Jom was founded to inform and delight with slow journalism, grounded in humility and sensitivity, and guided by the never-ending quest for truth.

Our editorial philosophy

Editorial rigour sits at the heart of everything we produce, from our bite-sized social media posts to our contemplative essays. By 'rigour' we mean a standard process of assessing stories, verifying sources, checking facts, and all other editorial efforts that will allow us to attain, in Walter Lippmann’s words, “a common intellectual method and a common area of valid fact.”

In an information world characterised by the clash of rapid-fire strands of thought, each in hunt of ever more eyeballs, we believe that editorial patience is of vital importance. We will exercise patience in our curation; patience in our research; patience in our writing; and patience in our editing.

This patience will enable us to interrogate ourselves throughout the editorial process, asking the questions that are too often today sacrificed at the altar of instant gratification. Is there another angle? Are we asking the right questions? What is the writer’s positionality and attendant biases, and are they the most appropriate for this story? Are we being fair to all parties, especially any accused of wrongdoing? How can we add balance and perspective? Are our sources diverse and have we verified them? Will our story improve the lives of people in the community?

It will take us time to ask and answer these questions. If this means that Jom is late to the news cycle, so be it. If this means that Jom loses a scoop to a rival, so be it. And if this means that Jom can never grow as big as the content farms, so be it. That is not why we are here.

Jom’s team is here to help you sift through the deluge, make sense of the world, and find joy again in the simple pleasures of well-crafted journalism. Who is in our team? Read about us here.

Our values

Independence. We have no affiliation to any party, corporate interest or organisation.

Humility. We believe that the quest for truth is never-ending and that our next story can always be better than our last.

Solidarity. We express solidarity with people and communities everywhere who are excluded, marginalised or disadvantaged for any reason, including but not limited to age, citizenship status, class, caste, ethnicity, gender, health, language, nationality, political beliefs, religion or sexual orientation.

Through our journalism we seek to interrogate the power structures that feed and uphold these inequalities and injustices, part of our collective struggle to guarantee equality of access and opportunity for every human.

Diversity. Internally, we are focused on building a diverse organisation. Externally, we strive to shine a light on issues and personalities typically under-represented in the media.

Inclusivity. We believe that every individual should be valued simply for their humanity. Both in internal and external deliberations, we will purposefully attempt to include individuals of varying backgrounds, because we believe that drawing from a breadth of perspectives will lead to better journalism.

Why we have a paywall

We have a free newsletter, which you can sign up for at the bottom of this page. However, most of our journalism is behind a paywall.

Why? We believe that the best way to fund deep, meaningful journalism is through our community of readers. Reader funding will ensure that Jom is accountable primarily to you, not advertisers, large corporations, or any other organisations with particular interests.

Reader funding will also ensure that we do not have to produce content designed to attract ever more eyeballs or engagement. We want to insulate our editorial team from the pressure to churn out excessive content or maximise short-term metrics. This freedom will provide our journalists and editors the time and space needed to exercise the patience that is so vital to our craft.

Jom is also committed to paying our contributors above local journalism market rates, so that they can earn a living wage. By subscribing you are also supporting this higher mission of cultivating Singapore’s journalistic talent.

So please subscribe at the highest tier that you can afford.

Nevertheless, we at Jom are also conscious of our public service role. If you cannot afford a basic tier subscription, please send us an e-mail at info@jom.media and we will see how we can help you.

Ownership and funding

Jom’s parent company, The Inquiry Pte Ltd (Singapore registered UEN: 202205867G), is completely owned by its three Singaporean co-founders, Charmaine Poh, Tsen-Waye Tay and Sudhir Vadaketh.

Some of their Singaporean friends, who believe in Jom's philosophy and values but have no editorial input, provided financial support following incorporation.

The publication’s primary source of revenue is subscriptions.