Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) recently announced that it will be restructuring its media business after its core segment’s revenue and profit has faced a continuous plunge amid falling advertisement revenue. In conjunction with the change, SPH held a press conference to address the matter.
Unfortunately, the conference didn’t go as smoothly as one would expect, which is ironic given that as a media company, it must have covered press events of all types and would surely know the best practices of what… and what not to do.
Supposedly a serious moment, Singaporeans have quickly made a meme out of the remarks that SPH’s CEO Ng Yat Chung said in response to a journalist’s question on editorial integrity and how it would change, but he flared up and went on the offence, especially with his use of the word ‘Umbrage’.
The funny thing is, readers of SPH news, and its various publications, can also take umbrage over a wide variety of things that the company has done. This includes paying for and reading the same story adapted and reproduced across different publications (yes, we get that it’s a shared newsroom and resources, but don’t charge us twice or more if the same story runs across several papers). How about floundering magazines with no ads and their equivalent online versions that publish stories that can benefit from having a proper copy editor (or ten). Compound that with publications whose web traffic directs more to social media platforms and forums, than actual news articles.
The whole thing has gone down the internet black hole and resulted in amusing merchandise.
If you’ve ever wondered what umbrage means, well, we got you covered with this t-shirt and bag that both can be purchased in either black or white. The perfect street style to rock in Singapore.
If you haven’t realised the significance of this news, we’ll let an online personality spell it out for you.
If you’re interested to purchase one for yourselves or as a gift for a friend, you can do so through Shopee or Lazada. The Umbrage Dictionary T-shirt is priced at S$16.90 whereas the Tote Bag is S$12.90.
Yna prefers being at home in company of fictional characters from different cinematic universes. Everything supernatural and magical is the way to her heart.
Natalie
