Home / Arts

Project Eyeball

Project Eyeball was Singapore's first hybrid print-online English newspaper. It was launched on 12 August 2000 by Singapore Press Holdings. Published in print from Mondays to Fridays, it had a special Weekend edition available only on the Internet. Targeted at internet-savvy readers between the ages of 20 and 40, Project Eyeball aimed to carry news of interest to the wired generation. Unfortunately, competition led to the paper's closure less than a year since its launch.

History
The Internet edition went online on 17 July 2000, and the first issue of the print version was published on 12 August 2000, with the launch issue offered free-of-charge. The one month lead time for the website was to solicit feedback from readers who helped shape the final print version of the newspaper. Conceptualisation, however began 10 months before the paper's launch. The print edition was sold for 80 cents and appeared every morning, showcasing not only the work of its journalists, but also the opinions of its readers, solicited from forums on its constantly-updated website, which also hosted live chats, multimedia as well as web-exclusive articles and features. A spin-off by Singapore Press Holdings, the paper's editor was Bertha Henson and it had up to 65 staff.

Unfortunately, keen competition from new dailies, Streats and Today, distributed free-of-charge led to the paper's closure. The paper failed to meet is expected first year circulation rate of 30,000 and lost $13.3 million since its launch. The paper closed on 28 June 2001, just ten months since its launch. 



Author
Devin Jeyathurai & Bonny Tan, 2000



References
Chua, C. H. (2000, July 15). Project Eyeball hits the net on Monday. The Straits Times, Prime News, p. 3.

Eyeball hits the streets with a bang. (2000, August 13). The Straits Times, Prime News, p. 2.

Salma Kalik. (2000, February 16). New SPH papers get its license. The Straits Times, p. 3.

SPH suspends both print, online editions of Eyeball. (2001, June 28). The Business Times, Singapore Companies, p. 4.

Teh, H. L. (2000, June 7). Singapore's latest paper to readers: tell us what you want. The Business Times, pp. 1-2.

The information in this article is valid as at 2000 and correct as far as we can ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.

Subject
Arts>>Literature>>English (Singapore) Literature
Newspaper publishing--Singapore
Electronic newspapers--Singapore
Singapore--History--1990
Business, finance and industry>>Industry>>Communication and media



All Rights Reserved. National Library Board Singapore 2004.