Tempo moves to next level with English version

Amid tight competition, Tempo magazine launched an English- language version on Sept. 12. With 10,000 copies priced at Rp 15,300, it also targets foreign and Indonesian readers overseas. Among its founders are Tempo chief editor Bambang Harymurti, a graduate of the Bandung Institute of Technology, majoring in electric engineering, who holds a masters degree in public policy from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in the United States. The former executive editor of Media Indonesia talked recently to The Jakarta Post about the new magazine.

Question: What was the idea behind Tempo's English version?

Answer: We have no choice but to move forward. We can't just sit around as the press environment here is already too packed with Indonesian publications.

If we stay stagnant, we'll eventually perish.

We cannot lock away globalization or avoid it. It's coming anyway and we have to be ready. At first, we felt a bit worried, because Tempo has a certain language style and we do not want to lose it once it is presented in English.

But we have to give it our best shot ...

(Former chief editor) Goenawan Mohammad is among those most concerned about this. He has a very high language sensitivity.

Therefore, we carefully picked a translator to be the literature expert for Sidelines (Goenawan's special column in Tempo).

We also thought that there weren't any Indonesian magazines which had penetrated the foreign market.

In these times, the best defense is offense. And here we go.

Is there any special goal in publishing the English version?

Beyond creativity and business calculations, we want to convey an Indonesian perspective to English-speaking readers, not only in Asia and Australia but also in Europe and the United States.

For instance, there are thousands of Indonesian students abroad, such as in United States or Europe, who want and need information about their country, especially since the country is experiencing a social, political and economic upheaval.

It is important for the English readers' society to understand what's going on in this country through our view.

Why? Because it is a fact that not many people in Asia know Indonesia well enough to understand the culture, characteristics as well as Indonesian views on social and political affairs. (These issues include) who our President is, why he is sometimes so controversial ... or reports on the widespread unrest or the bombings.

Indonesia's unstable condition has led to unintended consequences, one of which is the world's curiosity about our country, and this magazine tries to fulfill it by presenting objective reports through local content.

The English version is 75 percent local issues and the rest is adjusted to articles that suit readers' interests. In the long run, we hope that Tempo can be a reference for decision makers, at least in Asia, as they will understand Indonesia better then.

How much profit is expected?

We expect to gain about 5 percent on our average annual profit of Rp 5 billion. Based on a survey, 90 percent of our readers are between 25 to 55 years old.

So we hope to reach the English-speaking market with about 10,000 to 20,000 copies. The advertisements in the English version will also be different given the different market.

There will be many ads from international brands of automotives, housing, sports, telecommunications and fashion.

The next step is to hire English-speaking Indonesian journalists to write about certain issues that match our readers' needs. We also hope to enter into joint ventures with established local dailies in Southeast Asia, such as The Nation. We can start by exchanging reports.

If this edition works, we may start in the future with other schemes, such as creating a Tempo daily.

Could you describe the process leading to the English version?

It was rather complicated. There were pros and cons on whether an English edition was needed. The ones who opposed it were mostly concerned about the language adaptation of Tempo (from Bahasa Indonesia to English), fearing that if it failed, it would tarnish our image.

Could the English version represent Tempo's language style? Could people catch the meaning, since Bahasa Indonesia is not as straight and blunt as English? These were only a few questions relating to the English version.

The above debate were similar to the ones on whether Tempo should be republished after being banned on June 21, 1994. We then decided through voting and Tempo was finally relaunched in October 1998.

In this case (of the English version), finally the "pro" camp won. Rustam F. Mandayun, one of our editors, is piloting this project.

How long did it take to prepare, and what about the staff?

We prepared it for about five months through a pretrial on Tempo Interaktif (website). We have also had three trial print issues, containing an interview with Gus Dur (President Abdurrahman Wahid) and covering the death sentence for a drug dealer and the kidnapping of activists.

The fourth, our official English edition, the cover story titled Massacre in Atambua: the Ugly Militias, was launched on Sept. 12.

We have a group of 16 translators living in a number of cities outside Jakarta, including Surakarta, Bandung, Sydney and London. Thank God for the online system ... They are paid in rupiah and some of them are from the Indonesian Observer daily.

My friends at Reuters also assisted us.

John McGlynn from the Lontar Foundation (focusing on Indonesian literature) and Janet Steele of George Washington University (who conducted research on Tempo) also helped a lot with this project. We keep on encouraging the translators to do better.

A simple example of translating problems is the phrase politik dagang sapi which is not the (literal translation) of "cow trading" but "horse trading"...

We are creating an English Tempo style. The English version, however, appears two days after the Indonesian edition because it takes some time to translate.

You said the country is already packed with Indonesian publications. What should they do to survive?

I think the current course is decentralization. So the existing media must be able to produce quality local content that will attract more readers. Tempo tried to do so by publishing a special edition in East Java and North Sumatra in late 1999. The magazine in this two provinces has a supplement of local contents.

I think the prospects for the press industry are still very promising, even though the ones who survive are usually the more established publications or magazines under license (adopted from the original English version).

Will you be more selective in picking stories for the English version, for instance omitting hot rumors like the President's alleged affair with Aryanti?

Well, we will do it on a case by case basis. Of course, we will not present hear-say reports. In the case of Aryanti, Tempo was approached by her side during the Annual Session in August. But we made a judgment, based on the fact that the alleged incident took place five years ago, long before Abdurrahman became president.

As a kyai (religious scholar), Abdurrahman never preached or stated his disagreement with polygamy, and he is not a hypocrite. He has always promoted democracy. Aryanti said there were certain parties who led her to this "revelation of the 'affair'".

We later found that there might have been efforts to blackmail the President, which led to the interests of certain parties. So we chose not to run the story.

But if it turns out to be something worth reporting, of course we would publish a comprehensive report on it. (Editha Hartanto).