Reluctant Editor by PN Balji

Author:PN Balji
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish International

Fortunately, she did not leave TNP. At least, not then. She continued reporting, eventually joining the Big Desk and spending a total of 15 years on the job. “As a pioneer TNPer, the paper’s culture was and, in many ways, still is in my DNA … Still, I took the lessons I had learnt at TNP, and its ethos, with me when I started my own PR and advertising agency in Auckland, New Zealand.” She left for “a more balanced lifestyle in another country or culture that was not so single-mindedly focused on simply achieving economic progress.” A few years later, TNP sought her out and she rejoined the Big Desk. Later on, she rejoined for a third stint, as correspondent. In her email of June 2018, she added: “Today, I am a postdoctoral researcher, conference and retreat speaker and published author. In some way or other, all these have been influenced and informed by my time at TNP.”

Her story illustrates not only her distress but the dedication that she and many others in this newsroom had for their craft, and consequentially, the sometime intensely personal attacks they had to deal with when their work drew flak from the public or strong reactions from official sources. That Page One, which was our prime circulation driver, could at one and the same time be a lightning conductor for the harshest criticism.

The reason for our obsession with the Page One headline is obvious: to seize your attention in a world crying out to be noticed, to capture a slice of what little time you have, to show and tell. And yes, to sell. TNP’s lifeblood depended on getting people out of their workplaces and homes to buy our newspaper from vendors in the streets. TNP was not like Singapore’s main newspapers, which were mostly delivered to regular paying subscribers at home or wherever they worked. The 70 cents that a reader paid for our newspaper did not factor in the cost to them in time and convenience. They had to make a conscious decision to buy the paper.

Finding a niche in a marketplace weaned on the powerful, all-encompassing banyan tree called The Straits Times became a matter of survival. What is Page One? What is the headline? These watchwords were propagated in the newsroom with a messianic zeal that had to be experienced to be believed. TNP was an afternoon newspaper that was meant to hit the streets by 11am. Not only did this limit its shelf life, it also limited the timespan of its coverage of the events of the day and also the opportunity to sell the paper. Rainy days could spell disaster as most people would be inclined to stay indoors. Holidays could be even worse as potential readers would be away from Singapore.

The journalist at the sharp end of this incessant preaching was Ken Jalleh, the man given the unenviable responsibility of being on top of the news of the day – from local to foreign to sports to showbiz.

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