`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)