SPH Media launches multilingual editions of key news titles

SINGAPORE - SPH Media, the national news company, is expanding its coverage to cater to Singapore's diverse language communities by launching multilingual editions of its key news titles. This initiative, driven by AI-powered translations, aims to make content accessible to more Singaporeans, allowing them to discover a broader range of stories, insights, and perspectives previously only available in other languages.

The company's ambition is to bring together the nation's multilingual communities, enabling readers to better understand various viewpoints, significant issues, and community perspectives. SPH Media's key news titles, such as The Business Times and The Straits Times, have already introduced Chinese editions, while vernacular publications, starting with the Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao, are introducing English versions.

On Thursday (Nov 5), the English edition of Zaobao was launched at the SPH Media auditorium, with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam as the guest of honor. SPH Media adopts a tailored approach to AI translation, choosing models based on language pairs, editorial requirements, and the specific needs of each publication. For instance, ST and BT utilize AI Singapore's SEA-LION large language model, tailored for South-east Asian languages and cultural contexts, to automate translation while ensuring cultural context and clarity.

The company emphasizes that this multilingual initiative serves as a bridge to original stories produced by its journalists, preserving each publication's distinctive editorial identity, investigative focus, and dedicated community coverage. By translating these stories and perspectives, SPH Media hopes to open new perspectives for wider audiences, fostering greater understanding and appreciation of Singapore's diverse communities.

SPH Media's managing director Kuek Yu Chuang stated, "Each of our newsrooms brings its own expertise, voice, and understanding of the communities it serves. We want more people to benefit from that reporting, including readers who may not be familiar with the language in which a story was first published." By making more stories accessible across languages, the company aims to help readers see issues from different perspectives and better understand one another.

Wong Wei Kong, editor-in-chief of SPH's English, Malay, and Tamil Media Group, explained that ST and BT provide in-depth reporting and analysis on issues that matter to Singaporeans, from local developments to regional and global events. The Chinese editions, he added, enable the papers to share their knowledge and expertise more widely, ensuring that more readers can benefit from their journalists' work, regardless of their preferred reading language.

Lee Huay Leng, editor-in-chief of SPH's Chinese Media Group, believes that English translations can help younger audiences discover and appreciate Zaobao's journalism. The initiative is seen not as a replacement for Chinese-language journalism but as a means of bringing its value to a wider audience. Ng Siew Quan, chairman of Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, emphasized that the English edition of Zaobao will allow a broader range of readers, including non-Chinese readers and those with limited Chinese language proficiency, to access its content and gain a better understanding of the Chinese community.