The rumours are truer than true and have been confirmed: Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) will be cutting up to 10 percent of its staff of 4,182.

In a move it called a "right-sizing exercise", the media group will embark on the culling of its staff strength over "two years through attrition, retirement, non-renewal of contracts, out-placement and retrenchment".

SPH said it will work with the relevant unions to ensure that fair terms are given to affected staff and will extend to them the necessary help to support them in their transition.

It is also merging My Paper and The New Paper to form a revamped tabloid sheet to compete with Mediacorp's Today.

The new combined paper, which we refer to as The New New My Paper, will be distributed free from December 2016.

The New New My Paper will only be available in English and there will be no Sunday paper. It will be made available online.

The New New My Paper will have a circulation of 300,000 daily, in a time when most people are avoiding print because it is environmentally unfriendly and seen as an inconvenience in the age of mobile information.

According to SPH, the original TNP's daily average sales is purportedly more than 60,000 copies a day. It costs 70 cents a copy.

TNP was started in 1988. My Paper started as a free Chinese newspaper in 2006 and became bilingual in 2008.

The retrenchment and merger exercise are two measures taken by the company after a five-month review of its core media business that has been hit with declining revenue and profits.

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