SINGAPORE: SNP Corporation has suspended publication of two new,
loss-making titles - a bi-monthly regional cooking magazine called Stir
and a weekly Singapore entertainment guide called WW - to concentrate
resources on its regional expansion drive.
The entertainment guide started as a TV guide primarily to promote SPH
MediaWorks' English station TV Works but the two parted ways in July and
the magazine was rebranded as WW.
Interestingly, the TV stations' parent company SPH - which is also
Singapore's largest publisher - was against producing a magazine for TV
Works partly because of the risks involved, said Yeo Chee Tong, SNP's
chief executive.
He declined to say how many staff were retrenched.
Yeo said the company was also reviewing its other titles.
He said SNP wanted to expand regionally, particularly in Greater China,
by turning some Singapore magazines into regional titles.
"We feel we should be a regional not a domestic player," he said.
SNP recently established a wholly-owned subsidiary in Beijing to publish
its youth title youth title Young Generation in China.
