`Simponi' will be playing a different tune next Monday
`Simponi' will be playing a different tune next Monday
JAKARTA (JP): Simponi, a weekly magazine with a wide
readership in eastern Java but almost none in Jakarta, will be
playing a different tune in its next edition set to hit the
streets this Monday.
If the weekly broadsheet bears a close resemblance to the old
DeTIK tabloid, this is because many reporters and employees from
the banned magazine have "joined" Simponi, if not virtually taken
over its management.
The proprietors of DeTIK have acquired the publishing license
of Simponi and are now ready to publish the magazine.
An introductory edition was circulated to limited numbers this
week. It appears to be a tabloid from the outside but is really a
broadsheet, a journal in the newspaper format.
It is not quite clear yet if the coming Monday edition will
use this format.
DeTIK lost its publishing license together with the Tempo and
Editor weeklies last June when the government said that they
repeatedly ignored government warnings about their administrative
and editorial content.
DeTIK's probing articles and news analysis of controversial
political issues made the tabloid an overnight success. In the
one year that it changed its format to a news magazine, their
circulation climbed to 430,000, higher than both Tempo and
Editor. Its success, however, was its own undoing as the
government revoked their publishing license, which only granted
them coverage of reporting on crime and legal issues.
Former employees of Tempo and Editor are currently struggling
to obtain new government licenses for their magazines but the
proprietor of DeTIK has been able to circumvent this by buying
the license held by Simponi.
150,000 copies
Eros Djarot, former DeTIK editor and current chief of "media
and public relations" at Simponi, said some 150,000 copies of the
new look magazine will be printed and distributed this Monday.
Eros declined to go into further details about the magazine
saying that a press conference would be held on Monday. "Please
wait until Monday," he told The Jakarta Post.
The magazine's editor in chief, an appointment which requires
official approval, will still be retained by Syamsu Hadi of the
old Simponi.
DeTIK's former managing editor, Budiono Darsono, has been
appointed executive editor of the new publication.
PT Detik Media Prestasi, the publisher of DeTIK, has already
laid off its employees, including 80 reporters as of this month,
to pave the way for the takeover of Simponi.
Simponi is a magazine associated with the supporters of the
Indonesia National Party (PNI) and has now become a faction of
the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI). The weekly enjoys strong
circulation in East and Central Java and Bali. (par/emb)