Media industry stalwart Lyn Holloway passes on at 90

SINGAPORE – An eteemed personality in Singapore’s media circles, Mr Lyn Holloway, died on Saturday at the age of 90.

He was the former chief executive of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and also became CEO of Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.

Colleague and long-time friend and former Straits Times editor-in-chief Peter Lim said Mr. Holloway was “a true publisher in the best tradition of Western-style English language newspaper and magazine publishing.”

Holloway competently maneuvered and blended the business and editorial aspects of newspaper publishing, realized with depth the nuances and demands of the business and preached among his people that “in publishing, the editorial content is the key product,” Mr. Lim said.

Also, according to Mr. Lim, Holloway was a true trailblazer. In the years when journalists were working through “rickety typewriters and old furniture,” Mr. Holloway proceeded with infusing the necessary investments in the editorial department believing that these infusions were imperative to attaining quality publishing.

When others scrimped, Holloway raised salaries, hired more staff and supervised the establishment of foreign bureaus. He was also a skilled negotiator, Mr. Lim added.

Mr. Holloway is survived by his wife, Anne Wong-Holloway, sister Hazel Mariot and sister-in-law Suzanne Holloway.

In agreement with Holloway
Another publishing personality who agreed with Mr. Holloway’s perspective is Singapore Press Holdings chief executive Ng Yat Chung who said that they cannot rely on cost cutting measures to prosper.

Instead, it is focusing on digitising its core media business while actively seeking out cash-yielding property investments in defensive sectors.

“You cannot cost-cut your way to prosperity,” Mr. Ng told some 438 shareholders who attended a December 2018 meeting at SPH News Centre.

“In fact, one of the main ideas behind our investments in digitalisation is precisely to help us understand the readers, what they read, how they read, so that we can deliver apps… We’ll try to do it as quickly as we can.”