'Serambi' back on newsstands again<\/p>\n
After six days of absence due to the destruction of its office
\nand disappearance of most of its employees, Aceh's only daily
\nSerambi Indonesia hit the streets again on Sunday.<\/p>\n
This time Serambi greets its readers not from its usual base
\nin Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, badly damaged from
\nSunday's tsunami, but from a new base in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh.<\/p>\n
Serambi's office and printing house in downtown Banda Aceh
\nwere leveled to the ground, with nothing left intact, and many of
\nits journalists are still missing, feared dead.<\/p>\n
The daily, this time, is only 8 pages, half its normal size of
\n16 pages, due to shortages of manpower.<\/p>\n
According to Serambi's Lhokseumawe branch head Ismail M. Syam,
\nthe eight-page newspaper is currently being run by 10 people,
\ncomprising six journalists and four production staff.<\/p>\n
The 10 people are not all Serambi's employees from Lhokseumawe
\nbut rather employees from Kompas's Persda network, sent from
\nother parts of the country, including from Makassar, Batam and
\nJakarta. Serambi is owned by the Kompas Gramedia Group.<\/p>\n
\"Now, the status of editors and reporters is the same.
\nEveryone has to get into the field and file stories. Otherwise,
\nwe will not be able to fill the paper with local news,\" Ismail
\ntold The Jakarta Post here.<\/p>\n
He explained that 60 percent of Serambi's 225 employees --
\nincluding journalists -- are still unaccounted for.<\/p>\n
Serambi is not alone, though. Since Sunday, media companies
\noutside Aceh were also frantically trying to locate their
\nreporters and staff based in the province.<\/p>\n
Serambi was established in the early 1990s by several senior
\nKompas journalists, including its editor-in-chief Syamsul Kahar,
\nwho survived the tragedy.<\/p>\n
Following the disaster, a number of Serambi people, backed by
\nits parent publication, prepared printing of the paper from a new
\nbase, Lhokseumawe.<\/p>\n
Lhokseumawe was chosen because the newspaper has a five-unit
\nprinting house in the city.<\/p>\n
The publisher, PT Aceh Media Grafika, said it is printing
\n10,000 copies per day -- compared to 100,000 before the disaster.
\nAll copies are being distributed free of charge, and it will
\nremain free for the next week or so.<\/p>\n
-- JP<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/serambi-back-on-newsstands-again-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }