Sir, the MDDI shared at last year’s budget that $260m was earmarked for SPH Media Trust for FY 24/25. 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 FY24/25 what objective criteria did the Ministry set for these KPIs which were not reached? More specifically, were these KPIs lowered or 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 in the Budget Book and whether there was a simpler way for the public to track and understand the KPIs the Ministry 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, that ChannelNewsAsia’s reporting and commentary on local issues – in terms of depth – has overtaken that of the Straits Times.
Does the Ministry conduct independent 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 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 taxpayer dollars for SPH Media Trust is purposefully spent?
