Change pushes up demand for news
JAKARTA (JP): The need to keep up to date on the latest developments in reformasi and the ups and downs of the rupiah has increased the readership of newspapers at the expense of publications focusing on women's issues and entertainments, the results of a survey of the printed media suggested.
The survey of 8,861 individuals aged between 12 and 65 was conducted in 17 cities by Sofres FSA Indonesia and was released on Thursday. It replicated a similar study carried out in 1997.
In 1997, 154 respondents said they read the political tabloid Adil, rising to 761 respondents in 1998, a representative of the company said on Thursday.
Ade Armando said the women's tabloid Nova remained a favorite but that respondents reading it had fallen from 5,250 in 1997 to 3,607 in 1998, representing an overall decline of 31 percent in its readership.
"Perhaps people are cutting expenses on women's and entertainments magazines," Ade said.
Despite the fall, Nova along with Pos Kota daily remain firm favorites, according to the survey.
Ade said the survey, which was conducted over a two week period in September, is representative of the 22 million people who reside in the 17 cities.
Respondents were selected randomly and covered a wide range of income levels and professions. They were asked what publications they had read over the past week. Most claimed to read newspapers between one and three times a week.
The survey indicated that the number of people reading newspapers on a regular basis has risen from 72 percent in 1997 to 79 percent this year. However, there was a two percent decline in the readership of tabloids and an eight percent decline in the readership of magazines, despite a glut of tabloids and weeklies on the market.
Of newspapers, Pos Kota topped the list with 6,059 readers, down from 7,723 readers in the 1997 survey.
Kompas daily had 4,442 regular readers, Jawa Pos daily had 2,440, Pikiran Rakyat had 1,556 and Sinar Pagi had 1,056.
Ade said there had been "a dramatic increase" in Sinar Pagi's readership, which rose from 356 respondents in 1997 to 1,056 in 1998, equivalent to a 197 percent increase.
"Maybe it is due to the current political situation," said Ade, who is the company's media research manager.
Ade also suggested the fall in the tabloid readership might be due to the fact that they are more expensive than newspapers. Tabloids cost an average of Rp 2,000 while newspapers are priced at around Rp 1,500.
In the Greater Jakarta area, the survey estimated that around 84 percent of the population read newspapers, 44 percent read tabloids and 28 percent read magazines.
Teen magazine Gadis had 1,039 readers among the respondents, a 21 percent decline from 1,318 respondents in 1997. Bola sports tabloid was among the favorites with an increase of 14 percent.
Other preferred tabloids were Aksi news tabloid, Bintang and Citra entertainments tabloids and Gema Olahraga sports tabloid.
Women's magazine Femina and the news magazines Gatra and Forum Keadilan were among other favorites.
Forum recorded a 36 percent increase in its readership, while Femina's experienced a 41 percent decline.
"There's a definite pattern showing that women's and entertainments magazines are facing a difficult time," Ade said.
The survey also asked respondents about their favorite television station. RCTI was placed first, followed by SCTV, Indosiar, TPI, ANteve and TVRI respectively.
Assyafiiyah -- popular for dangdut music and religious lectures -- was the favorite radio station in the Greater Jakarta area, with a regular audience of 1.7 million. It was followed by Ben's radio station with 1.4 million listeners and SP FM with 1.1 million listeners. (ste)