Newspapers allowed up to 24 pages daily
Newspapers allowed up to 24 pages daily
JAKARTA (JP): The Press Council, the industry's watchdog agency, yesterday agreed to allow broadsheet daily newspapers to expand to 24 pages to allow them to better inform their readers as well as compete with the growing broadcasting media.
Tabloid papers will be permitted to expand to 48 pages, Antara reported from Denpasar, Bali, where the council just ended its two-day deliberation on the future of the Indonesian press industry.
Currently, the government restricts the number of pages a daily newspaper is allowed to print each day to 20 pages at the most, with advertisement occupying not more than a third of the total.
The restriction was seen as necessary to prevent giant Jakarta newspapers from swallowing the smaller provincial papers and allow the advertising cake to be shared out more equally between the dozens of competing newspapers.
With the advent of commercial television in Indonesia in the last five years, the giant daily newspapers have also had to compete with the growing TV networks for advertising revenues.
Jakob Oetama, the chief editor of Kompas daily newspaper and executive director of the Press Council, told reporters yesterday the decision was made in view of the fact that people need more in depth information from the press.
Jakob said the Association of Newspapers Publishers will be asked to set the price of newspapers more with their bigger pages.
The move was seen as necessary so that the print media does not trail behind the broadcast media which have been growing by leaps and bounds, he said.
The council is also recommending that the government allow newspapers to begin "long distant" printing, a technology that would allow simultaneous printing of the newspaper in various cities.
Jakob said that long distant printing has been under discussion since 1991.
"Minister of Information Harmoko in his speech to the council pointed out that Malaysian publications are already printing in Kuala Lumpur and Johore Bahru although the two cities are fairly close to one another. Indonesia consists of various islands with long distances between them," he said.
Harmoko is also the chairman of the council, which includes government officials, press executives and public figures.
The Press Council, he added, will evaluate the long distant printing and will allow its' use for selected newspapers.
He denied that the technology would threaten the existence of small provincial newspapers. On the contrary, the provincial papers are the ones most prepared to use the system, he claimed.
The council also felt that the stronger competition from broadcast media has compelled newspapers to change and upgrade its own presentation and organization. (emb)