'Tribune' bullish on operations in RI

'Tribune' bullish on operations in RI

JAKARTA (JP): Readers' increasing awareness of the
relationship between business and politics is one reason the
International Herald Tribune is confident of its opportunities in
Indonesia, one of the countries worst-hit by the Asian economic
crisis.

Business executives and government officials in Indonesia need
to understand trade wars in the United States and Europe,
developments in the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund, and the impacts all these developments will have on his or
her business and livelihood. And they need this information in
the morning, before their day begins.

"I don't think we would have seen a Hong Kong businessman
worrying about the World Bank last year," Peter Goldmark,
president and CEO of the Tribune, recently said.

Another reason the Tribune is optimistic about its operations
in Indonesia is that 25 percent of its revenue comes from
advertisements from Asia-based companies, and Indonesia is the
largest country in Southeast Asia.

"Asia is the major market of the future," Goldmark said.

The Tribune's revenue peaked a few years ago. Following a drop
in revenue of some 20 percent, the paper is seeking a slow
return, he said.

Goldmark, a onetime journalist, said he looked forward to the
growth of Indonesia's "tiny layer" of English speaking decision
makers and business circles subscribing to his newspaper.

Based on research, it became evident readers wanted their
paper first thing in the morning, and so arriving early in the
day was the paper's main change, he said.

Since first being distributed here after securing a permit
from the Ministry of Information late last year, circulation of
the Tribune has reached 4,000, he said.

The paper is printed in the capital by PT Gramedia Printing
Press and distributed by The Jakarta Post, enabling the paper to
reach readers in the morning.

Because readers no longer have to wait until noon for their
paper, Goldmark believes the Tribune will "help decision makers
and business people relate global developments to their specific
situations".

He said circulation would increase "because we think
Indonesians want and need a paper like this".

Goldmark visited the Gramedia printing press early on a Monday
morning and saw "a quite professional crew" printing the paper.
The first pages from Paris arrived about 1 a.m. and on that
morning the paper was off the presses by 2:30 a.m.

Logging on the Tribune web site is free, but Goldmark believes
people still need to read the paper. "People don't read on the
Net, they use it to find things."

Because of the economic crisis here, Goldmark declined to give
a circulation target but indicated the Tribune was here to stay.
"We'll just see in the next 10 years."

In Singapore, where business information is at a premium, the
Tribune's "tiny layer" of English speaking decision makers and
businesspeople is 6,000. The Tribune's targeted readership is far
lower than that of local papers, he said, which was why the price
of the paper was higher.

Indonesia has the fourth largest circulation of the Tribune in
Asia after Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.

Goldmark said the potential for news in Indonesia was only one
reason to distribute directly in the country, adding the Tribune
was "betting on the future, on how history would be unfolding
here".

The strength of his paper, Goldmark says, is its network of
correspondents from The Washington Post and The New York Times,
both of which jointly own the Tribune.

Goldmark said the Tribune's main competitors here were the
Asian Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and a number of
weeklies.

Goldmark, who ran the Rockefeller Foundation for 10 years
before coming to the Tribune, also touched on readers' trust in
the accuracy of the paper's coverage. "Where do you think prime
ministers in Europe first learned of the Asian crisis," Goldmark
said, citing the paper's early reports on the fall of the Thai
baht.

Goldmark, no stranger to Indonesia following a number of
visits here during his tenure at the Rockefeller, however, is
only beginning to learn about the crisis.

Sitting in a hotel lobby he asked, "What does the krismon
really mean to people here?" (anr)