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)