SINGAPORE: The board of SPH Press has tasked its audit and risk committee to further check out the case of inflated circulation numbers, by using legal advisers, plus decide on what guidelines need to be taken.
The media company, which posts titles such as the Straits Times, The Business Times and Lianhe Zaobao, came under scrutiny earlier this month after it was documented that daily blood circulation numbers were overpriced.
Within a statement on Fri (Jan 20), SPH Media gave additional details of the discrepancies discovered from its primary findings from a review, which covered the time between September 2020 and March 2022.
- A total of 49, 000 average daily copies – or 5 per cent of complete daily circulation then – of information titles were documented as circulation figures but not distributed. This is a matter “of particular concern, ” mentioned SPH Media, incorporating that the majority of these were electronic copies.
- Five thousand average everyday copies were documented after contracts experienced lapsed.
- 17 thousand average daily copies were recorded as a result of a failure to check that reported circulation numbers were accurate against actual utilization tracked in the program.
- In addition , there was a possible difference of 19, 1000 average daily copies, which included a dicker arrangement with another publisher.
The audit committee will concentrate its investigations on these preliminary results, as well as commission legal advisers to assist within the probe.
The findings will be reported directly to the table of SPH Media Holdings.
It was reported on January 9 that SPH Media’s daily blood circulation numbers were found to get been inflated by between 85, 1000 and 95, 1000 , or about 10 to 12 per cent of the documented daily average circulation.
There were situations where copies were printed, counted regarding circulation and then ruined, as well as double-counting associated with subscriptions.
Additionally , lapsed contracts always been counted into blood flow data, reported the Straits Times.
To ensure data accuracy and accountability, SPH Media said in the statement on Friday that it will strengthen the separation associated with duties among employees, with enhanced checks and balances.
The company will also guarantee more frequent inner audit reviews.