'Gatra' magazine makes its debut

'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)