'Bandung Pos' back in town

BANDUNG: After several weeks of absence, the Bandung Pos reappeared yesterday in a new tabloid format.

Its publishers said the tabloid would appear temporarily in this new format three times a week -- Monday, Thursday and Saturday.

"For now we're publishing in this format. Insya Allah (God willing) if the price of newsprint stabilizes we can go back to becoming a daily," Bandung Pos' said general manager Teddy Kharsadi as quoted by Antara news service.

"Hopefully we'll become a full daily again by the end of the year," he remarked.

The depreciation of the rupiah and the skyrocketing price of newsprint has caused many newspapers to either fold, reduce the number of pages they print or change their format altogether.

Bandung Pos, which had a circulation of about 15,000, ceased publishing about a month ago.

Apart from the high price of newsprint, difficulty in collecting subscription payments was also cited as the main reason for the newspaper's difficulties.

Not surprisingly, a large chunk of the subscribers were local administration offices because 50 percent of Bandung Pos' shares were owned by the West Java civil servants corps (Korpri).

However, a majority of the shares in the paper were recently bought by Teddy Kharsadi who also became its general manager. (mds)