By Les Tan/Red Sports
One of the challenges facing newspapers, television, radio and websites is this: Is anyone interested in what you have to say?
This issue came up during a recent television interview with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong that was aired on Channel NewsAsia* on February 24th, 2009.
Singapore youth aged eight to 24 years old spend anywhere from one hour to almost four hours online everyday, according to a survey** by global research firm Synovate, and have not taken to television and newspapers like the previous generation.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was asked about the challenges the government faces in getting their message out to younger Singaporeans.
“Nowadays you cannot force people to watch you. I mean, if you’re boring they will just surf, they close, click, gone!” he told CNA. “And you can put anything you like on your website. Unless you can make people interested in it, they won’t read your website, they don’t have to read your website.”
Mainstream Singapore newspapers and free-to-air television have seen a decline in circulation and viewership. According to the 2008 Yearbook of Statistics*** issued by the Ministry of Trade & Industry, English newspapers have seen a decline of 8.5% from 2001 to 2007.
The number of hours Singaporeans spent watching television has also seen a drop of 12.7% from 2003 to 2007.
The ability of the internet to deliver news faster than both television and newspaper in a more digestible format is one reason for the decline of old media.
The prime minister hinted at this when he was asked about how CNA was doing after 10 years of broadcasting.
“I would say that the challenge is to boil it down so that you get in a crystallized form the essence of what's going on. The colour, the touch, the background, the details are all very good. But to be able to crystallize that and maybe three or five minutes worth of a summary, say this is what was important last week, that's a big challenge which we need to work on.”
On a personal note, the prime minister indicated how the internet has changed his media consumption habits as well.
“I watch the news on TV most evenings, usually the eleven o'clock news. In the morning what I do, I watch - I get the news on the Internet. My browser is open and I always have 3 or 4 news sites, CNA is one of them and the Singapore newspapers and BBC and couple of others. And that's the first thing I look at every morning when I get up. I read the print newspapers after that.
“But now with the big screen and with better software, you can get a very good impression of the print newspaper on the screen. I think my habits may migrate even further onto the screen.”
In the Synovate survey, Singapore youth ranked sports as their second most favourite activity after music. Red Sports has catered to that interest and has seen the numbers increase year on year. In February 09, this site registered 423,250 page views, an 80% increase over February 08 (source: Google Analytics).
Sources
*Transcript of CNA interview with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
**Press release on the Third Annual Synovate Young Asians Study
***2008 Yearbook of Statistics Singapore
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Maybe the classifieds and Recruit sections have become thinner because of the recession. Or are you guys referring to the main sections? Thought it was the same thickness. Maybe I didn’t notice.
hahah maybe they have no news to report thats why thinner also
it is thinner. CUT COST! maybe soon font smaller. 😛
Does anyone realize the straits times is getting thinner ? or is it just me ^^