Leading music magazine set to conquer local market

Leading music magazine set to conquer local market

JP/17/STONE

Leading rock music magazine set to go native

M. Taufiqurrahman
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

In the early 1950s, blues singer Muddy Waters composed an
influential song, a rework of the Delta standard Catfish Blues,
titled Rollin' Stone, a song so powerful that it inspired a group
of white London boys to set up a band named after it, provoked
the greatest folk singer to pen his best song ever, and sparked a
drive for a San Francisco writer to set up a magazine of the same
name.

Waters' three offspring are still alive and kicking. Although
the Rolling Stones has ceased to produce new material, it is
still one of the best live bands on earth, while Bob Dylan's Like
A Rolling Stone has been dubbed the best rock song by the
aforementioned magazine, Rolling Stone.

First published by Jaan S. Wenner in 1967, in the throes of
massive social and political upheaval that swept across America,
Rolling Stone survived the ups and downs of rock journalism and
helped define the music press in the process.

With its competitors, the likes of Creem, Melody Maker or New
Musical Express, being forced to disband as a result of cutthroat
competition, Rolling Stone thrived by dint of its cutting edge
reporting and writing style.

The magazine has published every story about pop and rock
stars who have forever left their imprint on the history of pop
music, from Beatles singer John Lennon to pop idol Justin
Timberlake. It also gave an almost equal proportion of its space
to political affairs, from the downfall of then U.S. President
Richard Nixon to firsthand reporting on the role of mercenaries
in U.S.-occupied Iraq.

Despite its accomplishments, the magazine has also been
criticized for its tacit alliance with the music industry, to a
point where it has often been dubbed a record industry hype
sheet.

Rock critic Robert Meltzer was quoted by In Their Own Write:
Adventures In Music Press as saying that Rolling Stone was a
principal factor in the dumbing, maiming and calming down of the
public's taste for rock 'n' roll that was once wild and anarchic.

The magazine has also served as a training ground for
important figures in journalism and the entertainment industry.
Film director Cameron Crowe, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson
and producer for Bruce Springsteen's records Jon Landau were
among the magazine's alumni.

Starting on May 2, the influential newspaper will be available
for readers here with the maiden publication of the Indonesian
Rolling Stone, its first adaptation in Asia.

After a year-long negotiation, Wenner Media LLC, the mother
publisher of Rolling Stone, finally granted local media company
JHP Media a license for local publication of the magazine.

The license gives JHP Media the credentials to publish Rolling
Stone in Indonesian along with the rights to dig deep into the
magazine archives for its publication here.

Such rights enable JHP Media to publish materials deemed to be
the most suitable for local conditions.

For example, after the first issue that carries a cover story
on reggae legend Bob Marley, the Indonesian edition of Rolling
Stone will carry stories profiling 100 legends of rock, combining
two past editions.

Unlike its English edition, which is published once every two
weeks, the local version will hit the newsstands on a monthly
basis.

Indonesian Rolling Stone editor-in-chief B. Haryo Pambudi said
that the magazine would soon gain ample readership and would
survive, despite the nation's poor reading habits.

"We will work very hard to maintain the image of this famous
brand," he said, adding that the magazine's New York headquarters
would help steer the course.

Will the local adaptation live up to the magazine's glowing
reputation? Only time will tell.