Building a newspaper on the public's trust<\/p>\n
Raymond Toruan, Executive Director, PT Bina Media Tenggara and
\nChief Editor The Jakarta Post<\/p>\n
\"I QUIT\" The unusually large, nine-column headline splashed
\nacross The Jakarta Post's front page on Friday, May 22, 1998, was
\nmore than just a report on then president Soeharto's announcement
\nthe day before.<\/p>\n
Technically, the five-star Gen. Soeharto never resigned, as
\nmisreported by all other newspapers in Indonesia and
\nmistranslated by wire services across the globe. There was no
\nsuch word as \"resign\", which would have been tantamount to
\nadmitting defeat or failure, in the vocabulary of a haughty
\nJavanese soldier like Soeharto.<\/p>\n
He simply quit the presidency, implying that his duties were
\nno longer worth his while. It was a clear signal to all that he
\nbelieved he had not failed his country and was leaving on his own
\nterms.<\/p>\n
That memorable report not only marked the end of Soeharto's
\nthree decades of authoritarian leadership, but also proved a
\ncoming of age for The Jakarta Post in its relatively short
\nhistory.<\/p>\n
Of course, the first milestone was the appearance of our debut
\nissue on Monday, April 25, 1983. It was the first newspaper to be
\nborn of the shared ideals and the combined endeavors of a number
\nof this country's leading and simultaneously competing media
\npublishers.<\/p>\n
A special message from the publisher printed on the front page
\nof that first issue said the newspaper wished \"to present an
\naccurate daily record of Indonesia today; the dynamics of an
\nemerging nation and regional economic power, and the many facets
\nand fascinations of Indonesia's unique culture and history\".<\/p>\n
Initially, the intention was to publish an English-language
\nnewspaper of the highest editorial quality that would not only
\ncater to the fast growing expatriate community in the country -
\nthe result of more than a decade of opening up the Indonesian
\neconomy to the global community - but, more importantly, provide
\nan Indonesian perspective to counter the Western-dominated global
\ntraffic of news and views.<\/p>\n
It turned out that 1983 was not a good year to start a
\nbusiness in Indonesia, especially a newspaper. Only a year
\nearlier the country experienced its lowest economic performance
\nsince the beginning of the New Order's economic development
\nprograms in 1969. The economy did not catch up with the high
\ngrowth rate of the 1970s until after 1984.<\/p>\n
To make matters worse, the first five-year business projection
\nfor The Jakarta Post was based on the high growth rate of the
\ncountry's economy of the 1970s, setting out an overly optimistic
\nthree-year period of deficits before comfortably reaching the
\nbreak-even point.<\/p>\n
Things did not go according to plan.<\/p>\n
On the first day of circulation, 5,474 copies of the
\nnewspaper reached our readers. And advertising, the lifeblood of
\nany modern newspaper, amounted to an average of less than 10
\npercent of a page for the then eight -page edition for the rest
\nof the year.<\/p>\n
Entering our third year, paid circulation figures hovered
\naround only 12,800 copies a day. By that time, The Jakarta Post
\nhad surpassed the combined paid circulation of the two other
\nolder English-language newspapers, the Indonesian Observer and
\nThe Indonesian Times.<\/p>\n
However, even though the growth of circulation up to that
\nperiod was relatively high, it was still not enough to draw
\nadvertisers and advertising agencies. By 1985, sold advertising
\nspace did not even reach 30 percent of space on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
To make ends meet, the management was forced to borrow money
\nduring the fourth year, since the starting capital had run out.
