Letter from the editor

Over the past year or so, TODAY has deployed a variety of analytical tools in an effort to get a deeper understanding of reader behaviour and thus serve you better. 

The results have validated our long-held beliefs about your desire for high quality, accurate, timely and contextual journalism, the need to roll-out innovative story-telling techniques as well as to use social media more aggressively. Notably, they also highlighted changes in the behaviour of our readers stemming from changes in your lifestyle and how you consume news.  

These must be addressed in order for us to serve you better. Over the last 17 years, our model has focused heavily on putting copies of the newspaper into the hands of our readers on the go – as opposed to a paid home delivery model. This has served us well till now. One major shift we have seen is that a large number of readers now turn to our digital platforms – particularly on weekends.

To serve this growing demand, and as part of our newsroom’s aggressive digital pivot, from this weekend our Saturday edition will transition into a digital-only weekend edition. To ensure a seamless reading experience, we have built this new digital-only weekend edition into our existing digital platforms, so you can continue to click on the same TODAY website, mobile web or app. 

How you read on weekends is not the only thing that has changed. What you read has changed, too. 

The new digital weekend edition will feature expanded lifestyle and leisure offerings, more guides for how to enjoy the weekend with your friends and family, as well as more in-depth news features, such as the Big Read – which has proven to be a firm favourite among our readers. We will publish two big reads instead of just one and as well as more Inside Asia reports. 

And of course, all the breaking news updates and in-depth coverage of developments in Singapore that you  have come to expect from TODAY. With a refreshed look, better design and more effective use of visuals – particularly on the website and web mobile editions – we will keep you updated and abreast of key developments right through the weekend. 

And as the work week rolls around again, we will make it easier for you to get your hands on the print edition. 

Many readers regard the print edition as an essential part of their Monday to Friday hustle. It helps keep you in the conversation and up to speed with the news and issues that matter. This is a key reason TODAY has bucked the trend of falling newspaper readership: The latest Nielsen survey showed our readership actually growing.

To make it easier for you to get your hands on a copy, we will refresh our distribution model by increasing the number of points where you can pick up the paper. From Monday, for example, you can pick up a copy at more MRT stations across the island, at bus interchanges and more petrol kiosks. This is on top of the hundreds of cafes and office buildings where we already distribute the paper. 

The changes won’t stop there. Our commitment to readers remains: As your habits change, so will we, to better meet your needs and provide the quality journalism that shapes an informed citizenry.