SPH tipped to merge The New Paper and My Paper

Print media giant Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) is tipped to be merging two of its newspapers to create a new free-distribution publication. The titles involved in the merger are tabloid publication The New Paper and bilingual publication My Paper, said an article on Bloomberg Markets. The article also said that this is part of a restructuring effort and it will be cutting down 5% to 10% of its team.Marketing has reached out to SPH for a statement.SPH in recent years saw dwindling of profits of its media business. For its second quarter for its media business which ended 29 February 2016 (2Q FY16), the media business revenue fell SG$12.2 million or 6.0% yoy, mainly due to a SG$9.5 million or 6.5% dip in advertisement revenue.This led to the publisher rejigging its marketing team and creating a new integrated marketing division which brings together both its sales and marketing staff across various platforms. The changes took place 5 September onwards. SPH group CEO Alan Chan told staff in an internal memo that the move will leverage on the strengths and experience of SPH’s staff and “will position SPH better to offer effective media solutions to advertisers and partners”.SPH also recently engaged Grapeshot to be its contextual categorisation and targeting solution provider to optimise media buy results with real-time ad targeting.