SPH: An end of an era (by DrWealth, Alvin Chow) which points stood out to you?

SPH: End of an era

SPH has officially transferred its media business to the non-profit entity, SPH Media Trust, on 1 Dec 2021.
That marks the end of the commercialisation phase of newspapers and printed media in Singapore.
The older investors could recall how SPH used to be a popular blue chip stock that gave out good dividends. It was also a near-monopoly business in Singapore. Now it is a shadow of its former self.
SPH was incorporated in 4 Aug 1984 with the aim to merge a group of indie newspaper agencies and became dominant in the media space in Singapore. The only true rival was the former versions of Mediacorp (SBC).
They were competing in the early 2000s whereby SPH got the license to air TV channels while Mediacorp launched a free newspaper, Today.
The competition didn't last long as the Singapore market was too small to fight for. So they revert back to their core - TV Channels sold to Mediacorp and SPH took a stake in Today. They are still competing in radio though.
The rise of the internet was a threat to these traditional media globally, not just limited to SPH.
We also saw the rise of internet entrepreneurs who took a pie of the advertising business from the newspapers.
Companies like sgCarMart, PropertyGuru and JobsCentral, ripped apart the classified ads from the Straits Times. For those who do not know, classified ads was where people go to look for cars, houses and jobs in pre-internet era.
Probably the drop in the main paper ad revenue was the nail in the coffin. They were taken away by big tech such as Google and Facebook. Digital advertising has more advantages - bigger reach, higher engagement, ability to target and availability of analytics. Advertisers flocked online increasingly.
It become worse today as there are more ways and platforms to advertise online. Even SPH has to post their news online to get readership.
Disruption happens gradually and suddenly. SPH started to see revenue decline in 2012. But it was not until 9 years later that it declared commercially unviable.
As investors who pick individual securities, we have to constantly evaluate our investments. Buy-and-forget can only work for funds because either the index algorithm or the fund manager will make the adjustments for us. What was a solid investment when we buy them may not be so in the future. And this is not just about traditional business. Even a disruptive company today can be disrupted in the future.
The average lifespan of a company in S&P 500 was 32 years in 1965. It dropped to 21 years in 2020. It will probably get shorter. Don't be fooled by the average. We can possibly have a company staying in S&P 500 for just 1 year. That means that long term investing horizon has shortened too.
The game is getting harder. The effort required has increased. The volatility of heartache became more pronounced. Stock investing is a financial Squid game.