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Editorial: On our 26th anniversary
Today, The Jakarta Post marks its 26th anniversary
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Today, The Jakarta Post marks its 26th anniversary. There are no celebrations - not even a reception that we usually have to express our thanks to our readers. Last year we celebrated our Silver Jubilee in grand style. This year we mark our anniversary in times of a financial crisis. So, instead of a reception, we wish to reflect on this day by sharing a few thoughts with readers.
The crisis is hurting the newspaper industry globally. Advertisement revenue, the lifeline of commercial newspapers, has plummeted with the economic downturn. The crisis in Indonesia may not be as severe as it has been in most other countries in Asia, but it is affecting industries nationwide, and consequently their ad spending has also declined.
The Jakarta Post has not been spared. We have had to make cutbacks. If none of these are visible, that is because we have maintained the quality of the newspaper even as we introduce efficiency measures. We want to thank our long time partners and suppliers for helping us to get through this crisis together.
We make no compromises when it comes to quality. News is our business, and bad news is looming on the horizon for newspaper businesses globally. In the United States and Europe more and more newspaper titles are closing down.
Many people may still like to read a paper over breakfast, but unfortunately, when it comes to running a newspaper, this is not the main determining factor in its survival. Newspapers are going out of business not because they are losing readers but because they are no longer commercially viable with the sharp decline in the advertisement revenue.
Many papers have fully migrated to the digital world. Online news has many advantages over print, such as the capacity to provide news in real time (as opposed to the next morning); it is interactive; and it has audio-visual capabilities. Online news also cuts a large chunk off the costs incurred by newspapers, from newsprint and printing, to delivery services. In short, online news runs on a completely different business model, and one where turnover is on a much smaller scale given the significantly lower costs.
The Jakarta Post is not in that position to migrate completely yet, although we believe a time will come when we will need to. We are preparing for that eventuality even as we continue to improve the quality of our newspaper. We are investing heavily in our news portal, www.thejakartapost.com, investing money and man hours to run and develop what is essentially going to be the main medium for The Jakarta Post to deliver the news.
The medium may be changing, but journalism, which is main service we provide at The Jakarta Post, remains important, if not even more so in this digital world.
If journalism is defined as an activity to gather and collect information, conduct interviews and ask the tough questions, verify the facts, sort out important information and then package it all into a concise, digestible and easy to understand format, then The Jakarta Post will continue to be around for much longer, way beyond the life of the print edition.
The information technology revolution has made journalism more relevant than ever. When people are flooded with more information than they need, they will look for websites with credible and trustworthy information.
The trust we have gained from readers will help The Jakarta Post make the gradual transition to go online. We take nothing for granted. We will continue to work with our strongest dedication to provide excellence in journalism, knowing from our experience over the last 26 years that anything less would just not be good enough.
The Jakarta Post is confident that with the help and support of our loyal readers, business partners, suppliers and other stakeholders, we will not only weather this crisis, but we will also improve and expand as we embrace possibilities in an increasingly digitized world.
On this day, to mark our anniversary, we want to thank you all for placing your trust in us. We would never be where we are today without your support.
