Straits Times's Past (80s to 90s)

Introduction

First published in 1845, The Straits Times, commonly abbreviated as ST, has been one of the oldest daily newspapers in both Singapore and Asia and is currently the flagship publication of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) (Straits Times 2011). Through the years, The Straits Times has faced changes in both Print and Journalism industry as well as the change in readers' demographic and made various changes within the organization and learnt to adapt and thrive to those changes and its environment. This paper will narrate the story of The Straits Times through the lens of change management. In order to do so, this paper will attempt to analyse the key events and developments in the history of the industry using change management tools, models and theories such as in order to explain how it has changed the way The Straits Times has been operating in the recent past, how it has lead to the issues faced in the present, and lastly, how it will affect The Straits Times's potential future directions. This paper will then conclude with a section on the student's findings on what lessons a change manager can take away from the case study for future use.

Straits Times's Past (80s to 90s)

The 1980s and 90s were a period of major transitions for the print and journalism industry. In 1984, the local print and journalism industry experienced the end of competitive media when the ST group was merged with Singapore News and Publications Ltd. (SNPL) under the umbrella of Singapore Press Holdings (Silva 1995). The aim was to realise long term economics of scale by creating a major publishing organization that was well supported by both financial and human resources, while at the same time, develop and improve common ideals and editorial content (Manilerd 1998). According to merger contingency theory framework, it is said that the better the strategic fit between the acquiring