Sales, Social and Tech

As we come to the end of 2015, I thought it would be best to end it with my quotes in The Straits Times. Signing up for safer SingPass simplified; more streamlining expected, 22 December 2015 - Some SingPass users were pleasantly surprised by the change. Marketing manager Aaron Koh, 39, said: "The first step is so much faster now, involving fewer clicks." Streaming service with new set-top box may shake up Singapore TV market, 29 August 2015 - Marketing manager Aaron Koh, 39, said VPN services are already available on the Web for as little as US$50 (S$70) a year and can be used on any broadband connection. Consumers turning to telcos for phablets, 30 July 2015 Marketing manager Aaron Koh, 39, whose two-year mobile contract ends next May, said: "I'm holding out for the year-end launch of the new version of the iPhone 6, which will be more stable and offer better features." 1,000 free SIM cards for MyRepublic's mobile trial, 27 April 2015 - Mar...

Image Source: newnation.sg. The Straits Times, the media gatekeeper of the island state, censored out the F word and PAP from a photo to ensure Singaporeans and those living in the country read the right things . According to  Wikipedia , the justification given for censorship in Singapore is that  " The Government of Singapore argues that censorship of political, racial and religious issues to a certain extent is necessary to avoid upsetting the delicate balance of Singapore's multi-racial society." As such, readers of the Straits Times should be thankful for decision to censor out the F word and PAP from the photo so as to avoid upsetting the delicate balance of Singapore's muti-racial society. The original photo of the graffiti was spread over Facebook and Twitter, it would be extremely hard for the over 3.22 million and 2.56 million users respectively to not see uncensored version of the graffiti. That almost equates to half of the Singapor...

April Fool's might have come and gone, but it looks like The Straits Times enjoys pulling a fast one its readers. Eagle-eye readers highlighted that the article on 26 April 2014 about Mr Muhammad Ariff Ahmad had a full paragraph of Lorem Ipsum placeholder text. As one Reddit member said "You had one job editor!" Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/240e4e/todays_straits_times_had_a_whole_paragraph_of/ The editor responsible for this should have tried the Singlish Lorem Ipsum. You can say its about localisation... From http://singlish-ipsum.appspot.com/ ,  Last time policemen wear shorts! Don't fly my aeroplane He still small boy one Catch No Ball Nia. Catch No Ball ORD then you know! No horse run! Don't fly my kite No horse run! Got problem ah? Atas Buay Song Don't fly my aeroplane then you know! No horse run! Got problem ah? Blur like sotong Don't fly my kite Don't fly my kite Ngeow White Horse ORD loh. Relak lah! last...

The Straits Times erroneously printed the name of a victim who died of dengue to a Facebook user who was still alive and well. From Mr Ang Yong Guan Facebook Profile, The victim's last name was Han and not Guan.  Mr Ang was referring to the statement made by the Minister of Environment and Water Resource about the ongoing tussle between a hawker association and the opposition held ward of Aljunied GRC over the cleaning of a hawker center. 

This morning I saw a post on Facebook of a Singapore citizen emailing the Attorney General to investigate The Straits Times on contravening Parliamentary Elections Act (Chapter 218) with an article headlined "ST Poll: More rooting for PAP". I thought I post about it later in the evening, only to have heard that the police are currently looking into the complaint. A concerned citizen by the name of Brendan Chong emailed the Attorney General Chambers about his concern over the article. Brendan compared the incident with that when the Act was enforced on Joseph Ong Chor Teck for conducting a general election exit poll on the TRE website. Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4317387301523&set=a.1099500416362.2017043.1492224593&type=1&theater It was soon announced in the evening that the police are looking into the matter. Wrote Yahoo News , "The Elections Department (ELD) has confirmed police are probing an election poll result published b...

The Straits Times has an article of it's ST Happening application. Given that it now has 5,300 users downloading the application and a average daily circulation of 355,700, the print to digital conversion rate is at 1.49%. This is a better conversion than online which is at 0.01%, but is it cost effective for a newspaper ad which is in the ten of thousands than online which a good media buy could only cost hundreds?

