Provincial media told to seek help

Provincial media told to seek help

JAKARTA (JP): Provincial newspapers should seek cooperation with strong media publishers in order to overcome sluggish growth, an official has said.

The director general of Press and Graphics of the Ministry of Information, H. Subrata, said he noticed that newspapers in the provinces still face acute problems with management and human resources.

"One effective way to overcome this is to forge cooperation with established news media organizations," he told a seminar on the Improvement of Professionalism and Management of Provincial Newspapers.

The three-day seminar is sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in cooperation with the local Institute of Economic and Social Studies and Development.

One daily newspaper and one news magazine have long cooperated with provincial media organizations to publish new newspapers in the provinces.

The country's largest newspaper, Kompas, in cooperation with local organizations, is now running daily newspapers in Aceh, Palembang, Surabaya and Yogyakarta.

While the now-defunct Tempo news magazine established Jawa Pos in East Java, Jawa Pos in turn cooperates with newspapers in Jambi, East Kalimantan and Maluku. (16)