SPH pulls plug on financially-ailing Project Eyeball

<p>SINGAPORE: Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) Project Eyeball </p><p>newspaper has closed after losing S$13.3 million (US$7.3 </p><p>million) since it launched in August last year as a weekday tabloid </p><p>aimed at younger readers. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The newspaper spent its three-year budget in the first 10 months. With </p><p>SPH now involved into another financially-heavy venture in its new </p><p>television business, it didn't have the appetite to top up funding for </p><p>Project Eyeball. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Cheong Yip Seng, editor-in-chief of SPH's English and Malay newspapers </p><p>division, said: "We could find no reason to go back to the SPH board and </p><p>ask for more capital. If we had even achieved half the revenue we had </p><p>projected we could have lasted longer than 10 months." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Cheong said the online edition - Projecteyeball.com - lost money because </p><p>Singaporeans wanted free content. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>And circulation for the print edition fell well short of its forecast of </p><p>between 25,000 to 35,000 copies. The shortfall has been blamed on SPH </p><p>and rival MediaCorp later launching free daily tabloids, Streats and </p><p>Today respectively. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"These free sheets combined are producing over 400,000 copies a day, </p><p>which is a lot considering the size of the Singapore market", said </p><p>Cheong. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Ad revenue also failed to meet targets because Project Eyeball had to </p><p>compete against the free sheets and a plethora of other titles, </p><p>according to Cheong. "There has been a downturn in the Singapore economy </p><p>and there's excess media inventory out there." </p><p><BR><BR> </p>