The Jakarta Post 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.