Mediacorp announced today that it will end the print edition of its free newspaper Today from the end of September and will retrench 40 staff from the paper because of the move.

The state-owned broadcaster explained that it will continue restructuring the Today business to better face the new digital-first media landscape, having ended the paper’s weekend print circulation in April. The paper will now go fully digital.

In the same announcement, Mediacorp also said it had entered into an agreement with rival Singapore Press Holdings to buy back its minority shareholdings in Mediacorp’s entertainment television and newspaper entities.

The S$18m purchase will see Mediacorp buying over SPH’s 20 percent stake in its television business and 40 percent stake in its newspaper business, which operates Today.

After SPH had bought the stakes in 2005, it transferred a TV channel to Mediacorp and took a 20 percent stake in Mediacorp’s television business. SPH then merged its free newspaper Streats with Today, and invested in a 40 percent stake of Mediacorp newspaper business.

Mediacorp and SPH recently collaborated to form a joint programmatic trading desk which will be launched in 2018.