Not many newspapers in Singapore had engaged their readers quite as memorably as the now-defunct Singapore Herald, Sunday Monitor – and New Nation (together with the Sunday Nation).

All three were part of many local boomers’ growing-up years, unlike for younger readers who only had The Straits Times to report and explain what was going on.

A New Nation reunion just held on Tuesday, Jan 7, brought back not just memories but also the possibility that the media scene here today could have been more vibrant. What a pity.

Apart from The Straits Times, there were at least a couple of other daily papers in the 1960s of which I had vague memories.

I remember the Singapore Standard and Eastern Sun. But only fleetingly. They were more part of my parents’ era. The Standard stood out a bit because former Deputy Prime Minister S. Rajaratnam used to write editorials (leaders) for the paper.

But just when my political and social consciousness was being aroused, they disappeared.

Then came the Singapore Herald. To cut the story short, it wasn’t anything like The Straits Times. It was more ready to be more questioning. For example, it practically went all out to question issues linked with national service which was still in its infancy stages at that time in the late 1960s and then 1970s. There were also other political reasons for its demise.

So the Herald came and went – like a comet.

The Sunday Monitor showed the high reader-friendly standards any local newspaper could achieve if it had the means and talent. It was brilliantly designed.

In response, the then Straits Times group chose Tan Wang Joo to jazz up Sunday Nation, which became a better weekend paper because of the competition.

Then there was New Nation which started off with ambition to be a serious afternoon read.

When it began on Jan 18, 1971, it was a broadsheet. It offered commentaries on world political issues like the North-South dialogue! It later became a tabloid.

If intellectual did not sell, man in the street – or the office worker – was the next readership target.

During New Nation’s existence from 18 Jan 1971 right up to 1 May 1982, all said and done, Singapore newspaper readers were informed, cajoled, educated, entertained, inspired, excited.

Everybody bought New Nation to find out what soccer columnist Jeffrey “Kallang Roar” Low had to say about the Malaysia Cup, why Teresa Ooi disagreed with certain Education M...