Press industry thrives amid crisis
The country has been witnessing a press boom in the wake of the downfall of President Soeharto last year. Hundreds of new publications have appeared over the past nine months to compete for readers as the country's economy collapses. The Jakarta Post's team of reporters Johannes Simbolon, Reiner S., Primastuti Handayani, Ida Indawati Khouw, Kornelius Purba and photographer IGGP Bayu Ismoyo cover the phenomenon to coincide with National Press Day, which falls on Feb. 9.
JAKARTA (JP): The press has been booming amid the economic and political crisis and the collapse of almost all the country's industries.
New publications hit the newsstands almost every week despite the weakened spending power of the public and sharp decrease in advertising.
The Union of Press Publishers' data indicate the Ministry of Information has issued 651 press licenses in less than nine months from the downfall of former President Soeharto in May last year.
In comparison, there were only 289 operative press licenses across the country prior to Soeharto's downfall.
During the Soeharto regime, the country's press industry was dominated by Jakarta-based publishers, while provincial towns had at the most two or three publications.
Today, although Jakarta still dominates, the provincial towns still see tight competition in the local press industry.
The union's data showed that until Dec. 9, 1998 the Ministry of Information had issued 242 new press licenses to Jakarta, 34 licenses to North Sumatra, 43 licenses to West Java, 21 licenses to East Java, 40 licenses to South Sulawesi, 18 licenses to North Sulawesi (see table on Page 5).
But, Minister of Information Muhammad Yunus, who sees the pivotal role of the press as social control, said the number of press licenses that he had issued is still far from enough to cover the whole country.
"I expect that the country's 243 regencies will have at least 10 press publications, including newspapers, tabloids and magazines," he told The Jakarta Post.
Yunus deserves credit for the current press boom.
He declared freedom for the press in mid-1998 and annulled the regulation enacted by his predecessor Harmoko 15 years ago which gave the minister the right to revoke the license of press publications.
He also simplified licensing procedures and eliminated all fees to obtain licenses.
During Harmoko's time, aside from allegedly paying up to hundreds of millions of rupiah in bribes, a publisher had to fulfill 16 conditions and obtain three different permits to get a license.
Under Yunus, an applicant needs only to fill in an application form, register the company and present a list of executives.
"I paid not a single cent to get the license," said chief editor of new tabloid Metro, Nasyith Madjidi.
Many analysts did not initially expect that press freedom would soon give birth to such a multitude of publications, given the lack of funds available on the market and the soaring prices of paper newsprint amid the economic slump.
They also pointed to the fact that these soaring prices following the sharp depreciation of the rupiah against the dollar in mid-1997 have forced the established publications either to stop operation or to reduce the number of pages.
But, Yunus said: "Since we eased press licensing, we now rarely hear complaints about the soaring prices of paper and the printing companies have to arrange a tight printing schedule due to the flood of orders."
Thus, the press industry has demonstrated its prominence in business risk-taking, creativity and marketing strategy to survive or excel amid economic difficulties.
Metro, for instance, dares to publish free-of-charge.
"As far as I know, this is the first-ever completely gratis press publication in the country," Madjidi said.
"We only rely on revenues from advertising. We accept all kinds of advertisements, except for those on santet (sorcery)," he said.
According to Madjidi, a lot of sorcerers are offering a lot of money for the press publications to advertise their skills.
The Metro publisher sends the paper to about 12,500 important people across the city, including ministers and top businessmen, through couriers and mail. They also place the paper in strategic locations around the city.
The publisher expects the list of its contributing writers like noted economists Laksamana Sukardi, Feisal Basri, Didiek J. Rachbini and the list of noted figures that receive its paper for free will lure advertisements of products for the middle and upper classes.
Other publishers try to attract readers with catchy names and sensational stories. In fact, sensationalist publications, mostly focusing on the topsy-turviness of the country's political life, look to dominate the market.
The publishers of Mega Pos and Amien Pos political tabloids undeniably seek to catch the public attention with the popularity of the leading opposition leaders Megawati Soekarnoputri, chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and Amien Rais, chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN).
Some publishers, avoiding the tight competition by not touching on national issues, are trying to tap the market potential in the local community. These include bimonthly magazine Info Kelapa Gading, monthly magazine Info Segitiga Emas, weekly tabloids Bogor Pos and Puncak Pos.
Info Kelapa Gading has reportedly been faring well, but Bogor Pos was said to have recently been forced to stop operation after several editions due to a shrinking budget.
Japan
The Japanese community in the country is also considered a market potential that several publishers have asked for licenses to publish in Japanese.
The government has issued publication licenses for the Surabaya-based Indonesian Daily News, an English daily with a supplement in Japanese, and The Daily Jakarta Shimbun, a bilingual English-Japanese daily. It is not known whether they have been published.
Politicians do not want to miss the opportunity to have their own press publications to air their political agenda and attack their opponents in the multi-party era.
The National Mandate Party has a tabloid called Amanat, while Megawati's husband Taufiq Kiemas publishes the daily Demokrat. Several prominent members of Golkar, including Eki Syachrudin, and real estate developers Enggartiasto Lukita and Mohammad S. Hidayat, launched last week a tabloid named Siaga.
The press industry, which was in the past mostly controlled by career press people, has become an open-for-all territory. Some businessmen and politicians suddenly present themselves as journalists.
"We're also from the press. We are in the same position as you," said Siaga chief editor Eki.
But, how long will the new press publications survive amid the worsening economy?
Most of the new publications, expecting the country's economic recovery to start next year, claim to have prepared enough budget to survive this current year despite the lack of revenues from advertising. In fact, many of them have been forced to close down after several editions.
"The key word is efficiency," said Primus Dorimulu, chief editor of monthly stock exchange magazine Investasi.
Primus, who used to be the managing editor of Jayakarta daily, which was closed down amid the crisis, said many new publications failed to survive due to inefficiency. Many of them have spent hundreds of millions of rupiah to prepare the new publications, leaving a small budget for operation.
"Moreover, the new publications have to keep the number of staff as small as possible. Chief editors and managing editors also have to go out into the field to gather news like reporters," Primus added.
But, the euphoria which is currently felt by the country's press industry does not seem to be shared by street vendors. The press boom, they said, thus far has not yet given them bigger opportunities to increase revenue.
Yudi, a street newspaper vendor in the Tanah Abang district, said only a few of the press publications, including sensational tabloids, can sell well. People mostly buy them to read sensational stories dealing with the likes of riots.
Yudi said he and his fellow newspaper street vendors dare not risk buying lots of new publications from suppliers for fear that they will not sell well.
"Publication suppliers now require us to pay up front for their merchandise due to the economic crisis. We can't return the publications if they are not sold," he said.