'Jawa Pos' evolves to become conglomerate

By Sirikit Syah

SURABAYA, East Java (JP): The Jawa Pos daily which recently made frontpage headlines in the local media due to its dispute with the mass organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which was once chaired by Abdurrahman Wahid, has grown from a tiny Surabaya- based news entity to a major national press conglomerate.

The daily started publication on July 1, 1949, with the name Java Post, under the ownership of businessman The Chung Sen.

It has changed names several times -- to Djawa Post, Djawa Pos, Java Pos and finally to Jawa Pos -- since ownership changed hands from The Chung Sen, who emigrated to live together with his children in England, to PT Graffiti Press, the publisher of Tempo magazine, on April 1, 1982.

At that time, its daily circulation was only 6,700 copies, of which 2,000 were sold in Surabaya and the remainder in other towns of East Java.

Graffiti Press was chosen to continue the business in the hopes that the company, which was then successfully running Tempo magazine, would manage the daily more professionally.

Dahlan Iskan, then a 30-year old East Javanese journalist heading Tempo's bureau in Surabaya, was appointed by Eric Samola of Graffiti Press to manage Jawa Pos.

The history of Jawa Pos's further development can be divided into several periods. During the initial period of 1982 to 1988 the newspaper was run from a small office in the Kembang Jepun area in Surabaya, manned only by 16 reporters and 25 non- editorial employees.

The daily raised its profile in 1988, when its editorial and printing activities were moved into an extensive and modern office compound in the Karah area, where it stayed until 1997.

It recorded steady increases in circulation, from 150,000 copies a day in 1987 to 240,000 by the end of 1988 and to 300,000 by the end of 1990. The circulation reached a peak of 425,000 copies during the Gulf War period in 1991.

During this 1988-1997 period, Dahlan introduced some breakthroughs. For example he made Jawa Pos the first daily to be published every day all the year round, notwithstanding Sundays and public holidays.

This succeeded in making the paper on par with radio and television which reach audiences every day. However the workforce was reportedly not sufficiently expanded to allow for the extra shifts.

Under Dahlan the Jawa Pos news organization was expanded to become a press conglomerate publishing no less than 50 publications, including dailies, tabloids and magazines, spreading to almost all of Indonesia's provinces.

This expansion has indeed given rise to cynicism among the press community, who claim that Jawa Pos has deliberately stunted local publications and that it has practiced a monopoly of information.

With the outbreak of the economic crisis in 1997, Jawa Pos focused on consolidation, while it continued plans to move business activities to Surabaya's main street of Jl. A. Yani.

It occupied the Graha Pena building adjacent to the East Java police command and sections of the building are also leased for public use such as workshops and exhibitions.

Affected by higher rupiah-based debt repayments on loans for the Graha Pena building's construction, lower income caused by decreases in print circulation and higher spending for subsidiaries, Jawa Pos seems to be on a tight budget nowadays.

However, Dahlan has claimed that the group, which was afflicted by huge losses in 1998, is once again enjoying an income approaching the preeconomic crisis level of Rp 6 billion a month. Its circulation has also returned to a level of over 300,000 copies per day, he said.

According to the Jawa Pos Group, the conglomerate now has 82 subsidiaries, with publication of local media in several cities; including Jakarta, East Java, Central Java, Riau, West Kalimantan, East Kalimantan and Maluku. This means that it has become the largest media conglomerate in Indonesia, much bigger than the Kompas-Gramedia Group which publishes the Kompas daily.

The Group has also cashed in on the liberalization of the press, with permits no longer required by new publications.

In 1999 alone, the group published 15 local or community newspapers. Its newspaper affiliate, which has produced the Oposisi tabloid since 1997, has now become a press group with its publication of Posmo, Gugat and X-files.

Technology-wise, the Jawa Pos Group has also introduced distant-printing for its publication activities.

Unfortunately, the business success achieved by the group under Dahlan's leadership is not accompanied by improvement in journalistic quality.

As Dahlan has admitted himself several times, the group's style is to blow up news. "Covering both sides" of one story is not considered an absolute necessity, as it is assumed that readers will try to find follow-up reports the next day. This style of reporting has proven to sell a lot of dailies.

Its magazine Liberty with its motto of "a magazine for the family," is full of reports on subjects such as mysticism and adultery. X-files is a tabloid which has joined the ranks of publications engaged in information about celebrities.

When the group was dissatisfied with cooperating with the Jakarta-based Merdeka daily, it set up another newspaper, called Rakyat Merdeka, using the designs, typography, and even employees of the former.

The recent "raid" of the Banser civilian guards at the daily's office led to much criticism toward Banser, while it also posed a strong warning to the large media group about the need to improve and maintain its journalistic quality.

People will find it hard to trust such a newspaper which continues to publish its apology on the front page because of a mistake in reporting. A few of the group's local papers are also facing lawsuits.

On the issue of journalists' welfare, management says there is no problem despite protests from distributors when Jawa Pos decided to publish daily, even on public holidays.

In response to whether Jawa Pos staff were being exploited, chief editor Dhimam Abror said they were adequately rewarded.

Several of the local newspapers were doing well, he said, leading to even larger than usual profit shares this year.

"I can't tell you the amount but it surprised me too," he said.

"We sell cheap because we produce cheap," Dhimam said, stressing the group's efficiency.

Dahlan has said that a managing editor at Jawa Pos, for example, earns some Rp 12 million a month, much better than the average earned by their rivals at other news organizations.

An editor earns some Rp 5 million to Rp 7 million, he said, while reporters say salaries reach only a few hundred thousand.

Improvement in the group may come from the younger generation, at least in regards to questioning policies.

Dhimam said the management was rather "weak," given that Dahlan "always says that 'father knows best' and staff from the first and second generation are usually very obedient." However the younger members of the staff were more critical, he said.