SPH Media Inflated Circulation Numbers by 10-12%; Media Veteran Says It’s Been Happening for Years

SINGAPORE — On Monday (Jan 9), several senior employees at SPH Media were disciplined or left the company after an internal review uncovered significant discrepancies in circulation numbers.

An SPH Media spokesperson revealed that expired contracts were still being included in circulation data, some copies were printed, counted, and then destroyed, and there was double-counting of subscriptions across different instances.

“A project account was injected with additional funding over a period of time to purchase fictitious circulation,” the spokesperson added, noting that some circulation figures were “arbitrarily derived.” These actions led to an overstatement of between 85,000 and 95,000 copies in the reported daily circulation, which represents a 10-12% inflation.

According to a former Straits Times editor, this issue has persisted for over 30 years, with some papers counted into circulation but later destroyed, even allegedly “dumped in the river.”

Veteran media professional P.N. Balji commented, “This massaging of circulation figures has been whispered about for years. That was when SPH was a publicly listed company. Times have changed. Today it is a company that relies on public funding, and with a former senior minister like Khaw Boon Wan in charge, public accountability has become important.”

Balji also raised concerns about how this affects trust in the media, adding, “Trust and integrity are built up over a long period. As long as the government controls media, trust and integrity will always be an issue.”

Circulation vs Readership
Circulation refers to how many copies of a publication are distributed, while readership estimates how many people read the publication. Readership is often higher because multiple people may read a single copy.

SPH Media Overview
SPH’s website lists its combined print and digital readership at over 2 million. Its monthly unique visitors total 8.6 million, with over 63 million page views. In 2020, despite increasing digital readership, SPH’s media division reported a significant loss of revenue, including its first-ever $11.4 million loss.

SPH Media initiated the internal review of its processes, including circulation reporting, in March 2022. The company confirmed that those involved in the discrepancies had been “taken to task or had left the organisation,” but no names were disclosed.

TISG has reached out to SPH Media for comment and further clarification. /TISG