Company Profile - Online Edition

The Journal and Resource Center Of Indonesia Today

Going online has become a necessity for businesses, the media in particular, expecting to progress to the new millennium. Recent development in Indonesia shows that the Web is the future of news and information as evidenced by the increasing number of media publications available over the Internet.

As the largest English newspaper in Indonesia, The Jakarta Post has anticipated this trend and has dedicated a considerable amount of time and resources to preparing its website. We are proud to announce that the online version of our newspaper is now vailable on the Web. The Jakarta Post.com is more than just an extension of The Jakarta Post daily newspaper. As the name suggests, it also offers breaking news and a wealth of information on Indonesia. By providing up-to-date, in-depth accurate information and analyses, The Jakarta Post.com aspires to be a one-stop reference point on Indonesia that will serve both local and international audiences.

The Journal is a special, free-of-charge version of The Jakarta Post . Having in mind an international audience interested in events taking place in Indonesia, this online version of the newspaper – The Jakarta Post.com – carries local stories that appear in the printed edition, and more. To meet public demand for real-time news, The Jakarta Post.com has news flashes which are updated as each story develops.

Taking full advantage of the unlimited space available on the Web, The Jakarta Post.com also provides featured articles and special coverage that may not otherwise appear in the printed edition.

A picture often says more than words can ever tell. Our photo gallery unveils telling sights of great human interest as well as journalistic and artistic shots that have not made it into our printed edition due to space restraints. Here, visitors can browse for carefully selected photos for viewing or purchase.

Our Resource Center will become an important reference for anyone looking for complete and accurate information on Indonesia. Researchers and Indonesianists will benefit greatly from this facility, which no other online media in Indonesia offers.

One of the Resource Center 's most interesting features is its database-formatted archives, making The Jakarta Post.com the first and only online media in Indonesia to date with this facility. So far over 50,000 news articles from our printed edition are stored in our database, dating back to June 1994. The Post is presently undertaking an ambitious endeavor to digitalize and make available its stories right through to its first edition on April 25, 1983.

The Jakarta Post's History

The year 1983 marked an important milestone in the history of media publishing in Indonesia when the first issue of The Jakarta Post appeared on April 25.

The new English daily is unique, not only in its goal, which is to improve the standard of English language media in Indonesia, but also in bringing together four competing media publishers into producing a quality newspaper with an Indonesian perspective.

The objective of the new publication was to present to the public a newspaper of the highest quality that would provide its readers with all the news that was not only fit to print, but that would deepen their insight into the very workings of this vast archipelago, its people and its government, as members of the great family of nations.

The history of the newspaper dates back to a conversation in mid-1982, between then minister of information Ali Moertopo and Mr. Jusuf Wanandi, who represented the government-backed Golkar newspaper Suara Karya . Minister Moertopo mentioned the possibility of publishing an English-language newspaper of the highest editorial quality which would not only cater to the fast growing foreign community in the country — the result of more than a decade of opening up the economy to the global community — but more importantly one that would be able to provide an Indonesian perspective to counter the highly unbalanced Western-dominated global traffic of news and views.

To serve the purpose, several requirements had to be met. The paper would have to bring together some of the best Indonesian journalists and editors in order to be able to produce a quality newspaper of international standards. Simultaneously it should also represent the different factions of the broad, sociopolitical spectrum of the nation to be able to nurture a truly Indonesian perspective.

Of no less importance, the company should be managed professionally so that it could grow into an economically strong institution capable of consistently maintaining high-quality journalism. And last but not least, the ownership of the newspaper should also reflect the philosophy of the nation, hence the collectively owned shares of the employees, besides the no-single-majority equity participation of its founders.

Thus the company, PT Bina Media Tenggara, was founded in late 1982 as an independent newspaper institution privately owned by four competing media groups publishing some of the leading national publications: Suara Karya , Kompas , Sinar Harapan and Tempo . Ten percent of equity (later increased to 20 percent) was provided as a collective share of all employees.

Immediately afterward, a team of experienced journalists and editors was selected from the four founding companies, as well as from other news organizations. For the business side, a special team was set up within the Kompas-Gramedia group to help manage the marketing, distribution and other pertinent functions of the news organization based on a yearly management contract.

On the first day of publication, not more than 5,474 copies of the newspaper reached readers. The contents of its eight pages varied from news about Soviet espionage activities in the region, to an article written by Kompas 'Jakob Oetama on the installation of H. Harmoko as the new minister of information, just a few months after he was personally involved in the preparatory stage of this newspaper in his capacity as chairman of the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI), plus a few congratulatory advertisements.

