Affected employees will be provided with comprehensive severance packages that adhere to tripartite guidelines, among other forms of support. / Photo credit: The Business Times
Singapore-based SPH Media has announced that 34 employees, or around 10%, of its tech division will be cut, as the group aims to remain competitive and sustainable amid the changing media landscape.
In a Monday note to staff, COO Loh Yuh Yiing and CTO Kaythaya Maw said the decision was made after careful consideration and exploring various alternatives.
Affected employees will be provided with comprehensive severance packages that adhere to tripartite guidelines, career coaching, job placement assistance, and counseling support to help ease their transition.
The move comes amid a division-wide restructuring exercise as SPH Media adjusts the scope and size of several teams across its tech unit.
Loh and Maw noted how SPH Media had to “urgently and aggressively” increase its capacity and investment in its tech department following Singapore Press Holdings’ media restructuring in December 2021.
Expenditure on tech has risen to nearly 20% of the media firm’s annual costs. “This ramp-up was needed to catalyze and power the earlier phase of transformation. But we recognize that it is not a level that we can afford to sustain beyond 2024,” stated the two execs.
“It is timely to make this transition as we embark on the next phase of organizational transformation, so that we can better align our tech resourcing and strategies with SPH’s priorities as a whole,” Loh and Maw added.
They also said that “there are currently no plans for further exercises of this nature. Going forward, our focus will be to steady the ship as we transit toward a more sustainable level of tech operations and expenditure.”
Structural changes
From Tuesday, the tech division will be restructured into three departments: the CTO office, IT, and product and engineering.
Loh and Maw said this will enable clearer leadership focus and accountability for outcomes in the areas of tech administration, IT infrastructure, and digital product development.
SPH Media’s current data team – comprising data science, analytics, and data engineering functions – will be moved out of the tech division as the business insights and analytics department, which will stand alone under the group’s corporate and operations pillar.
The CTO office will absorb SPH Media’s current governance, risk, and compliance functions to support Maw more holistically.
Existing tech infrastructure and operations, cybersecurity, and corporate system functions will be brought together under the restructured IT division to focus on streamlining operations to be fit-for-purpose and finding opportunities for resource optimization.
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