*The Integrated Newsroom - Straits Times Findings*

4.2.3 Management Policy

There has been a switch in management and content policy since STI was launched in 1995. The first three years saw Paul Jansen and his team experimenting with various methods of delivering original content. As mentioned earlier, various senior journalists from the individual newspapers led their online editions. However in 1998, due to various reasons such as refocus in online strategy, SPH decided to form a New Media Unit headed by a single editor, Margaret Thomas (pers comm, 28 July 1999) who manages the four online newspapers explained:

We didn't see any point in duplicating resources and felt that we could better manage our new media department if we consolidated resources and worked in a single direction. We would enhance and develop our core product taking advantage of its already strong positions.

At that time, the costs of investing in emerging online technology did not justify the returns gained through advertising revenue and a decision was made to take re-strategise and conservatively thread into this medium. It should be noted that during the period of study, more journalists were being hired and the New Media Unit was expanding in preparation for a market relaunch. The researcher was not privy to details however was informed of the move. At the time of writing, the AsiaOne website was relaunched and STI was hiring new staff and online journalists specifically to produce novel content for the WWW. By January 2000, a full-time editor, Mathew Pereira was hired for STI and two other full-time journalists.

Conclusion

STI's ambitious bid to be a pioneer and quality online newspaper was generally successful but cost overruns and doubling up of resources necessitated a redesign of production and management processes. Its initial efforts to provide original content gave way to straight content transfer but it has reverted to providing novel content once again with the relaunch of its new portal.