`The trend nowadays is toward story-telling'

`The trend nowadays is toward story-telling'

Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It's National Press Day. Almost five years since the print
media was confronted with sudden and fundamental changes.

The downfall of Soeharto in May 1998 has given the media its
freedom, but the lingering impact of the 1997 economic crisis and
fiercer competition from the electronic media have become of
greater concern since.

The Jakarta Post spoke with Suryopratomo, the chief editor of
the country's largest and most influential newspaper, Kompas,
over the changes the print media has undergone.

Question: How do you view the changes in the print media industry since
the 1998 political reform?

Answer: From the market side, readers haven't completely recovered
(from the economic crisis) and from the advertisers side, neither
have companies. The economic recovery isn't quite running well.

Compare this with before 1997, the issue of cost was
relatively light, (imported) raw materials like paper, ink and so
forth. Now see the difference of Rp 2,400 against U.S. dollar
with Rp 8,800 to the U.S. dollar today.

A third factor is that the market has become open to anybody.
From the economic side the challenges have become very heavy. The
question of survival has gained weight for the media now.

Q: What are the opportunities that the 1998 reform movement has
brought about for the media?

A: The new opportunities are more like having no restriction on
the number of pages. That's what has made so many publications
survive (the crisis). Macro (economic) conditions however remain
tough. It used to be that the limit was 24 pages, now we have
more space for ads. However if we look at the trend, from the
view of a publication firm's health, there must be a balance
between advertisement and revenue from subscription, sales of the
newspaper. Ideally, it should be 50 percent to 50 percent, that
would be excellent, but normally it's more like 60 percent to 40
percent. Now we can't do it anymore. Now it's maybe 70 percent to
30 percent or even 80 percent to 20 percent. We have become too
dependent on ads. That's because what I said before, people's
purchasing power have limits. The economy is very weak.

Here public's interest in reading compared to other ASEAN
(Association of Southeast Asian Nations). In Indonesia it is
probably the lowest. The simplest example for this is when we
have to raise the price of our newspaper by Rp 200 or Rp 300.
Readers' complaints are just unbelievable. Now look that without
realizing, the parking fee has risen from Rp 500 to Rp 1,000, and
for that kind of increase there is no complaint. It's different
with the media. And they (readers) not only complain verbally,
they also take action. They stop subscribing. And that is even if
the media provide information that is actually intellectually
stimulating. But to sacrifice Rp 100 for that feels so hard.

Here is another problem: the media has serious problems as
evidenced by the fact that over the past 10 years, the
circulation of newspapers and magazine has been stagnant. It is
one challenge that all of the media now must think about in order
to break this constraint.

Q: How do you see the competition from the electronic media since
1998?

A: That's a different factor, with 11 television stations now
it's not just cutting a slice from the ad cake, but they also
provide information faster. Almost all of the media is now using
news as their signature. So the signature of Indonesian
television isn't just entertainment but has changed to
infotainment. This is affecting the printed media.

Q: What has been the impact of the rise in the electronic media?

A: RCTI (Indonesia's first private television station) was
established in 1991, right? Since then, circulation has
stagnated. That was one of the factors.

Q: Are there any changes in writing news, or should there be any
changes?

A: Now with the (competition) from the electronic media, the
presentation of news has shifted. It is not just straight news
anymore, but more on the how and why. This requires a deliberate
change in reporters' attitude when covering and reporting this
how and why. That's why we also do comparison with other papers.
The trend nowadays is towards story-telling that is concise,
comprehensive and able to explain the meaning. This, I think is
the challenge.

Q: Does this reflect the readers' demands?

A: Yes, the readers are becoming more critical. Kompas owns a
readers forum, a community of Kompas readers who are not paid. We
have them in Jakarta, Surabaya and Yogyakarta.

Readers are very critical. One should never take them for
granted when running a newspaper.

Q: How is the government -- media relationship?

A: Compared to before 1998, there is no more pressure on the
media. We have the freedom to criticize the government and they
too are very firm on us, I think our relationship is healthy.

Q: What can the government do to help the print media industry?

A: We have asked the government repeatedly, explaining that the
media's role is not only to provide information but also
knowledge, so it's only appropriate not to impose sales tax on
print media products. Just look at countries like India. Why are
people's reading interest and their productivity in writing books
so high? Because all literary products there are cheap, there is
no sales tax. After all sales tax are paid by the consumers and
we producers must pass it on to the government in the form of
other taxes they impose.

Q: How has press freedom altered the media?

A: Press freedom is like two sides of a coin. On one side,
freedom has the meaning of freedom from fear, from intimidation,
from restrictions by an authoritarian regime. But on the other
side of the coin, there is the responsibility to educate
professionally. So what is freedom for now? Freedom should have
been used to educate, to fight ignorance, to fight corruption,
collusion and nepotism and so forth. But, so far, we have been
looking at freedom just from one side, only from the side of
freedom from oppression.