Dear subscribers

Dear subscribers

As some of you may already be aware, the bill for your
subscription of The Jakarta Post at the end of this month will be
higher than that of the last few years. That is because, as of
September, we have raised the monthly subscription rate from Rp
77,000 to Rp 90,000. The retail price for each copy remains at Rp
5,000.

The increase in the subscription rate was inevitable.

The last time we raised it was in October 2003, and we held
back from increasing it further as long as we could.

Meanwhile, the cost of producing the newspaper has gone up
significantly, particularly in the past year as fuel prices were
raised and the rupiah weakened. These developments eventually
impacted on our production costs, from the newsprint and printing
costs to the fees for the many news services and syndicates we
make use of, to the salaries of our staff and honorariums for our
regular columnists and contributors.

Rest assured, however, that The Post remains committed to
providing you with a high-quality newspaper that strives to
achieve excellence in journalism. We know that you, our readers,
are becoming much more discerning in the way you obtain your news
and information, and that you have plenty of alternatives to
choose from. And we understand that, ultimately, it is the
credibility of our newspaper that determines our readership.

To improve the quality of our newspaper, The Post has invested
in education and training programs, particularly for our
journalists. Training young Indonesian university graduates to
become fine reporters who are proficient in written English
has been a real challenge. We are proud of our record. Many of
our journalists have subsequently moved on to other careers where
writing in English is the main prerequisite. But we also realize
that it is becoming more and more expensive to train and retain
our journalists.

Through raising the subscription rate we are able to provide
our staff with advanced training and education, thus providing
you with a better product. We thank you for your loyalty and
continued patronage.