Singapore Press Holdings has released its 2012 annual report and almost of it dailies are experiencing significant falls in circulation figures. Berita Harihan, which saw growth in August 2011, experienced the biggest drop in circulation figures by 9.0% in August 2012. LianHe ZaoBao, Tamil Murasu and The Business Times, which also saw growth last year, contracted in 2012. For the first time in its report, Singapore Press Holdings have combined the circulation figures of The Straits Times and The Sunday Times. If one were to take the average circulation between The Straits Times and The Sunday Times in August 2011 (370,100), the circulation for both papers would have fallen by 4.86% in August 2012. You can read the report here .   Aug-07 Aug-08 Aug-09 Aug-10 Aug-11 Aug-12 Aug 2011 - Aug 2012 Berita Harihan 61,800 62,000 60,900 58,900 59,200 53,900 -9.0% LianHe WanBao 122,400 107,200 1...

"Fact Checking" was a popular term that rose from the recently US presidential elections to check on the statements made by the two presidential candidates. "Fact Checking" landed on Singapore shores with a story of a taxi driver who was headlined to earn $7,000 a month. A week since the story and the journalist had to print a column explaining her story. A video was also released on The Straits Times. A rarity as stories itself should be explanatory. So the heart of the question was whether the taxi driver did say he earned $7,000 a month. Wrote the journalist , "There was no hint to either of us that he meant what he earned in a particular month, I had asked how much he earned, not what was the most he ever earned." However, the taxi driver in question shared his side of the interview. Image from TheOnlineCitizen Facebook Page So it remains, can taxi drivers really earn $7,000 a month?

The taxi drivers community in Singapore were up in arms over an article in The Sunday Times that a taxi driver was able to earn $7,000 every month. This community were up in arms because their wives were questioning them if they were hiding their earnings from them, sans the Inland Revenue Authority.  Most taxi drivers highlighted their take home pay were about $2,000 to $3,000 after you deduct the rental and fuel cost. Ironically, Wanbao, the Chinese newspaper, gathered a confession from this $7,000 taxi driver that the amount stated wasn't his monthly take home revenue. Translated from AsiaOne Forum contributor , "This evening (31 Oct), Wanbao posted on its Facebook that Mr Mohammed had clarified. He did not make $7K a month on average. The $7K was a record earning for Mr Mohammed in the month of May only. It doesn’t happen every month: Wanbao also said that in the interview with Mr Mohammed, he said that he was “framed”. He believed that there were other...

(Update: I have been updated that the list price now for a full page full color for Straits Times is now SGD49k.) One of my journalist friend at Telecom Asia updated his status that he was seeking comments from both the PR of M1 and Starhub over an advertisement. His eagle sharp eye noticed that in the M1 ad, to promote the Fibre Broadband Bundle at COMEX 2012, had a hotline number that was not to M1's 1627. Pay attention to the last line - For more information, visit m1.com.sg/msquard or call 1633. Dial 1633 and the first thing you will is "Welcome to Starhub customer care.." A quick Google search showed that a full page full colour ad might cost up to SGD33,206,04  before GST and other discounts.  An expensive lesson for the person who approved this ad. 

I don't think I want my son to go to local Singapore universities given that the national papers announced that 40% will get shot at local universities. From a Facebook user . Is this a Post NS training exercise? 

Take a look at the article above. It says "German man falls off Skypark at Marina Bay Sands". Yet on the right, in the headline, says it is a Dutch man. The photo caption also says the body belongs to a Dutch man. So, was it a German man or Dutch man who fell off or there were two falling off Skypark at Marina Bay Sands. Also, by saying that the German man fell off the Skypark, does this mean that the Skypark is very unsafe as you can fall off from the 56 stories at any time?

The headlines above epitomised what The Straits Times thinks is serious news for Singaporeans. Our Singapore Prime Minister started his Facebook Page, shared what he ate for dinner and this qualifies as a headline? From the article itself, the headline could have been "PM takes Singaporeans' views seriously", but yet the sub-editor decided that sharing the dinner menu was the most important thing our Singapore head of state could ever do on Facebook. Will tomorrow's headline be "PM posts dessert photo on Facebook" or "PM checked-in at Istana on Facebook"?

Oo Gin Lee has been appointed the new editor of Digital Life, the IT weekly pullout of The Straits Times, with the departure of Grace Chng to The Money Section of the same newspaper. Grace will be taking on a new role as senior correspondent at Money. The new appointments for Gin Lee and Grace Chng took effect on 5 December 2011.