ST Editor Han Fook Kwang explains the need for the ST overhaul.

WE HELD a presentation to the newsroom on Monday on the re-design of The Straits Times - going through what it will look like next month and what changes we'll be making to the paper.

I showed this video at the start of the presentation.

It's an old clip that has made its rounds many times over on the Internet, but I wanted to make the point that change can be exciting; that there is no limit to what we could do; that it is limited only by our imagination.

I’m not sure if I conveyed the point well, or if the audience got it, but that's how I feel about this exercise we're embarking.

We're a 163-year old paper shaped through the years by many forces, some of which (many of which, some might say) are not within our control. Yet, every time we embark on a re-launch exercise I can't help but feel a certain sense of loneliness, that it's in our hands alone, that it's really up to the ST newsroom, the editors, and all the journalists working for the paper, to decide what and how we want to change the paper.

No one else, not our readers, not the government, not advertisers, have had a direct say in shaping the changes we have wanted to make over these past few months. When we're done with the exercise - and there will be plenty of last-minute changes and tweaks - will we finally have a product that all three stakeholders like?

They might not have been directly involved in the remaking of the ST, but they'll have a huge say in whether we've had a successful launch, especially our readers, whom we hope will go out and buy us in droves. 

In the meantime, we'll just have to rely on our professional instincts that we know our readers well, what they like and want, and work like hell to put it all together by August 8th.

It'll be hectic but I hope it'll be quite fun too.