08:00–18:30 · Monday through Friday.
The newsroom keeps Singapore business hours aligned with river walk lighting tests and harbour notice publication times. We are closed on public holidays unless a safety filing requires a single editor on call.
River Hours begin when the landing lamp is switched on, not when the first editor sits down. The lamp faces Mohamed Sultan Road so late walkers know someone is inside if a safety notice must be posted. On heavy rain days we may open the reading bench in the corridor without opening the inner room; the door sign will say "Bench only."
What happens each hour block
08:00–11:00 · Morning pass. Editors walk the quay, collect notices, and publish the morning ledger in The Tide File. Phone calls are answered after 08:30 so the walk is not interrupted. Email received before 08:00 is queued, not auto-answered.
11:00–14:00 · Mark-up window. Copy from the morning pass is marked, disputed, and sent for second read. Walk-in visitors may watch from the corridor bench; we pause for questions at 11:45 and 13:45 if a safety filing is not active.
14:00–17:00 · Afternoon ledger. Longer paragraphs and the day's photograph are filed. Beat owners update their registers on Quay Beats. This is the best window for correction requests because both the author and second reader are usually present.
17:00–18:30 · Close. Friday digest emails leave at 17:00. Other days we archive proofs, wipe the copy bench, and leave one lamp on for the landing. After 18:30 the phone rolls to a voicemail box that repeats River Hours and points to The Landing for address details.
Holidays and on-call
On Singapore public holidays the desk is closed unless the river walk closes unexpectedly. An on-call editor checks email at 10:00 and 16:00 for safety keywords defined in our internal playbook — "closure," "lighting fault," "medical" — and may publish a single safety sheet without opening the office. On-call editors are named on the door each Friday.
Visits. Walk-ins welcome during River Hours. No appointment required. Recording devices stay in the corridor.
Email. [email protected] answered same day if received before 16:00 on a River Hours day.
For imprint and legal identity, see Legal. For visit directions, see The Landing.