Alternative news website Coconuts to cease operations on Dec 31
Founded in 2011, Coconuts.co has offices across Southeast Asia, including Singapore.
A photograph of an announcement on the Coconuts.co website on Dec 19, 2023 of its impending closure. (Photo: TODAY/Ili Nadhirah Mansor)
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- Coconuts.co, an alternative news website, will no longer be in operation from Dec 31
- Coconut Media's founder and chairman Byron Perry said that it was not financially sustainable to maintain operations
- Earlier in March, Coconuts.co's Hong Kong office announced that it would stop operations and gave similar reasons
SINGAPORE: Alternative news website Coconuts.co, which has covered Southeast Asia including Singapore for over a decade, is set to stop operating on Dec 31.
Citing a lack of financial sustainability as a reason, Coconut Media's founder and chairman, Mr Byron Perry, made the announcement on the website on Tuesday (Dec 19).
In a letter, Mr Perry said the decision had been made “with a mixture of pride, nostalgia and sadness”.
“From our humble founding in Bangkok in 2011, we grew the Coconuts audience to millions of unique visitors per month, with dozens of journalists covering eight cities at our peak,” he wrote.
The website said that at its peak, Coconuts had offices in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Bali, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Singapore and Yangon.
The site covered topics such as news, lifestyle, culture and travel.
The most recent report on Singapore, dated Tuesday, involved a fishing hook allegedly found in frozen squid at a supermarket in Bukit Batok.
Mr Perry said that while Coconuts had its fair share of success, such as winning journalism and entertainment awards and being frequently cited “by the biggest media companies in the world”, it had not translated to commercial success.
“Like many other independent news publishers, we have found financial sustainability to be incredibly elusive despite our best efforts,” he added.
In March, Coconuts' Hong Kong office announced that it would conclude its operations and gave similar reasons.
A letter on the website on Mar 1 read: “In recent years, we have faced increasing journalistic and commercial challenges that have made it difficult for us to continue publishing regularly in Hong Kong.”
Hong Kong Free Press reported that the closure of the Hong Kong office came after Mr Vim Shanmugam took the helm as general manager and chief marketing officer, following Mr Perry's relocation to the United States, where he became Coconuts Media chairman.
In the letter, Mr Perry also thanked his employees for their contributions.
“I also personally want to thank all of the staff - past and present - who have put so much time, effort, drive, creativity and intelligence into making Coconuts great.
"I am truly grateful for your service and I wish you the best in your careers.”
TODAY has reached out to Coconuts to ask about the number of workers across their offices and in Singapore who will be affected by the closure.
Mr Perry added: “We want to give a profuse and heartfelt 'thank you' to our readers. Our core mission was always to inform and entertain you, and we hope that we’ve succeeded in that regard for the last 12 years.”
He also said that Coconut's archives will remain up “for all to read for (we hope) eternity”.
Coconuts Media will continue to operate as a business, with other websites BK Magazine and Soimilk still running along with its in-house brand studio, Grove.
BK Magazine is a lifestyle website on the best places to eat and visit in Bangkok. Soimilk is a Thai youth-focused website.
Mr Perry ended the letter by saying that he hopes to re-launch Coconuts "one day".
This article was originally published in TODAY.
