Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied): Sir, the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) shared at last year’s Budget that $260 million was earmarked for SPH Media Trust for the FY2024/2025. We were also told that the Ministry had established key performance indicators (KPIs) for SPH Media Trust. The Minister said that while SPH Media Trust had maintained its overall reach and achieved a modest increase in its digital subscriptions, it did not meet all its KPIs on digital reach, youth reach, vernacular reach and average time spent on its websites and apps. Accordingly, it did not receive the full funding that was committed.
For FY2024/2025, what objective criteria did the Ministry set for these KPIs that were not reached? More specifically, were these KPIs lowered or were they increased? Has SPH Media Trust fared any better since last year? Can the Minister share data on print and digital subscriptions to its English and vernacular titles, respectively, over the last two years?
I had also asked the Minister about the way the Ministry presented its subsidies to SPH Media Trust in the Budget book, and whether there was a simpler way for the public to track and understand the KPIs the Ministry had set for SPH Media Trust. This point is important given the size of the subsidy granted to the mainstream media. After all, as the Minister would agree, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
I would like to share anecdotal feedback from those who follow local English news closely, for example, that CNA’s reporting and commentary on local issues, in terms of depth, has overtaken that of The Straits Times. Does the Ministry conduct local surveys to gauge the public response to our local media outlets? And if so, how does it make the decision to deploy taxpayer dollars to those media outlets that rank less satisfactorily in the public eye? How often are such surveys undertaken? What other objective KPIs does the Ministry keep track of to ensure that the taxpayer dollars for SPH Media is purposefully spent?
The Minister for Digital Development and Information (Mrs Josephine Teo): Mr Pritam Singh expressed concerns about SPH Media’s performance. Like news outlets worldwide, SPH Media’s print subscriptions have declined as readers shift to consuming news online. However, less than 20% of consumers in advanced countries, including Singapore, now pay for digital news subscriptions. Essentially, they can get it for free and they will continue to enjoy such services for free.
Without revealing commercially sensitive information, I can share that SPH Media’s digital subscriptions have held steady and it is now 35% higher than print subscriptions. It was only 20% higher two years ago. So, you see the shift. SPH Media will have to continue its pivot to digital news and the Government must support this effort so that our PSM entities can meet audiences where they are.
Despite not meeting all their KPIs last year, SPH Media did not ask to lower their targets. They are determined to maintain their reach and relevance with Singaporeans. In 2024, they maintained their strong overall reach at 70% of Singapore’s resident population although youths and vernacular reach dipped. In line with the funding agreement, MDDI will pro-rate and award the Performance-Linked Incentives accordingly.
I would like to address slightly, to some extent, the comment that was made by Mr Pritam Singh when he compared CNA and The Straits Times, I believe. I would suggest respectfully to Members that comparisons must avoid oversimplification. Because we have to remember that CNA is mainly our national broadcaster as well as digital news channel, whereas most of the titles in SPH Media Trust (SMT), most of the assets of SMT, are print still – even though they have digital versions – and they are meant to be national papers of record. So, they are different and complementary. And it is perhaps, again, my humble suggestion to Members to look at the performance of public service media holistically. Because, in truth, we need all of them to reach as many Singaporeans as we can. So, that is something to keep in mind.
And as mentioned, both CNA and The Straits Times remained the top-frequented new channels. And Members who expressed concern about the sustainability of Public Services Media will agree with me that the KPIs, such as reach, are important but they are not the only ways for us to assess the performance and the effectiveness of PSM entities. Equally, we must look at the trust levels that they are able to harness from the population and we must also look at satisfaction levels. And so, those would be the additional KPIs that we are looking to introduce.
The Chairman: Mr Pritam Singh.
Mr Pritam Singh: Sir, following up on my cut and the Minister’s response to my cut, I mean, if you compare the two titles that I referred to in my cut, CNA and Straits Times, both serious mainstream English publications, it would be inevitable that members of the public would have a view about which they would opine is of a higher quality. I do not think there is anything untoward about that.
The question that was the nub of the issue I was seeking to raise was on KPIs, which is the title of the cut. If I heard the Minister correctly, Minister said that reach is an important KPI, but not the only KPI. And I stand corrected if I am wrong, Minister then said that trust and satisfaction levels are KPIs that the Ministry was looking to introduce. So, can I confirm that those KPIs actually are not KPIs that are considered currently?
Mrs Josephine Teo: Mr Chairman, when we set out to provide funding to any useful activity, we have to consider in that moment what are useful and effective ways to track performance and we do so very diligently. When funding was discussed in support of SPH Media Trust at the time, reach was one of the important KPIs. Over time, we also considered that engagement is important, is actually one of them, but in addition to that, we now think that trust as well as public satisfaction are just as important, so we will look to including them as part of the KPIs that we track for SPH Media Trust.
To the Member’s question that he posed in his cut earlier, I should address it briefly too. He had asked about what goes into the Budget book. And I acknowledge his suggestions, which we will consider for the future, but just to say that, like all Ministries, it is not possible to list all of the KPIs. So, I seek Member’s understanding for that. The important thing is that where SMT is concerned, they know very well that the KPIs are a very central feature of the conversations that we have, and they can feel it. So, that is something I want to say.
The comparison between ST and CNA, well, the fact of the matter is that opinions will differ. If you ask 10 people their views, probably you will get 15 at least. So, I think we take that as a given. We track how the public views the trustworthiness of these titles and we will continue to do so. And as I shared in my speech, as well as on other occasions, they compare very favourably.
Ministry of Digital Development and Information
7 March 2025
https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/#/sprs3topic?reportid=budget-2620
Office of the Leader of the Opposition 