Letter to readers: Temasek’s stunning move; Hmlet’s layoffs

Dear readers,

Last week, we published this well-received story about how Singapore state fund Temasek has launched its own startups.

It seems like we were the first one to piece together disparate news to tease out the magnitude of what Temasek is doing.

The truth, however, is that we could’ve missed this story too amid the deluge of information we get everyday.

But once someone reminded us about it, our experience took over and we jumped into it.

Still, it’s difficult to sieve through the noise, and we’re working on getting better at surfacing developments that you are interested in.

High-wire act

Another type of story that’s difficult to get right is about layoffs.

Last week, we broke the news about how prominent co-living operator Hmlet had lost about half of its team within a year amid a difficult pivot.

Photo credit: Hmlet

We used a number of anonymous sources for this story, a delicate process that has often been abused.

It involves deciding if a person is authoritative enough and if what they say is credible.

There’s also a need to parse the motivations of the sources and deal with the potential fallout once a story is published.

It’s also about deciding what to include and what to leave on the cutting room floor, and balancing between writing a fair story and attracting clicks. (Yes, clicks matter for paywalled publications too.)

The danger here is that the process is rather opaque, and all that stands between quality reporting and a gossip rag is how trustworthy, accountable, and disciplined the editorial team is.

Mapping the landscape

Office of the future?