Looking back, it was not a very impressive newspaper. However, a fresh and different outlook was created in the Indonesian press.

PT Bina Media Tenggara Editorial Staff

Progress & Development

Progress and Development

Since its conception in 1983, the Post has developed into a prestigious newspaper respected for its independent views and bold coverage of various national and international events.

The number of its subscribers have also increased, from 8,657 in 1983, to 41,049 in December 1998.

To keep up with its reputation as an independent newspaper and to satisfy the demands of its readers for fast but accurate news and sharp analyses, the newspaper's editorial and business departments started in 1990 a routine recruitment program. Each year the newspaper recruits new journalists and marketing and advertising staff to meet its growing capacity. From a handful of journalists and marketing and advertising personnel in 1983, the Post now has over 150 employees.

To keep up with the growing sophistication of its readers, the Post has continued to upgrade the quality of its employees, especially its journalists. Various training courses are made available to its editorial and non-editorial staff. It also regularly sends employees overseas for training.

In 1994, the Post became the first Indonesian newspaper to go global under a project nicknamed "Go International". Three global companies providing database services from three different parts of the world signed agreements with the Post to make the paper accessible 24 hours a day to tens of thousands of their subscribers around the world.

Under the arrangements, the Post is transmitted every morning in digitalized format via modem to three main computers in New York in USA, London in the UK and Palo Alto in California, USA, each owned by Chamber World Network , Reuters and Dialog , making the paper the first in this country to go international without the heavy burden of transportation costs.

Chamber World Network is a German-based company set up by the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce. It operates a computerized database in New York that provides information services to thousands of German companies in Europe, North America and Asia. The agreement to provide the Post on a daily basis to the Chamber World Network database in New York was signed in May 1994 in Jakarta.

A similar deal was signed on July 1, 1994 with Reuters Limited , a world renowned information services company based in London. Reuters operates computerized services for the retrieval of information, collated and stored on its databases which are also available to Reuters third-party distributors. By transmitting the Post daily to the Reuters main database, the paper is accessible not only through computer terminals subscribing to Reuters around the world, but also through similar equipment hooked up to other database services across Europe and North America such as Data Star , FT Profile , Global Scan , Maid , Mead Data and BT Telecom Gold .

The agreement with Dialog Information Services Inc. was signed in mid-July 1994 and gives the Post greater exposure across the United States of America. Dialog is a Palo Alto-based company owned by the Knight Ridder group of media companies which controls a large network of media companies across the USA. It has been serving users since 1972 and now has more than 450 databases from a broad scope of disciplines.

The "Go International" project is a direct response to the Post 's mission to bring forward an Indonesian perspective on national and global issues amid the deluge of Western viewpoints dominating the global flow of information. It stands up to the expectations raised by the commitment of the Post to become "The Journal of Indonesia Today".

It is simultaneously a strategic step challenging the future of blurring lines separating the up to now distinctly different media types providing news, views and entertainment to the global audience.

Sunday Edition

Sunday Edition

Also in 1994, the Post started its Sunday edition, which first appeared on Sept. 18.

While maintaining the high quality and editorial philosophy of the Post , the Sunday edition endeavors to provide more analytical and in-depth articles appropriately balanced by entertaining and informative stories. Readers still get the latest news of the weekend, but the proportion is less than that normally provided in the weekday editions of the paper.

In short, the selection process and editorial deliberation put more emphasis on news and views that readers can use rather than news that is fit to print.

This unique approach to newspapering is based on the findings of a series of readership surveys, field interviews and focused group discussions held during the four years prior to the first publication of the Sunday edition in different parts of the country.

The front page offers investigative in-depth reports which probe the main issues of the week or bring to light other unnoticed, but important, topics as well as some of the latest news stories from around the globe. On the back page, the latest domestic and international news and views on sporting events cater to the diverse curiosity of readers.

Between the covers, the 10 or 14 pages, distinct in makeup from the weekday editions, entertain readers with "... the dynamics of an emerging nation and regional economic power, presenting as well the many facets and fascinations of Indonesia's unique culture and history ..." as promised by the publisher on the front page of the Post 's first issue on April 25, 1983.

