Will women's publications vanish from newsstands?<\/p>\n
By Stevie Emilia<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): "It's getting thinner," a woman griped as she
\nflipped through a favorite magazine at a newsstand on Jl. Jend.
\nSudirman.<\/p>\n
Right she was. The media has felt the full brunt of the
\ncurrency crisis in falling ad placements and the soaring price of
\nnewsprint, charged in U.S. dollars.<\/p>\n
About 70 percent of the nation's 286 newspapers are on the
\nbrink of bankruptcy, according to the Association of Indonesian
\nNewspaper Publishers (SPS).<\/p>\n
The price of newsprint has risen along with the rupiah's free
\nfall. Newsprint is Rp 7,960 per kilogram this month, compared to
\nRp 1,254 per kilogram in January last year.<\/p>\n
After tough negotiations overseen by the Ministry of Industry,
\nthe Association of Indonesian Pulp and Paper Producers and SPS
\nfinally agreed in December to set the price of newsprint between
\nUS$500 and $505 per ton, from a rate of $535 on Oct.3.<\/p>\n
Some publications are folding or suspending publication in the
\nhope the situation will improve.<\/p>\n
Raket sports tabloid announced it would halt operations for at
\nleast six months, and five North Sumatra-based weeklies stopped
\npublication last month.<\/p>\n
An anonymous source at weekly Jakarta Jakarta, like Raket a
\npublication of the Gramedia Group, said it would now be published
\nmonthly.<\/p>\n
Others have embarked on cost-cutting measures of reducing the
\nnumber of pages, raising prices, scaling back publication
\nfrequency, fine-tuning budgets and shortening working hours.<\/p>\n
In the hardest cut of all, some have been forced to lay off
\nemployees to survive.<\/p>\n
An anonymous source at Media Indonesia said the daily had laid
\noff 137 employees, including 37 from the editorial section,
\nduring January.<\/p>\n
"Most of them were contract employees," the source said.<\/p>\n
The newspaper has also halved the size of its eight-page
\nsupplement section.<\/p>\n
Dewi women's monthly, published by Chandra Sakti Foundation,
\nraised its price from Rp 8,000 to Rp 10,000 in January.<\/p>\n
Pages have also been sheared, from 272 in December to 254 in
\nJanuary. The February issue will be a slim 148 pages.<\/p>\n
Femina women's weekly, the country's oldest magazine for women
\nand a sister publication of Dewi, still sells for Rp 6,000,
\nexcluding special editions costing Rp 7,000.<\/p>\n
But February's issue is down to 130 pages from 200 pages in
\nDecember.<\/p>\n
Director of both Femina and Dewi magazines, Mirta
\nKartohadiprojo, said the reduction in pages for both publications
\nwas due to lower ad revenues.<\/p>\n
Most products advertised in Dewi, she said, were brand goods,
\nmany of which had closed down outlets or reduced promotional
\nbudgets.<\/p>\n
The newsprint price has been another burden.<\/p>\n
"It is possible to maintain the number of pages by adding more
\narticles to replace the pages usually used by ads, but this will
\nbe very expensive," said Mirta, president director of PT Gaya
\nFavorit Press, publisher of Femina.<\/p>\n
Both publications now have restricted work hours -- 9 a.m. to
\n7 p.m. except on deadline dates.<\/p>\n
She did not rule out further cutbacks.<\/p>\n
"Previously, Dewi had up to 300 pages, and now it has been cut
\nby 100 pages.<\/p>\n
"But it's still possible to cut even more pages if the
\nsituation does not get any better."<\/p>\n
Dewi's circulation is about 50,000 copies and Femina registers
\n140,000, Mirta said.<\/p>\n
"We haven't seen a decline in our circulation yet because our
\npresent issues are still special editions, such as on Idul Fitri.
\nBut, later, there might be a decline."<\/p>\n
She said she would also consider raising the price of Femina.<\/p>\n
The publications have yet to hear opinions from readers, 90
\npercent of whom are women, about the cuts in number of pages.<\/p>\n
Tabloids<\/p>\n
Tabloids are also reeling from the economic blows to their
\nrevenue.<\/p>\n
Citra, an entertainment world weekly published by PT
\nMetromandiri Media Utama, reduced pages from 48 to 32 beginning
\nwith its Jan. 25 issue.<\/p>\n
"But we haven't raised the price from the current Rp 1,500 per
\ncopy," managing editor Maman Suherman said last month.<\/p>\n
"There has been a decline in our circulation but it's not
\nmuch, less than 10 percent."<\/p>\n
Citra's weekly circulation averaged from 330,000 to 350,000
\nbefore the crisis.<\/p>\n
The tabloid, usually on newstands every Monday, was noticeably
\nabsent on Feb. 2, two days after the Idul Fitri celebration.<\/p>\n
"We won't appear because we believe the number of buyers will
\nbe less than usual as people will still be busy with the
\ncelebrations," Maman said. "Besides, most of retailers are in
\ntheir hometowns."<\/p>\n
He said all options would be considered.<\/p>\n
"We don't know what we're going to do after Feb. 9, but we
\nwill look at the situation, and see whether the crisis has
\nworsened the situation for the newspaper industry or not ... "<\/p>\n
Citra also implemented efficiency measures -- the office shuts
\nat 9 p.m. on the first three days of the work week, and utility
\nusage has been lowered.<\/p>\n
Weekly Wanita Indonesia has reduced the number of pages and
\nraised its price.<\/p>\n
Head of its advertising division, Devi Rinjani, said the
\nmanagement increased the retail price from Rp 1,500 to Rp 1,800
\nin January due to the crisis.<\/p>\n
Pages were reduced from 48 to 40.<\/p>\n
"The situation has forced us to do this, or else we would have
\nto close down," Devi said. "So far, there have been no complaints
\nfrom the readers.<\/p>\n
"Like other media, our ads are also declining. What can we do?
\nClients said they have had to cut their promotional budgets
\nbecause of the crisis."<\/p>\n
The tabloid is published by PT Citra Media Persada; Siti
\nHardiyanti Rukmana, President Soeharto's eldest daughter, is its
\ndirector.<\/p>\n
Circulation figures have also tailed off.<\/p>\n
"Generally, circulation was around 400,000, but it's decreased
\nby around 20 percent," Devi said, adding that 60 percent of
\ncirculation was by subscription.<\/p>\n
Nova, the main competitor of Wanita Indonesia, has not
\nincreased its retail price of Rp 1,800 or cut its 40 pages.<\/p>\n
It has, however, ceased publishing its supplement section,
\nwhich was mostly devoted to recipes.<\/p>",
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