Singapore Press Holdings (SPH)

[Drizzt]

this is basically an eye ball game. the eyeball used to be in newspapers and magazines. now its much more digital. how do u make urself a relevant marketing entity?by spreading your bets. the barrier of entry is getting low but they can always buy the attention.

the question is how much profit are these making up compare to the old media.

[CityFarmer]

this is basically an eye ball game. the eyeball used to be in newspapers and magazines. now its much more digital. how do u make urself a relevant marketing entity?by spreading your bets. the barrier of entry is getting low but they can always buy the attention.

the question is how much profit are these making up compare to the old media.

There are two (2) questions to be asked.

- will SPH paper advert biz (for job search) lose out to its digital competitors?

I do not have a firm answer. The same question was around way back to even before year 2000, till now it is still paper advert stay dominance. Well, the day will come, but not sure on the time-line. Is SPH well prepared for the the risk? Yes, the solution is to keep a significant presents on both digital and paper media.

- if digital job search advert became dominance, will SPH make up at least the same profit as in paper media?

I am not sure. In fact, i still researching on the biz model of job search portal? So far, in my experience, the new staff search is either via paper advert and/or via agent, none is via portal. Any buddies here have experience to share?

[shanrui_91]

I have been reading this book called "Googled" which documents the rise of Google and how the print media + publisher + broadcaster + network have been affected and how they have responded. It is a wonderful book where you can understand more about the biz model and other stories of Google.

Basically, revenue will drop significantly even if all print reader switched to online reader. The reason is very simple. In traditional media, they don't seek to quantify the ROI of advertising as much as in online like pay-per-click. What's more with all sort of website, targeted advertising can be done cheaper and more efficiently. Another very important reason is that space in online world is not scarce unlike in the newspaper where you can only have limited number of ads per newspaper. Scarcity creates a higher price and forum + website + blog + many others are competing in the online ad together.

To quote from the book "The rule of thumb is that an online ad brings in at most about one-tenth the revenue as the same ads in the newspaper".

However, it can be beneficial to SPH since we are talking about nearly 0 variable cost for every additional online subscriber acquired. Globally, Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times are the few that succeed by charging for online subscription. SPH is likely to succeed given its near monopoly status.

[CityFarmer]

I have been reading this book called "Googled" which documents the rise of Google and how the print media + publisher + broadcaster + network have been affected and how they have responded. It is a wonderful book where you can understand more about the biz model and other stories of Google.

Basically, revenue will drop significantly even if all print reader switched to online reader. The reason is very simple. In traditional media, they don't seek to quantify the ROI of advertising as much as in online like pay-per-click. What's more with all sort of website, targeted advertising can be done cheaper and more efficiently. Another very important reason is that space in online world is not scarce unlike in the newspaper where you can only have limited number of ads per newspaper. Scarcity creates a higher price and forum + website + blog + many others are competing in the online ad together.

To quote from the book "The rule of thumb is that an online ad brings in at most about one-tenth the revenue as the same ads in the newspaper".

However, it can be beneficial to SPH since we are talking about nearly 0 variable cost for every additional online subscriber acquired. Globally, Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times are the few that succeed by charging for online subscription. SPH is likely to succeed given its near monopoly status.

Thanks for highlighted the book. I will reserve my time to read it. I am sure it will be an interesting read.

In fact, i am more interested on the job search portal biz model vs the job advert on SPH now. Due to indicators i observe, companies may slowly shift their focus from paper advert to job agent (headhunter) and/or job portal during staff hunting.

[shanrui_91]

Thanks for highlighted the book. I will reserve my time to read it. I am sure it will be an interesting read.

In fact, i am more interested on the job search portal biz model vs the job advert on SPH now. Due to indicators i observe, companies may slowly shift their focus from paper advert to job agent (headhunter) and/or job portal during staff hunting.

I did a part-time job search on Dec last year and I have to admit that it is so much easier to find job online than offline. On the various portals, it is free for the job seeker and it is so much easier to find a job. Unlike the newspaper, where you have to buy it and check it everyday for new job. As a job seeker, I will favour the online search a lot.

As for their biz model, it is a much more scalable model. You can have hundred of thousands of job posting at the same time but the job seeker is alright with it. You can filter them to (temporary, intern, contract, full time), (banking, marketing, accounting, factory), (fresh entry, junior executive, senior management) and to other subset and even to company level. it is pretty similar to classified where they collect revenue from the advertiser to post the job for a specific number of days.

Most of the lower-tier job recruitment agencies make full use of these job portal to SPAM jobs that does not exist in reality. When you go down to the agency, then you will realise that they are just trying to get your contacts so that they have a list ready for them anytime a company looks for them.

From my personal experience, close to 50% of the job posting comes from recruitment agencies like Recruit Express. Banks and government agencies have also mostly resorted to these online portals to recruit for the lower and middle end staff. For e.g. going to DBS's career search will lead you to Jobsdb.com while OCBC's will lead you to Jobstreet.

http://impact-sg.jobstreet.com/careers/j...did=128|50

http://careers-gov-search.jobstreet.com....ganization=

Another favourite customers of theirs are the insurance agents. Why? Because it does not cost the management much to recruit another agent and this agent has the potential to add to his recurring income. So they have also resorted to spamming or even upgrading themselves as wealth management consultant and ....

Some of the more prominent portals are JobStreet.com Jobsdb.com and Jobscentral.com. Not too long ago, I realise that they have started to go into advertising for diplomas, investing courses and seminars as I start receiving those junks in my email.

Online is the way to go as it matches the job seekers and the company so well. There is also a certain form of network effect where the more job seekers you have the more likely the company will look for you to advertise jobs. Another useful function is that advertiser can request to have a look at the resume database of the portal which the traditional media does not allow.

Classified will likely to stay on as it is still one of the recognised method of job search. However, other stuffs like property search or tuition teacher search can now also be done online. The question is has SPH reduced its price or reduce the number of pages in classified over the year?

[CityFarmer]

I did a part-time job search on Dec last year and I have to admit that it is so much easier to find job online than offline. On the various portals, it is free for the job seeker and it is so much easier to find a job. Unlike the newspaper, where you have to buy it and check it everyday for new job. As a job seeker, I will favour the online search a lot.

As for their biz model, it is a much more scalable model. You can have hundred of thousands of job posting at the same time but the job seeker is alright with it. You can filter them to (temporary, intern, contract, full time), (banking, marketing, accounting, factory), (fresh entry, junior executive, senior management) and to other subset and even to company level. it is pretty similar to classified where they collect revenue from the advertiser to post the job for a specific number of days.

Most of the lower-tier job recruitment agencies make full use of these job portal to SPAM jobs that does not exist in reality. When you go down to the agency, then you will realise that they are just trying to get your contacts so that they have a list ready for them anytime a company looks for them.

From my personal experience, close to 50% of the job posting comes from recruitment agencies like Recruit Express. Banks and government agencies have also mostly resorted to these online portals to recruit for the lower and middle end staff. For e.g. going to DBS's career search will lead you to Jobsdb.com while OCBC's will lead you to Jobstreet.

http://impact-sg.jobstreet.com/careers/j...did=128|50

http://careers-gov-search.jobstreet.com....ganization=

Another favourite customers of theirs are the insurance agents. Why? Because it does not cost the management much to recruit another agent and this agent has the potential to add to his recurring income. So they have also resorted to spamming or even upgrading themselves as wealth management consultant and ....

Some of the more prominent portals are JobStreet.com Jobsdb.com and Jobscentral.com. Not too long ago, I realise that they have started to go into advertising for diplomas, investing courses and seminars as I start receiving those junks in my email.

Online is the way to go as it matches the job seekers and the company so well. There is also a certain form of network effect where the more job seekers you have the more likely the company will look for you to advertise jobs. Another useful function is that advertiser can request to have a look at the resume database of the portal which the traditional media does not allow.

Classified will likely to stay on as it is still one of the recognised method of job search. However, other stuffs like property search or tuition teacher search can now also be done online. The question is has SPH reduced its price or reduce the number of pages in classified over the year?

Very informative posting. Thanks

Let me give my view.

I had engaged employment agent for new staffs recruitment. It had proven that employment agent provide much better service (quicker and better candidate) vs to put up paper advert our-self. It also reduces the filtering effort. Engaging oversea agent is absolute necessary if oversea recruitment needed. The fee paid to employment agency can be quite lucrative.

The employment agent got their candidates via paper advert and their contact now. There are lots of agents provide minimum value-added service as middle-man.

Will job portal take over the employment agency role now? Instead of just a passive portal to link employer and job seeker. Definitely not for top management position, but at least for professional, manager and entry level senior manager level.

[Drizzt]

we have to agree online job search and advertisement and marketing changes the ball game. And it changes SPH profit profile. SPH role is to span their tentacles to be in every shxt that Singaporeans get their hang on, be it news, sports, entertainment. They got to sell it as a package just as the telcos sell their bundled plan.

but customers are more demanding as shanrui says and they need to see results. online targetted advertising does that and it would seem that Google may just overwrite SPH.

they could probably preserve circulation but advertising costs is a large part of revenue and its going to affect them.

[Some-one]

SPH suddenly jumps up to trade at $4 on closing . Drizzt, you are in luck. Good dividends coming??

[CityFarmer]

SPH suddenly jumps up to trade at $4 on closing . Drizzt, you are in luck. Good dividends coming??

There are big buyer with >50 lots per transaction to buy-up , with total volume of approx. 1000 lots, 1/6 of the total volume today

Q3 result is pending end of next week. Probably good result is expected

An opportunity for "rotating" out?

[Some-one]

I think the market is factoring the rental income from Clementi Mall and is expecting higher dividend with 3Q results next week. Long time never seen SPH at $4 already...