Community media business hits housing complexes

By Stevie Emilia

JAKARTA (JP): Veronica A., a housewife living in a Kelapa Gading housing complex, North Jakarta, panicked when her three- year-old daughter fell and injured her elbow.

On a neighbor's advice, Veronica rushed her daughter to a masseur in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, who told her that the child's elbow was broken.

Then, Veronica rushed her to Gatot Subroto Army hospital in Central Jakarta to have her daughter's condition checked.

"A friend of mine laughed at me when I told her my story later on. She was wondering why I should go to faraway places just to find a massager. There must be one in our neighborhood," Veronica told The Jakarta Post of her experience five years ago.

The accident turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the housewife, whose hobby is collecting brochures. It inspired her to publish a community magazine which provides information on various products and services.

Info Gading's first edition appeared in April 1996, carrying a wide range of information, including automotive, banking, electronic equipment, hospitals, shops, schools and beauty parlors.

The magazine appears three times a year, in April, August and December with 10,000 copies per edition. Published by Karimata Grafika, Info Gading is distributed free to residents of the area's housing complexes.

"We're trying to help residents find what they want and need easily, especially at a time of emergency," said Veronica, now Gading's managing editor.

Printed on high-quality paper, the magazine runs few articles; only a letter from editor and one or two articles in each edition. The rest of the pages are filled with ads, ranging from full-page ads, classified ads and advertorials.

Veronica said the number of the magazine's pages depended on the number of ads. So far, it has ranged from 44 pages to 74 pages with total production expenses between Rp 40 million and Rp 60 million per edition. "Our income depends entirely on ads," she said.

Info Gading has turned out to be a successful venture with total advertisers reaching 139 and additional employees -- from only five in its first year to 18 people now.

"We are planning to publish the same magazine for housing complexes in Sunter (North Jakarta) and Puri (West Jakarta) this month," Gading's creative team member, A.F.R. Subhagyo said of the coming Info Sunter and Info Puri.

Info Gading is only one of many community media available these days, trying to provide information for residents in and around certain neighborhoods.

Good News dari Lippo Cikarang bimonthly, for instance, targets around 3,000 families living in the Lippo Cikarang township in Bekasi, West Java, promoting businesses and activities in the area.

According to Good News chief editor Binsar Tambun, the magazine is published by the promotions department of PT Lippo Cikarang Tbk. and has a circulation of 25,000 copies per edition. It costs between Rp 50 million and Rp 60 million per edition.

"The magazine is intended to inform residents of what's happening around them, to promote the spirit of togetherness. It is also intended to promote businesses around the area to the residents," the former journalist with Palembang-based Sumatra Express in South Sumatra told the Post.

Two years after it was founded in 1993, the magazine no longer depended on the developer for financial support thanks to ads.

Good News, which gives its readers an opportunity to contribute articles, reports on citizens' activities, from charity fun runs, opening of new shops to the new collections of its Hom Pim Pa recreational park. It also runs feature articles, such as marketing tips on making money during the economic crisis and on how to use electricity efficiently.

Community media like Suara BSD (BSD Voice), focus not only on ads but also on interesting articles, making it look similar to commercial tabloids. BSD stands for the Bumi Serpong Damai township in Tangerang, West Java.

In its latest edition, which was relaunched under a tabloid format on Sept. 15, Suara BSD runs special interviews with popular child singer Sherina and pop group Sheila on 7.

According to its chief editor, Dhony Rahajoe, Suara BSD was first published in the form of a 40-page bulletin in 1990.

"But the bulletin format was more expensive and not eye- catching," he said. "With the new 16-page tabloid format, we mean to totally change the approach to the readership. It used to be a one-way communication medium, from developer to residents, but now, almost 90 percent of its content is prepared with the involvement of the residents."

The monthly tabloid is published by BSD developer PT Bumi Serpong Damai, in cooperation Nexus Communications, as a free service for the complex's 8,700 families. It has 10,000 copies per edition with production expenses at about Rp 16 million.

Dhony said the tabloid was not only a means of communication among residents, developer and businesses but also helps residents and local people living outside of the complex to know each other.

"We're trying to narrow the gap, either between residents, or between residents and local people living around the housing complex. We don't want to be considered exclusive. It's important for residents and local people to know each other to make them feel they (local people) are also part of BSD," he said.

He added that the effort to embrace local people has been fruitful, as could be seen during the May riots last year.

"Although people were panicky, there were no incidents here. This was possible because of the close relationship between residents and people living outside of the complex," Dhony said.

Although the tabloid is published by the developer, Dhony said that it was possible it would become an independent medium.

"Certainly, we hope that Suara BSD can be an independent medium that targets wider readership and be sold at newsstands," he said. "But we don't know when, it's a long-term target and depends on the market."