`Tiras' magazine finally obtains publishing license
`Tiras' magazine finally obtains publishing license
JAKARTA (JP): A group of former employees of the defunct
Editor weekly announced yesterday that they have obtained a
publishing license for their new weekly magazine, Tiras, which
will hit the streets on Jan. 26.
Eddy Herwanto, general manager of the new magazine, said his
group received the publishing license at 11 a.m. yesterday. The
license, dated Jan. 6 and signed by the Ministry of Information's
Director General of Press and Graphics Subrata, was presented to
the magazine's management board.
"We feel relieved after quite a long time of waiting, more
than six months, for a new publishing license," Eddy said at the
magazine's editorial office in Tebet, South Jakarta.
Tiras's chief editor is Marah Sakti Siregar and the business
manager is Surasono. Eddy, Siregar and Surasono held the same
positions before the magazine was closed down last year.
Previously, Editor's "replacement" was to be named Proaktif.
Editor lost its publishing license on June 21, 1994, together
with two other weeklies, Tempo and DeTik, for repeatedly ignoring
the government's warnings about the way they managed their
operations and their news content.
Editor was closed for having violated the terms of its
publishing license.
Tempo, the oldest of the three, was closed for its editorial
content.
Siregar said Tiras would focus its editorial content on
politics, economy, business, crime, law and profiles.
He said two thousand copies of a trial edition would be
distributed on Thursday to a selected readership, including the
magazine's advertising and sales agents, free of charge.
Staff
Siregar said Tiras magazine will employ over 107 former Editor
staffers, more than half of them journalists.
He said that the magazine has recruited 17 new reporters to
replace seven of its former reporters who have joined other mass
media.
Siregar said 36 percent of Tiras' shares belong to PT Adidaya
Visi Selaras, a company established by several former Editor
employees just three days after it was closed, 14 percent by
Bobby Arief Rudianto, a former shareholder of Editor and another
30 percent by PT Pranadipa Persada, a subsidiary of ALatief
Corporation. The remaining 20 percent of shares is held by
employees.
"We guarantee that there will be no outsiders' intervention in
our editorial content," Siregar said, adding that the structure
of the magazine's shareholders clearly indicates independence.
Surasono said that the magazine, which is to appear every
Thursday, will have an initial circulation of 80,000 copies.
"The number of copies to be published is based on our recent
survey of our sales agents," he said. (imn)