For the times they are a-changin'

Endy Bayuni, Deputy Editor, The Jakarta Post

"Don't go changing ... I like you just the way you are."

These modified lyrics from a popular Billy Joel song in the 1970s, came from a friend, and a long-time reader of The Jakarta Post, some three months ago when she learned that this newspaper was changing the way it looked.

Too late, I thought. We were already well on our way to making the changes, not simply the way we look, but also the way we feel.

The decision had been made that it was time that we, at the Post, rethink the way we do things, more specifically, the way we write and package news, analysis and features in our newspaper.

The newspaper had looked the way it did until yesterday, September 30, 2001, since the day of its launch on April 25, 1983. Except for minor, mostly cosmetic, changes and doubling the pages from eight to 16 (and the occasional 20 pages), the Post had looked the same these last 18 years and five months.

Familiarity is not only pervasive among our readers, but also among staff, including journalists. So, when the decision was made to change, naturally, there were oppositions from within.

The first most frequently asked question with regard to this decision was "Why change?" This was posed not only by journalists and employees but also some readers, who somehow managed to catch a whiff of what we had been up to.

We can cite many reasons why we need to change, just as we can cite many reasons why we should not change. Suffice to say that we are changing because we feel it is time to make that change.

The environment we live and work in has changed dramatically that change has actually become a matter of life and death.

The dawning of democracy in Indonesia has transformed its media industry. There are now far more players competing for audience's attention.

Rapid advances in information technology have revolutionized the media industry. When it comes to obtaining their daily intake of news and information, the public can get access to news, replete with audiovisual content, real time, as it happens.

The media industry had barely adjusted to the changes caused by the arrival of round-the-clock TV news channels when the Internet brought in real-time news that does not only offer audiovisual content, but more importantly, interactive news.

If the newspaper industry survived the onslaught of TV news channels in the 1990s, television in the 1960s and radio at the start of the last century, there is every reason to be optimistic that it will be able to survive the challenge from the dotcoms.

As obsolete as newspaper technology may seem, it has survived these challenges by adapting. In spite of all the new sophisticated media being spawned by the information technology, newspapers still have a role to play as many people still turn to it on a regular, if not daily, basis.

But survival also means adapting, or making changes whenever the situation calls for it.

So change we must.

We at the Post are embarking on this change. Rather late, perhaps, because most other papers around the globe have long made the changes. But it is still not too late.

There is another good reason. Our readership survey last year indicates that our readers are graying. While we have been successful in maintaining the loyalty of most of our readers, we are not really reaching out to the younger generation. The survey also found a heavy male-bias among our readers.

In order to reach out more to the younger and women readers, we simply have to change the way we do things.

Change entails risks, too. Big ones.

So the next most FAQ is: What are we getting ourselves into?

You don't need to be a marketing buff to know that unless you do it right, changing your product risks alienating loyal consumers. In our case, if we do it the wrong way, we will lose many readers, who have been with us all these years.

As we try to reach out to a wider audience, we have to nurture the trust that many existing readers have placed on us to provide them with their daily intake of news and information.

So change means a thorough preparations and getting it right.

We were faced with two alternatives to change: The evolutionary or the revolutionary way. There is no right answer. Each of these alternatives has its advantages and disadvantages. The New York Times' evolutionary change has been successful, but so have many newspapers that adopted the revolutionary way.

But if we go back to one of the objectives for changing -- to reach out to more readers -- we opted to go with the revolutionary approach.

This change has gone through a lengthy process. The launching of the new version of the Post today is the climax of that process, which includes improving and strengthening our vision and mission, as well as restructuring our organization to achieve the goals that we have set out for ourselves.

We did not exclude the public in this process. With the help of the Resource Productivity Center, we held a series of focus discussion groups, involving not only long-time readers but also people who represent our target audience: the younger generation and women. We also talked to people in the advertising industry.

We brought in outside help in redesigning the paper.

Felix Soh, foreign editor of the Strait Times, who headed the redesigning team at the leading Singapore daily, brought his experience and wisdom and provided us with input and suggestions, as well as the concept for the new design.

The thinking behind the new design is that our readers, as well as potential readers, have less time to read newspapers. And they have already received most of the news they need from TV, radio or dotcoms.

That means that while we strive to be comprehensive, our stories have to be concise, but still informative and relevant. Hence, the use of a combination of brief stories and carefully selected long articles to reflect the major news, analyses and features of the day.

The design must be attractive as well as pleasant to the eye, and helpful to readers as they nagivate from page to page. We have, therefore, introduced color pages, used larger font sizes, more graphics and information boxes.

We have gone a little slimmer, but also added more pages as compensation so that readers are not shortchanged. Initially, we are printing 20 pages, and occasionally 24 pages like today, but we will add more pages over the course of time.

We may have changed the way we look, but one thing remains unchanged: Our soul. We remain as committed as we have ever been in delivering what is expected of us from the public.

The times are a changin'. We are changing to keep pace with the times, and to keep pace with our readers and the public.

Are we doing it right? We let the reading public be the judge of that. But we are open to suggestions and criticisms, anything that allows us to serve the public better.