Formative SCMP chief executive Lyn Holloway dies after lifetime leading Hong Kong and Singapore newspapers
- He led merger of Singapore’s flagship news agencies in the 1980s and oversaw the South China Morning Post during city’s handover to China
- Friends remember him as a ‘natural diplomat’ and lover of the newsroom
Veteran newspaper publisher Lyn Holloway, who oversaw the formation of Singapore Press Holdings in the 1980s and steered the South China Morning Post as its chief executive in the run-up to the 1997 handover, died in Singapore on Saturday aged 90.
The Post’s former editor-in-chief David Armstrong, who had known Holloway since they worked together at the newspaper in the 1990s, described him as “a very knowledgeable media manager, a fine judge of human nature and a natural diplomat”.
“These were qualities he brought to the task of chief executive of the Post, in managing the business and handling relations with China in the pre-handover days,” said Armstrong, who was the Post’s editor-in-chief from 1993 to 96 and again from 2003 to 2005.
“Lyn always kept a close eye on the business of the newspaper company and its profitability and ran a successful operation, but he also respected and supported editorial independence – a not-too-common combination.”
Holloway’s media career in Asia started in 1961, when he joined Times Publishing and The Straits Times Press in Singapore as managing director.