'Bandung Pos' back in town

'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)