'Gatra' magazine makes its debut

JAKARTA: Gatra, the weekly magazine which employs a group of former employees of the defunct Tempo, made its debut yesterday.

The new magazine, published by PT Era Media Informasi, gave its readers the coverage of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting as its main story, the polling of young people's perception about the late president Sukarno and the controversial visit of Gus Dur, head of an influential Moslem organization, to Israel.

The magazine also reported the story of the Saudia Arabian royal jewels which were embezzled by Thai police.

A Gatra executive said the magazine's columns and stories will not be too different from Tempo because the defunct weekly was the campus for most of Gatra's journalists.

Gatra's general manager is Lukman Setiawan, who is also deputy general manager of Bisnis Indonesia daily. The chief editor is Herry Komar and some of the defunct Tempo magazine's reporters who joined the new magazine are Linda Djalil, Zakaria M. Passe and Ed Zoelverdi.

Gatra magazine employs over 170 former Tempo staff, of whom only 30 are journalists.

For the first edition PT Era Media Informasi has published around 135,000 copies which will be distributed all over the country. Because Tuesday was a holiday in Jakarta, Gatra will be available on the city news stands starting today. (mas)