\nFortunately, Indonesia's economy was on an upturn, making it
\npossible for the management to repay its debt within a two-year
\nperiod.<\/p>\n
Almost without realizing it, the newspaper entered a new stage
\naround 1990. While paid circulation figures sustained a growth
\nrate of more than 12 percent a year, there was a clear indication
\nthat it was starting to level off. A study on the newspaper
\nmarket showed that while around two-thirds of the Post's readers
\nwere expatriates, the paper had practically saturated that
\nparticular segment.<\/p>\n
To keep growing in terms of circulation, we had to explore a
\nnew audience and penetrate the Indonesian market.<\/p>\n
It was a totally new ball game, involving harsh competition
\nagainst more established Indonesian-language newspapers. More
\nimportantly, it necessitated a reorientation of the Post's
\neditorial content. Foreign readers had different tastes,
\ninterests and needs from Indonesian ones. The newspaper was
\ncalled upon strike a cultural balance, catering to its Indonesian
\nreaders while accommodating its loyal expatriate subscribers.<\/p>\n
For that purpose, the Post assigned a research institution,
\nResource Productivity Center, to conduct a series of readership
\nsurveys, market research and focus group discussions starting
\nfrom the end of 1990. The objective was to find a new formula,
\nboth for the editorial content as well as for appropriate
\nmarketing that would expand the Indonesian readership without
\nrelinquishing its dominant position in the expatriate market.<\/p>\n
By 1992, a new strategy was in place and taking the newspaper
\nalong a new course. The Post had a distinct advantage over
\nIndonesian-language publications in facing new challenges.<\/p>\n
Soeharto's repressive regime, through the Ministry of
\nInformation as well as its complex network of security agencies,
\nscoffed at the very notion of freedom of the press. Harassment
\nand intimidation were the order of the day, as was the summary
\nbanning of publications. Even the killing of a muckraking
\njournalist could happen with impunity.<\/p>\n
Under such difficult circumstances, the Post enjoyed some
\nleeway because it was in English, a much more straightforward,
\n\"tell it like it is\" language than Indonesian. We could report
\nstories that other Indonesian newspapers did not dare publish,
\nwith the government's press watchdogs daunted by the prospect of
\nporing over an English-language article.<\/p>\n
These advantages helped fuel a high growth rate through the
\nearly 1990s, and by 1995, our readership profile had changed. The
\nabsolute number of expatriate readers did not decrease, but its
\nproportion of the total readership dropped to around a third.
\nMeanwhile, the political situation had become increasingly
\nrepressive, especially for the press after the closing down of
\nthe popular Tempo magazine in 1994. The situation pushed The
\nJakarta Post into a peculiar position, a symbol of credibility
\nand a voice of reason among the mostly meek Indonesian press.<\/p>\n
Circulation figures kept growing and set a record (50,000 paid
\ncopies in April 1997), with the paper promoted to the club of the
\n10 most-sought-after newspapers for advertising in the country.<\/p>\n
Then came that memorable headline story of Friday, May 22,
\n1998, which also marked the opening of a new chapter in our
\nhistory.<\/p>\n
The total absence of a sense of urgency in the country, which
\nlet the financial crisis of mid-1997 snowball into the
\nmultidimensional mayhem that helped toppled Soeharto less than a
\nyear later, drastically changed the environment of the newspaper
\nindustry in the country.<\/p>\n
The plunge in the rupiah meant a quadrupling in the cost of
\nnewsprint. The economic crisis spelled a drop in purchasing power
\nof the public, and consequently fewer buyers for Indonesian
\npapers. We found ourselves living a nightmare reality: higher
\ncosts combined with severely reduced revenue.<\/p>\n
The constraints on the newspaper industry did not stop there.
\nAlmost at the same time, globalization and the superabundance of
\ninformation drastically altered the newspaper environment in
\nIndonesia. Meanwhile, the rapid transformation of our society has
\nradically changed readers' habits, needs, lifestyles and
\ninterests.<\/p>\n
Newspapers are no longer the predominant providers of news and
\nviews. New technology is developed almost every week, opening up
\nnew options in communication and broadcasting to provide diverse
\nreal-time information. News becomes outdated only a few minutes
\nafter the event.<\/p>\n
The post-Soeharto era, with its defining slogan of reformasi
\n(reform), has brought additional challenged for the Post, as we
\nare now not alone in publishing daring stories. The Ministry of
\nInformation no longer exists, its draconian reach now a thing of
\nthe past. Practically anybody can publish a newspaper and print
\nstories that were once taboo.<\/p>\n
For this very reason, we are striving to revamp this
\nnewspaper, to reformulate its vision, to review every aspect of
\nits operations and to reorganize in order to meet the needs and
\ndemands of our readers.<\/p>\n
In short, it means redefining our approach to journalism,
\nexploring relevance beyond the basic news, providing a meaningful
\ncontext for every story and supplying useful knowledge for our
\nspecial breed of readers.<\/p>\n
Our basic intent and beliefs, however, remain true to those of
\nour first day of publication 20 years ago. For a newspaper,
\nmeeting the public trust is everything because readers seek more
\nthan the outlining of news and views. It is the trust of our
\nreaders that spurs The Jakarta Post to continue serving the
\npublic by striving for excellence in reporting.<\/p>",
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