SPH Media inflated circulation for years — advertisers paid for readers that didn't exist

Singapore Press Holdings' media arm was the city-state's dominant news group, publishing The Straits Times and other titles. For years its circulation staff inflated the daily figures reported to advertisers and the regulator: extra copies were printed and counted, then destroyed; lapsed contracts and phantom barter-deal subscriptions were counted as live readers; and money was injected into a project account to 'purchase' fictitious circulation. Because circulation set advertising rates, the inflation functioned as overbilling.

The schemes ran from around 2013 to 2022 — one bulk-copy fund dated back to 2000. They surfaced only after the media business was transferred in December 2021 to SPH Media Trust, a company limited by guarantee receiving up to S$180 million a year in state funding. A review begun in March 2022 found daily circulation overstated by 85,000–95,000 copies (10–12%); in January 2023 the disclosure went public, senior employees were 'taken to task', and a police report was filed in June.

The police closed the probe in April 2026 with no charges, but the damage was done: advertisers were overbilled with no refunds disclosed, the flagship paper's credibility collapsed, senior staff left, and the S$900 million five-year state funding package was publicly questioned before being reaffirmed. A new circulation methodology, endorsed by an external panel, was imposed from November 2023.