Making The Cover (Weekender Anniversary)

Firsts are always a little more special than those that follow. So it was with the first issue of the WEEKENDER in January 2007, and especially its cover. Editor Bruce Emond remembers how it came into being.

I am still a bit amazed when I look back at how the first edition of the magazine was put together in fits and starts. The idea for a Sunday-style magazine came from The Jakarta Post’s Chief Editor Endy M. Bayuni, who had recently returned from a yearlong fellowship at Harvard University.

He called me into his office in early 2006, when I was an editor on the front page, and told me about his idea, modeled somewhat on The New York Times Sunday magazine. It would be uncharted territory for the newspaper, and he asked me if I wanted to do it.

I have known Pak Endy many years, starting in 1992 when I was a 24-year-old copy editor fresh from college and newspaper internships in the United States. I trusted him, first of all. And, after the hectic pace of the front page (and the nervous anticipation and anguish of waking up every day to see the reaction to it), I jumped at the chance. After my experiences editing the Leisure and Sunday sections, I thought it would simply be a return to my favorite sections, with a little start-up pressure.

Of course, it didn’t prove to be so smooth. First, we were starting from scratch. Second, Pak Endy and CEO Daniel Rembeth believed it would be better to get the magazine out as soon as possible. Although they were wholly supportive, not everyone felt the same way about putting out a strange new product.

On October 1, 2006, I moved from the front page to the magazine, which still didn’t have a name at that point. At the beginning, with help from Managing Editor Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, I tried to come up with the different columns and regular features for the magazine, poring over weekend magazines from around the world.

We had a January publishing date, but with no layout in place or reporters, it increasingly seemed a mission impossible. Then, as so often happens during the toughest times, everything somehow started coming together.

First, there was fashion editor Samuel Mulia, whom I knew very vaguely from sightings around town. Someone said he was looking to leave his current position as the editor of a men’s magazine. As luck would have it, Daniel was his close friend – Sam had been his best man – and gave me his number.

Sam breezed in an hour late for our lunch meeting, in leather pants and a turtleneck. I gave him the lowdown on the magazine, its status and the obstacles to getting it out on time (I wasn’t exactly perky and positive at this point in my life).

Sam listened intently, and said, “OK, if you want me to, I can help you.”

So he did. He came on board in mid-November, and we set to work pulling the magazine together. Sam took care of layout and writing fashion articles, and I worked on writing most of the rest. There were profiles of the painter Sudjojono’s widow, Rose Pandanwangi, and of the ceramicist Widayanto, which entailed a daytrip out to his country house in Bogor.

We managed to secure entertainer Titi DJ for the first 20/20. Photographer Ricky Yudhistira captured what is still one of my favorite photos, when the family’s energetic Saint Bernard puppy jumped on the perfectly coiffed Titi as her makeup artist made a mad dash across the room.

Dalton Tanonaka, the METRO TV host whom I had profiled for the daily, offered to write a column. Trish Anderton, then a copy editor at the Post, wrote a story on the headscarf. For a first travel piece, I went on a whirlwind trip to Sumbawa. I flew to Lombok, took a bus across the island to catch a ferry to Sumbawa, stayed at the resort, before coming back a couple of day laters on the same 7-hour bus ride.

The pages were filled, and only the cover remained. At the time, the satirical political TV show Newsdotcom was a big hit, and Butet Kartaredjasa was the standout performer, thanks to his rubber-faced impressions of Soeharto, B.J. Habibie and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Butet, who commutes between his Yogya family home and an apartment in Jakarta, agreed to an early morning interview after a dawn flight into town. It went well and, after consulting with Pak Endy, we decided he would be great for the first cover.

Sam suggested we try something different – Butet posed looking louche in a fur coat. I wasn’t sold on the idea: To me, having grown up in the States in the 1980s, it reminded me too much of the “What becomes a legend most?” Blackglama ads of famous entertainers.

I wanted instead a tag line of the “king of comedy”, a play on the Emperor’s New Clothes theme because of Butet’s lampooning of the country’s leaders. On the morning of the shoot at the looop studio in South Jakarta, Sam sourced a paper crown and scepter from a prop shop.

He had also brought along a big faux fur bedspread to try out his shot.

Butet, a veteran of theater productions, quickly peeled off his Chairman Mao T-shirt and Red Army cap and was ready to take direction. With photographer Ully Zoelkarnain, we tried the different shots: Butet in the crown and white shirt, with a maroon stole over his shoulder; Butet draped in the fur coat, with and without the crown; and finally Butet, looking a little more stylish, posed in just the shirt.

“I don’t have any white shirts because I’m so messy,” Butet joked.

When it came to picking the cover, there were four or five shots that stood out. Ultimately, the one we chose, I think, captures the essence of Butet, a very clever, consummate performer who can deliver the desired “mug” shot on command.

It’s still a very special cover to me, not only because of power of the photo and Butet’s impish expression. It’s because, despite all the obstacles, real and imagined, we had got the first edition done on time.

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