Publishing Industry In Singapore

Sufian is always on the lookout for scoops and stories to share with his friends. writing gives a thrill for him and is curious about the impact of new media on the media industry. You can follow him on Facebook.

It is no big secret that the publishing industry is facing a difficult time with the advent of new media. Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have allowed the dissemination of news way before it is officially reported in the papers. It is an uphill battle for journalists to report key events in history with such immediacy due to these platforms and this has cause many dailies overseas to go bust.

However, this is not the case with Singapore papers. Having done an internship stint with a national paper, it seems to me that Singaporeans are reliant on traditional media outlets for their news. This can be attributed to the fact that Singapore has a few dailies which is available throughout the country unlike other countries which may have their own state paper in addition to other dailies.

Even with alternative news websites in Singapore available such as the Online Citizen, most readers are yet to read this news simply because it’s alternative and it may not be accurate. In my opinion, I feel that most Singaporean readers are comfortable with the dailies’ styles of writing up to the point that they are all too familiar with it. On top of that, it is more convenient to get news from trusted and credible sources.

Nevertheless, mainstream media journalists shouldn’t be complacent. I feel that they need to dig even deeper and find out the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of an event instead of just the ‘who’, ‘what’, and ‘where’. They need to constantly remember that readers can just go online and find out information almost instantaneously. Thus, it is imperative that mainstream media journalists give their readers more bang for their buck; something different.

I predict that in a few years time, mainstream media continue to exist but the stories will be treated with different and fresh angles. For example, stories will include analysis from experts to add more details to an economics story. The increase use of human interest and feature angles is a possibility as this will hook more readers and justify the reasons why readers should be charged for information which they can get easily online for free.