The Straits Times is an English language daily broadsheet and is the oldest newspaper in Singapore. Originally known as The Straits Times and Singapore Journal of Commerce, the paper was established on 15 July 1845 by Armenian businessman Catchick Moses, who together with his uncle, Aristarchus Sarkies, founded the trading firm Sarkies & Moses. Moses appointed Robert Carr Woods, an English journalist from Bombay, as editor for the Straits Times. Woods ran the paper from the Sarkies’ office in Commercial Square. The Straits Times struggled to grow its readership in its initial years and Woods drew derision from rival publications for his paper’s “flowery style” and “arch humour”. Publication of the Straits Times was forcibly halted from 1942 to 1945 during the Japanese Occupation. Its premises were taken over by the Syonan Times, an English newspaper published by the occupying forces. In the post-war period, the Straits Times reinvented itself and began to move away from its previous pro-British business focus to more localized issues. It became and remains the most dominant and widely circulated newspaper in Singapore.The Straits Times is currently owned by Singapore Press Holdings.
