SINGAPORE — Mr Warren Fernandez, editor of the national daily The Straits Times (ST), will leave his position on Oct 25 to "pursue other professional opportunities", SPH Media Group announced on Tuesday (Oct 11). 

He will be replaced by Mr Jaime Ho, the former chief editor of CNA Digital at Mediacorp.

Mr Fernandez, 56, joined the ST newsroom in 1990 as a political reporter and went on to be its news editor. He later also served as foreign editor and deputy editor.

He had a brief stint with Royal Dutch Shell in 2008 before returning to ST in 2012.

Mr Ho, 49, who will assume the role of ST editor on Oct 26, left Mediacorp in April this year after about a decade with the company to join advisory firm FGS Global.

Before joining Mediacorp, he spent 16 years in the civil service with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mr Wong Wei Kong, 54, the current editor of The Business Times (BT), will become editor-in-chief of the English/Malay/Tamil Media (EMTM) group — a role also currently held by Mr Fernandez. 

Ms Chen Huifen, 46, current executive editor of BT, will take over as its editor.

All appointments will take effect on Oct 26 this year. 

This is the first major leadership change in SPH Media Group's newsroom since it became a non-profit media entity in December last year. 

The media operations of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) were restructured and all its media assets, including ST, were transferred to SPH Media Trust.

SPH Media Trust is the holding company of SPH Media Group, which publishes ST and the other vernacular newspapers.

In an internal memo seen by TODAY, SPH Media Group's chief executive officer Teo Lay Lim said that under Mr Fernandez, ST "has transformed from a print-focused newspaper to a multimedia product that delivers quality journalism across different channels and platforms throughout the day". 

She added that she is confident the group will grow under Mr Wong's leadership and that Mr Ho, who is armed with the experience of leading the growth of CNA Digital, will be "pivotal" to SPH Media’s digitalisation. 

SPH staff members who spoke to TODAY on the condition of anonymity said that the news was unexpected, but talk of the changes started circulating two weeks ago. 

One staff member from ST said that he did not expect Mr Fernandez to leave during his career. 

Another said that there had been "so many changes" in the last year for SPH, that it would "be nice to have some stability now".  

She added that she had "heard good things" about Mr Ho and Mr Wong.

"I’m cautiously optimistic," she said.