Editor's letter: Tech in Asia’s editorial blueprint for a roaring 2024

Does what we do excite you? We’d love to hear from you. [Read from your browser]( Editor's letter --------------------------------------------------------------- Hello {NAME} It’s that time of the year when every day feels like a Friday. I welcome the respite that comes with the holidays. I don’t know about you, but 2023 has been a rollercoaster for me and my team. Uncertainty reigned. The tech winter hit investments in the sector, and Tech in Asia was not spared its effects. Generative AI is proving to be more than just a trend: It has staying power, and it’s leaving people in many industries, including ours, wondering if they’ll still have jobs in the future. Closer to home, [Tech in Asia’s buyout by Singapore Press Holdings]( (SPH) was the talk of the town, resulting in a boisterous town hall meeting. Our CEO, Willis, was pleased - he usually doesn’t get many questions in these meetings. But that’s mainly because we’re already transparent about our finances and plans with employees. But the questions came pouring in during this town hall, and they mostly centered on this: What comes after the acquisition? Thankfully, we emerged from the year doing quite alright. 2024 will no doubt be another grind, but I’m stoked. Here’s a look at the foundations we’ve laid in 2023, which we’ll continue building upon next year. (By the way, we’re looking for like-minded folks who are keen to work or partner with us to advance our mission, too.) Ruffled feathers An ex-CEO of a major publication once told me about what really motivates readers: “People want to know who fucked up.” Unpleasant as it may seem, the role of journalism is to print what others do not want printed. Not everyone wants to bear this burden, and that sets Tech in Asia apart from the tons of self-help posts on Linkedin and content marketing on company blogs. Indeed, we’ve grown our portfolio and skills in investigative journalism. I won’t spell out the companies and people we’ve looked into, but you can read about them [here](. Reporting and editing such stories take up a lot of effort and resources. After all, a sensational story can hurt a company that a founder built from scratch. We have to be especially nuanced, meticulous, and empathetic. I liken it to a playoff game in the NBA - mistakes have real consequences. Delivering such stories well requires deep institutional knowledge, and that’s something we’ve been honing over the years. Insights on startups, tech giants, and hot industries We’ve also been working on excelling in less contentious stories. Tech in Asia is known to knock on the doors of private companies whenever they releas their earnings. Just ask [Carousell]( [ShopBack]( [GudangAda]( and many others. We’ve published some well-received coverage and analyses of [Grab’s layoff U-turn]( [Sea Group’s stunning numbers earlier this year]( and more. We’re among the first to provide in-depth coverage of TikTok Shop. We published our first [detailed analysis in 2022]( and continued keeping tabs on the company [well into 2023](. And even as we chase hot topics, we’re expanding our popular and useful collection of data-driven visuals and articles. These include our landscape map on [Indonesia’s beauty commerce space]( as well as our trackers for [layoffs]( [startup fundraising]( and [VC fundraising](. We also have an assortment of [self-updating listicles](. Grace, our super intern So far, I’ve talked about how shoe-leather reporting remains essential to the Tech in Asia newsroom. But we embrace new tools, too. This year, we introduced [Grace Priscilla Teo]( a fictional persona created with the help of Midjourney, an AI-based image generator. (She even garnered [some media coverage]( Grace is really a gimmick (don’t tell her I said that), but we’re serious about tapping generative AI for our work. We’ve been using GPT-4 to write the first cuts of our [50-word summaries](. Our social media captions are mostly written with AI’s help. We’ve deployed a headline generator embedded into our Slack account. While our copyeditors and writers are responsible for most of our clever titles, this much-used tool has elevated many of our stories (examples [here]( and [here](. Finally, we’re seeing some success using AI to do data extraction, tagging, transcribing, and summarizing. Why this urgency in deploying AI? Well, we already run a lean shop, so we don’t have to worry about making people redundant because of it. We also believe that using AI for mundane tasks could make us more productive and our jobs more fulfilling. That seems to be true so far. Back to the grind We’re still far from where we want to be. Here’s a peek at our to-do list for next year: - Pack more value and utility into our subscription product to make it stickier. - Make our content even more compelling, insightful, and easier to consume by consistently applying journalistic and storytelling basics. - Expand beyond our bread-and-butter Southeast Asia coverage in a way that makes sense for us. - Grow our coverage while staying lean. We’ll continue betting on AI, automation, and data journalism to make that happen. - Realize the potential of our partnership with SPH and The Business Times - Help reverse journalism’s decline by creating a cutting-edge, excellent, and financially sustainable newsroom. We’ll need all kinds of help to get there. You can, of course, [subscribe to Tech in Asia](. But if what we’re working on is something that keeps you up at night, let’s explore partnering up or even working together. Reach out to me at terence@techinasia.com for a chat. Here’s to a roaring 2024! Regards, Terence Lee Editor-in-Chief --------------------------------------------------------------- [ADVERTISE]( | [SUBSCRIBE]( P.S. Don't miss out on the biggest tech news and analysis. Add newsletter@techinasia.com to your address book, contacts, or safe sender list. Or simply move us into your inbox. Tech in Asia thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Too many emails? Switch to a different frequency or get new content through our [preference center]( or [unsubscribe](. --------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 2023 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. 63 Robinson Road, Singapore 068894 This email was sent to {EMAIL} [why did I get this?]( [unsubscribe from this list]( [update subscription preferences]( Tech in Asia · 51 Bras Basah Rd · #05-5061 · Singapore 189554 · Singapore