New investor resurrects 'Surabaya Post'
Ainur R. Sophiaan, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya
The Surabaya Post evening daily is set to return to the newsstands on Monday after being absent since May 1 following a financial crisis.
Maintaining its former name and appearance, the newspaper has received a new lease on life from local developer Ariyanto, who holds a majority stake of 55 percent. Employees have secured 35 percent of the company's shares with the rest being held by the employees' cooperative.
The former owners, the Azis brothers (Didi Jaya, Iwan Jaya and Indra Jaya), no longer have shares as the old publishing company, PT Surabaya Post, has been liquidated. The new shareholders have established a new company, PT Mitra Media Espe.
Unlike its splinter daily, Harian Pagi Surabaya Pos, which was launched by former journalists of the defunct Surabaya Post on Aug. 19, the evening paper will appear with 16 pages. Printed by the Jawa Pos, the largest daily in East Java, the first issue of the new Surabaya Post will have a 30,000 print run, with half of this going to subscribers paying Rp 38,000 per month.
The revival is a reflection of confidence among the employees despite the unabated crisis, according to Surabaya Post managing editor Sugeng Purwanto.
"We are 90 percent ready for the relaunching. We will come back to our loyal readers who have been waiting for three months," Sugeng said on Friday.
"The reappearance is motivated mainly by our love for the journalism of peace, which used to be the image of our paper."
Only 67 out of the 258 former employees of the defunct daily are joining the revived Surabaya Post, according to Sugeng.
He said all the employees invested their own money to buy 35 percent of the shares. He refused to reveal any figure.
"We hope these shares will maintain our sense of belonging," Sugeng said.
He added, however, that the new management had offered other former employees of the old daily the opportunity to come on board.
The daily occupies a rented shophouse in the Gubeng area of downtown Surabaya.
"We are really starting from square one, having bought new facilities. We have no link whatsoever with the old owners," Sugeng told The Jakarta Post.
He admitted that the old management had not settled the issue of severance pay pending the sale of some of their assets, including the Surabaya Post Hall. The old daily's office and its printing company are not for sale, however.
Sugeng said the lawyer appointed by the court to liquidate the old company, Trimoelja D. Soerjadi, had allowed the new daily to use the old name.
There have been reports that the lawyer plans to sue Harian Pagi Surabaya Pos chief editor Tatang Istiawan for copyright violation.
But a source told The Jakarta Post that Tatang had asked Trimoelja to delay the legal action. He said he needed more time to find a market before he could change his daily's name.
The financial crisis that has been hitting the country hard since 1997 forced the Surabaya Post, the oldest daily in East Java, to cease publication on May 1. Ironically, the closure came just as it was celebrating its 49th anniversary.
The collapse of the Surabaya Post added to the list of publications that failed to survive the tight competition in the market. The country saw a media boom following the fall of former president Soeharto, whose 32-year tenure was marked by tight government control over the press.
In its farewell statement printed on the front page of its last edition, the publisher blamed a lack of newsprint and printing materials for the closure.
The daily was established on April 1, 1953, by the late R. Abdul Aziz, a senior journalist. It reached the pinnacle of its success in 1980-1981 with a circulation of more than 80,000.
Ahead of its closure, the daily's circulation was only about 5,000 copies.