'Tempo' gets design facelift

Annastashya Emmanuelle, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Tempo media network marked its anniversary on Monday with a new design in the layout and contents of its magazine, newspaper and interactive media.

Bambang Harymurti, chief editor of Tempo magazine and daily, told a press conference the new design was adopted in response to the public demand of a more illustrative, concise yet knowledge-based reports.

According to a research conducted by the publicly listed PT Tempo Inti Media publishing company, the advancing technology, which is reflected in the extensive use of Internet for news and a number of television stations in Indonesia, has resulted in a rising demand among readers for more comprehensive news from the print media.

The Tempo newspaper, first published in April last year, will come in a more compact size with a compressed, yet knowledgeable writing style, Bambang said.

Meanwhile, the magazine, both English and Indonesian editions, are designed to complement the interactive and newspaper by providing insights, also in a concise manner.

Graphics and photographs would be utilized to strengthen the succinct articles, Bambang said.

"Aside from addressing the changing public demand, the redesign is in conformity with the global trends in print media, particularly in the United States," he added.

"Our busy readers cannot spend much time for extensive articles in newspapers and magazines. What we need to do is to provide more insights than what they have seen in television and the Internet."

Bambang, however, on the sidelines of the media conference, denied speculation that the redesigning was aimed at boosting circulation of his media, especially the new Tempo daily, which was reportedly to have laid burden on the magazine, due to its poor sales.

The newspaper publishes 60,000 copies daily, he said, while the Indonesian version of Tempo weekly magazine is 100,000 copies and 20,000 copies for the English version.

Tempo magazine celebrated its 31st anniversary on Monday, while the daily will commemorate its first anniversary on Tuesday.