THIRTY-FOUR or 10 per cent of SPH Media’s employees in its tech division across teams and ranks will be cut as the group aims to remain competitive and sustainable amid the changing media landscape.
In a Monday note to staff, chief operating officer Loh Yuh Yiing and chief technology officer (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 counselling 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 tech.
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 per cent of the media player’s annual costs. “This ramp-up was needed to catalyse and power the earlier phase of transformation. But we recognise that it is not a level that we can afford to sustain beyond 2024,” stated the two chiefs.
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They added: “It is timely to make this transition as we embark on the next phase of organisational transformation, so that we can better align our tech resourcing and strategies with SPH’s priorities as a whole.”
They also said: “There are currently no plans for further exercises of this nature. Going forward, our focus will be to steady the ship as we transit towards a more sustainable level of tech operations and expenditure.”
Structural changes
From Nov 5, the tech division will be restructured into three broad departments: the CTO office, information technology (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 optimisation.
Lastly, the new product and engineering team will comprise the digital media products team and the engineering team. Both will continue to partner newsrooms and commercial teams closely to drive the digital transformation of SPH Media’s products.
