100 Hot Bods: A new Straits Times e-book in the ST Star app

100 Hot Bods: A new Straits Times e-book in the ST Star app
PHOTO: 100 Hot Bods: A new Straits Times e-book in the ST Star app

SINGAPORE - The Straits Times, the flagship newspaper of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), is releasing a new e-book today titled 100 Hot Bods.

It is found in The Straits Times Star (ST Star) app and available free for the iPad and Android devices.

100 Hot Bods is a compilation of 100 stories of people interviewed in The Sunday Times series Hot Bods, which was launched 10 years ago in January 2004.

The e-book includes current interviews and videos of three of the "Hot Bods" as they look today.

Additionally, there are nearly 40 pages of health and fitness tips to help readers get a hot bod, from tips on eating right to getting in shape.

"This new e-magazine keeps up the pace of new launches from our ST digital team," said Straits Times editor Warren Fernandez. "It plays to the strengths of the tablet platform, and brings to life in videos and pictures the Hot Bods series we have been running in our Sports pages on Sundays. It is another example of ST becoming a fully multimedia operation."

100 Hot Bods includes fresh material as well as content repurposed from the newspaper's archives.

Besides the photos and interviews in Singapore with 100 people with enviably fit bodies, the e-book has articles on: - Eight tips to staying healthy; - Food items to remove from your kitchen and what you can replace them with; - How to dine out and still eat healthily; - How to read food labels; - The calorie count of 100 popular food items; - A four-week get-fit plan for beginners; - Brisk walking one's way to fitness; - The amount of calories one can burn from doing various activities.

Said associate editor Sumiko Tan, who is editor of the ST Digital team which produced the e-book: "It's been 10 years since The Sunday Times launched the Hot Bod series, and we thought this would be a good time to look back at their inspirational stories. We also caught up with three Hot Bods whom we featured quite some years ago to see if they have kept up their disciplined lifestyle. Check out the e-book to see how they're faring."

To tie in with the launch of 100 Hot Bods, The Straits Times is organising a contest where three lucky readers stand to win $500 each in vouchers for American sports apparel brand Under Armour, which recently opened its first shop in Singapore at Orchard Gateway.

For a chance to win, readers just need to download the ST Star app and 100 Hot Bods, and answer a question they will find on the contest page in the e-book.

The Straits Times Star app was launched on June 27, 2014 with the aim of bringing to a wider audience The Straits Times' brand of journalism in an exciting multimedia format.

The ST Star app (http://www.straitstimes.com/st-star-app) can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play. The e-publications are designed for tablets and optimised for the iPad.

The ST Star app has appeared among the top 10 most downloaded lifestyle apps in daily ratings in both the Apple App Store and Google Play.

The app is also home to an interactive monthly lifestyle magazine called The Life, which has articles on style, design, pursuits, travel and food.

Its second issue was released on July 25 with stories on a yacht cruise in the Komodo islands, a legendary train ride in Australia, restaurant recommendations of top international chefs and private garden sanctuaries. There are also interviews with fashion designer Victoria Beckham and a prominent art collector Uli Sigg.

The ST Star app is an extension of The Straits Times Appreciates Readers (Star) programme, an ongoing effort to reach out to readers and the community.

100 Hot Bods and the first two issues of The Life magazine are free for everyone to download. The Life magazine will later be available first to Straits Times All-In-One subscribers. Subscribers to the All-in-One package get full and unlimited access to all the contents in the ST Star app.

The Straits Times All-In-One subscription package allows readers to enjoy unlimited access to The Straits Times across multiple platforms - print, website, iPad/iPhone and/or Android tablet/smartphone. More information about the All-In-One subscription package can be found online at the SPH subscription e-shop (http://www.sphsubscription.com.sg/eshop/).

The ST Star app marks a significant step into digital publishing for The Straits Times, which is continually enhancing its digital offerings.

Its website - www.straitstimes.com - was updated in April, with the introduction of full-fledged section pages for Singapore, Politics, Asia, World, Business, Opinion, Sport, Digital Life and Lifestyle.

In May, the newspaper launched a digital Education Community (stcommunities.sg/education), where readers can post their views and stories, and upload pictures and videos.

The first of the ST Communities was Entertainment (stcommunities.straitstimes.com/), which won gold in the Best in Social Media category at the 2013 Asian Digital Media Awards organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.

The Straits Times Digital team, which produces the website and content for the newspaper's mobile apps, has also launched "Web specials" on straitstimes.com. These are stories exclusive to the digital platform that include interactive graphics, photo galleries and blogs.

Among the paper's notable Web specials are long-form multimedia storytelling features Lost: Untold Stories Of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370,which captured the milestones in the search for the missing plane, and Survivor: The Colleen Turzynski Story,an indepth look at the story of the Polish orphan who lost her parents in an unsolved murder case when she was a baby. She was reunited with her Singapore family with the help of The Straits Times a few months ago.

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