Singapore's Straits Times is celebrating its 170th anniversary with the rollout of a new look and major changes to its website and apps.

A new type of paywall is part of plans to remain competitive in the market as the paper gets more local, global, visual and social. Details were released to the trade at a special briefing this month as the newspaper launched its revamp.

Singapore Press Holdings senior vice president and head of strategic marketing Geoff Tan says the Straits Times has mirrored the evolution of Singapore - which celebrates the 50th anniversary of independence - from third world to first, by going from a print-only product to an interactive, full-blown expression across a multiplicity of devices and platforms.

An investment of US$1.19 million for the revamp included a new design for the newspaper in which editors and designers worked with Lucie Lacava, a multiple award-winning designer from Montreal, Canada, and winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Newspaper Designers in 2010. The result was a a fresh design that ensures a seamless experience whether the newspaper is being read in print or on computers, tablets, and mobile phones.

"We even commissioned a special new font, called Silane, exclusively for the newspaper," he says.

Digital apps and the Straits Times website were rebuilt by international digital user interface specialists at Tigerspike, which has a track record including work for The Economist and the Telegraph.

"The new user experience will be faster, sharper, and more stable, and allows more customisation and sharing of content than ever before," Tan says. "There will also be more video and interactive graphic content."

Gone is the old-style paywall - which put much content out of reach of non-subscribers - in favour of a a metered paywall, which allows non-subscribers a number of free articles a month.

"In four key words, the revamped Straits Times will be more local, global, visual, and social," Tan says.

Readers can expect a substantially beefed up home news section, plus global reports from a growing network of correspondents and contributors around Asia and beyond. The design will also afford award-winning photographers, videographers, graphic artists, designers and cartoonists more room to showcase their skills in print and online.

"It will also be more social because the metered paywall will allow readers to experience and share content readily, including engaging with our correspondents," he says. "At a time when industry pundits and pessimistic soothsayers the world over are sounding the death knell for print media, the Straits Times is confident that in putting out a well-thought-through, integrated, consumer-centric product that resonates hugely with today's audiences, we can delight our readers across platforms and devices."

The move follows parent SPH's collaboration with Singapore's Infocomm Investments and Silicon Valley based Plug and Play on an accelerator programme to support media-related tech start-ups. Tan says the programme, which targets to admit up to 20 media tech start-ups, has closed on 282 sign-ups.