I had the chance to attend an interactive session with the Acting Minister for MICA Mr Lui Tuck Yew this afternoon at the Raffles Hotel. The event was organized by the Singapore Press Club (SPC) and open to members of the Foreign Correspondents Association (FCA) and the Institute of Public Relations Singapore (IPRS). While I missed what looked like a sumptuous lunch, I managed to catch the Minister’s remarks and the Q&A that followed.

In short, the Minister shared his belief that “content is king and credible content is the ace of trumps”, placing his full support behind mainstream media in Singapore and their efforts in embracing online and other platforms. Minister Lui asked: “how do we hold the ground going forward?” and continued by saying “the solution is not to import new media into Singapore”, adding the preference was to expand mainstream media into new media, calling this approach “multiplication by division”.

There were a few questions asked though host Patrick Daniel, Editor-in-Chief of SPH, prompted the audience on a few occasions. Sonia Kolesnikov from the FCA, representing Newsweek, was interested in the Government’s views on the use of new media by the opposition in the last elections and wondered if the ruling party intended to use this platform in the next election “within the next year and a half”. While the Minister sidestepped the issue of when the next elections will be held, he did share that the ruling party is using platforms like Twitter and Facebook actively.

I have to take a contrary view to the Minister’s opinion that readers come to mainstream media for news and go online for views. I do believe it’s the other way around. The news of the Jakarta earthquake broke on Twitter minutes after the first tremors were felt. Busy executives today are on the move more and more and find it easier to keep themselves updated with bite-sized news bulletins they can access easily – online or on the mobile devices. Today’s news is summarized on the 9 o’clock news on television. What I look for in the newspapers the next day is views, commentary, and analysis.

On a side note, I am happy that SPH has managed to come out of the recession with minimum impact to the editorial pages even though advertising budgets have been slashed heavily. The SPH stable is still highly regarded by our clients as key to their local outreach efforts, not surprising as 2.9 million individuals or 79 per cent of people above 15 years old, read one of SPH’s news publications.

Photo courtesy of IPRS