Straits Times, chronicle of Singapore success

The Straits Times of Singapore is an English-Language broadsheet newspaper established in 1845 as The Straits Times and Singapore Journal of Commerce, printing editions with a hand-operated press. It was among the first newspapers in the world to publish an online edition. The paper has 16 bureaus and correspondents worldwide. Special editions are printed for students, and a separate edition is published on Sundays. Archives of the Straits Times date back to 1845.

While the paper publishes a Sunday edition and is considered “the newspaper of record” for Singapore, historians of Singapore debate its origins.

The print version has a daily circulation of 364,134 and the digital version has 364,849 readers. Myanmar and Brunei editions have print circulations of 5,000 and 2,500 respectively.

Before 1845 the only newspaper in Singapore was The Singapore Free Press, founded in 1835 by William Napier. American merchant Marterus T. Apcar planned to start a paper; he hired an editor and purchased printing equipment from England.

But the would-be editor died abruptly before the printing equipment arrived, and Apcar went bankrupt. Another American and friend of Apcar bought the printing equipment and launched The Straits Times along with an English journalist from Bombay. The paper became The Straits Times and Singapore Journal of Commerce, an eight-page weekly. The first editor, Robert Carr Woods, sought to distinguish the paper from competitor, The Singapore Free Press, by including humor, short stories, and foreign news that arrived in Singapore by ship. This account is disputed by historian Mary Turnbull, who was skeptical that another paper would launch to compete with the established Singapore Free Press.

Woods undertook other publishing projects to remain in business, including the first directory of Singapore, The Straits Times Almanack, Calendar and Directory. Woods remained editor until 1860, when a fire devastated the paper. Its assets were sold at auction for $40. Woods went bankrupt but managed to breathe new life into the paper, which began publishing again.

A battle began between the Singapore Straits Times and the Singapore Free Press that enhanced the circulation of both papers. The Straits Times became known for bold, high-quality reporting and was called as “the Thunderer of the East.” Libel suits from the British government did little to harm the paper’s reputation. The Singapore Free Press folded in 1869 but was revived by a new editor. During World War Two, Singapore newspapers were under the control of Japanese occupying forces. By 1950 the Straits Times had become a public company, and promoted itself as “the national newspaper of Malaya.”