The paper's writers guide readers through different parts of this archipelago to expose some of the precious though perhaps previously unnoticed objects that are encountered during the exploration of the infinite wealth of its natural legacy. They introduce readers to the diverse cultures of innumerable ethnic communities who speak and think in more than 200 different dialects or languages and who differ in many things and yet share a common heritage.

Short stories, mainly by Indonesian writers, are one of the weekly features, giving readers the chance to become familiar with some of the best literary talents of this country. A special column titled By the Way opens windows on the human, personal and humorous, yet mind-challenging, aspects of life through light-hearted discourses on daily issues.

For readers seeking pastimes on weekends, a special column on hobbies enriches the inquisitive mind.

Another column, People , seeks out and puts the spotlight on prominent personalities, as well as seemingly ordinary individuals, with outstanding feats in the community. These articles shed light on their recent activities and interesting pastimes and their achievements, or perhaps the not-so-well-known life they lead behind the formal public screen.

Those entertaining pages are balanced by quite a number of enlightening probes into what is going on in the region and the world over.

Promoting Art & Culture

Promoting Art and Culture

As the newspaper grows, so does its involvement in activities outside its line of business. In the past 13 years of existence, the Post has contributed significantly to the promotion of the country's rich and diverse cultures as well as fascinating art life.

It is generally accepted that newspapers serve society in at least four ways. They inform, influence, entertain and contribute to the economic system. The way they perform these functions, however, varies from one to another, according to the philosophy each one holds, according to the audience to which each one commits itself to serve.

In the case of the Post , delivering a high quality newspaper every day is not an end in itself. It is only a means to serving the higher purpose of promoting ever-changing humankind, a task which is becoming more relevant today as the world finds itself in the middle of a process of transformation into a global village. In short, the Post commits itself to promoting people of culture in the broadest sense.

This new tradition of the paper promoting art and culture was started in 1992, when the Post held an exhibition of Sentani art to celebrate its ninth anniversary.

In the same year, the paper managed a series of events called "Paris-Jakarta". These centered on the salvaging and restoration of an invaluable national treasure, a great collection of more than 200 oil paintings and other art objects, representing Ecole de Paris of the 1950s, which included work of the world renowned Vassily Kandinsky.

Sponsored by the state oil company Pertamina and the French oil company Total, and with the support of the French Embassy in Jakarta, the Post newspaper indulged in organizing the restoration of the collection, the publication of a complete catalog on it, the public exhibition of a part of it and other related activities.

This collection has a special meaning to the country as it consists of art objects donated personally by the artists to the people of the Republic of Indonesia in 1959 in recognition of Indonesian independence. Somehow that collection "disappeared" for more than 30 years before being found in a very neglected state.

In 1993, Humba Hamu (Wonderful Sumba) crowned the paper's 10th anniversary activities. The exhibition, lasting for nine days, attracted so many visitors that it broke records in the history of Bentara Budaya Jakarta.

In the following year, the Dayak culture of Kalimantan, the contemporary ceramic works of Widayanto, paintings on ceramics by painter Widayat and original drawings of six of Indonesia's foremost artists were featured.

International Awards

International Awards

To crown its remarkable performance, in 1994 The Jakarta Post again received the International Newspaper Marketing Association – Editor & Publisher Award, winning first place among newspapers with circulations under 50,000 copies daily in the category of public relations printed materials.

Presented in Phoenix, Arizona, May 16, 1994, the award was accompanied by another Certificate of Merit for the same category.

The Jakarta Post received two similar awards in 1991 and two more in 1993. The four awards were in different categories for newspapers under 50,000 copies a day. This paper is the first and so far the only Indonesian newspaper thus internationally acknowledged.

Book Publishing

Book Publishing

Reading maketh a full man, thus goes a famous saying. The Post , too, believes in the importance of reading to help create an intelligent nation.

To promote reading habits and to contribute to efforts to make books available to more people, the Post has committed itself to book publishing and so far has issued nine books.

Some of the books are tie-ups of its exhibitions, while others are compilations of articles which appeared in weekly editions. To date the titles include Drawing , Ganesha Ganeshi , Ukelan , Rona Tembikar , Sentani , Surviving Globalization , Lalu Lintas Modal & Kebijaksanaan Moneter , and Viewpoint: Sketches of Indonesian Society .

In 1996, the newspaper published The Jakarta Post Lifestyle , a directory of leisure activities in Greater Jakarta. The annual directory is a joint effort in cooperation with PT Media Dutaservisindo and Integrated Information Pte Ltd of Singapore.