'Koran Tempo' daily hits the streets

JAKARTA (JP): PT Tempo Inti Media, publisher of Tempo magazine, launched a morning daily newspaper, Koran Tempo (Tempo Newspaper), on Sunday, which also marked the 30th anniversary of the weekly publication.

The first edition of the newspaper will be distributed on Monday priced Rp 1,800 (US$0.18) with a total circulation of 250,000 copies nationwide.

Chief editor Bambang Harymurti, who is also chief editor for Tempo, said that the purpose of publishing the paper is to provide credible, accurate and punctual information.

"Our society is now more empowered to make decisions. Therefore, we need reliable information," he told a media conference at the launching of the daily in the National Archive Building, Central Jakarta.

"We chose a newspaper because the changes in society are very dynamic nowadays. Our weekly magazine can't cover them all," he said.

Senior journalist Putu Setia said that ever since the early 1990s establishing a newspaper had been one of the company's obsessions.

"We want to develop a journalistic technique that is not only featurized but also corresponds with a reverse pyramid pattern," he said.

Under the so-called reverse pyramid pattern, the most important part of a story is placed at the beginning while the least important closes the article.

Bambang said the news content will also be more concise and simple.

"People only read a newspaper for about half-an-hour. So, our front page will only be filled with a brief news summary. The complete articles will be inside," Bambang added.

The market, he said, is more or less the same as the magazine, and comprises readers from the middle class through to members of the elite.

"We have also targeted younger readers," Bambang said.

President director of PT Tempo Leonardi Kusen claimed that the company is the first press organization whose shares have gone public since January.

The total budget of the newspaper was Rp 37.5 billion ($3.7 million) with 65 percent used for investment and some Rp 4.5 billion for promotion.

As for competition, Bambang said that they have nothing to worry about.

"All our advertising space is fully booked. And from our survey, 70 percent of Kompas readers are willing to read Koran Tempo," he said.

He said for now the newspaper will only be printed in Jakarta and will be distributed to other regions.

"But in the future, we will do distance printing. In Surabaya for example, we will cooperate with Jawa Pos newspaper." (hdn)