The Jakarta Globe
Nov 12th, 2008, in Internet, by PatungAnother English language newspaper launches, the Jakarta Globe.
The first edition of the James Riady owned Jakarta Globe came out today, it seems, here is the front page:
Anyone who’s seen a physical copy feel free to give your impression.
Their website, well, difficult to say anything much about it other than that it is simple, simple is good, although for a national newspaper you would have expected a fair bit more. It sort of looks like somebody slapped it up in an afternoon. Perhaps they have plans in this area, or perhaps they have spent the last few months of preparation for launch sound asleep.
30 Comments on “The Jakarta Globe”
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Don’t know Ross, although apparently they have a print run of 60,000, the JP I think prints only about half that, pretty ambitious, or foolish, but anyway there should be plenty of them about. Their website really is a cock-up at this stage though.
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Achmad Sudarsono says:
Seksi Mr. Patoengs,
Why don’t you issue a challenge to them ? Blog vs Traditional Media ? Commentary — (with the likes of Ross and me you could never compete on reporting).
What say you ?
Will you rise to the call ?
Will you be Seksi, Patoengs ?
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Well but the thing is how do you determine the winner, – revenue/profit, audience share and traffic, quality? or something else I’m not thinking of. Not sure where commentary gets you on any score. It’s still the Wild West days for the internet, some guy sitting at home in his pyjamas (not me, me in sarong) can shit all over big companies but it’s getting harder and harder, they’ve got a big room full of people and money-bags boss…
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timdog says:
I would guess their excuse for the shoddy website was that the jakartaglobe domain was until very recently owned by someone else (Globe Asia, if I’m not mistaken). The Jakarta Globe were apparently “in negociations” with them… I wonder how much they had to pay…
Still, that doesn’t mean they couldn’t have built the thing in advance…
Looks to me like they finally managed to wrestle control of the domain about two days ago and hammered something together with, like, blogger or something…
Jakarta Post’s website is actually almost good these days (it used to be terrible until the makeover), so at least they’ve still got that on them…Mas Achmad, you feeling better now?
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Seksi Friends,
@ Mr. Patoengs,
Good point, hard to determine the winner. (Determing losers much easier — name starts with R ends in S : -)) ; P).
Maybe let the punters decide. Or just let them thrash it out over the bar.
@ Seksi Mr. Timdogs,
Happiness is elusive. It’s a Teh Poci. It’s a Kretek. It’s doing the bustop with Andy Warhol at Studio 54.
Va Va Voom !
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@Timdog: You could be mistaking the jakartaglobe.com website with thejakartaglobe.com website. Nobody, not Lin or the other editors at the Jakarta Globe, seem to know who owns the former.
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You’re probably right Unspun – but I definitely read somewhere on some blog or something that they were in negociations with someone who owned the domain name they wanted. I can’t for the life of me remember where, but I know I read it!
In that case, what’s their excuse for the less than brilliant website?Achmad, I am delighted that you have returned to seksiness, I was really worried about you for a while there…
Merdeka indeed! -
Hah? Where’d the link go? It was from the Australian:
theaustralian.news.com.au -
Welcome back Seksi Mr. Unspuns !
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Rambutan says:
I just read today’s copy and must say I’m really impressed. This seems to be a very high quality newspaper. 48 pages in total for Rp 8,500. Very good English. Still a bit light though on Indonesian news. Very little filler material although int’l news are exclusively taken from int’l newspapers and agencies. They were able to attract a lot of ads.
So, this looks very professional. Obviously a lot of money and effort went into this newspaper. Let’s see if they can keep up the quality. -
Thanks for that Rambutan, yes all the talk had been they had a super professional set-up and were raring to go for weeks.
On the domain timdog, it;s a brand new domain, registered early this year, I think they’ve had it all along, plus I’ve noticed visits from there, their domain functions as a kind of isp (I don’t understand it technically) and I’ve gotten lots of referrals from people who evidently work there doing google searches, the oddest one was
03:00:22 and 2 days later, arrived from ww*.google.co.id monthly wage Jakarta post 1-10
and visited *ww.indonesiamatters.com/1509/minimum-wage/He he.
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How many ads came from Riady companies he he he.
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Well they got someone from the Post called Trish (Saywell?) to supposedly handle the interactive strategy. Unfortunately, however, I did not get to meet her when I paid a visit to the Globe’s office on the top parking lot floor of Plaza Semanggi.
I think that it is not too difficult for anyone who knows what they are doing to match or exceed the Post, but the real test for The Jakarta Globe will be how they cover Lippo-related stories. I would love, for instance, to see how the Globe will cover the Astro-Lippo Dispute or answer the question of who actually is Billy Sindoro in the Lippo firmament – rogue executive or bagman for James?
But let’s all not be too critical for the moment. Let’s give them a chance to prove themselves.
Achmad: what’s with the seksi bit? OD’ed on Tongkat Ali?
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Seksi Mr. Unspuns,
In 2008, I don’t think interactive is something you can add at a late stage into the final product, like clove into tobacco.
Also, aren’t you being a little unfair to the Post ? They’ve done a reasonable job with limited resources and management staring out to sea, like a West Javanese fisherman after too many kretek. Actually, no, seksi friends, they have to be quite alert.
Seksiis a metaphysical state. Get with the program, already !
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lgun says:
Why don’t you issue a challenge to them ? Blog vs Traditional Media ? Commentary — (with the likes of Ross and me you could never compete on reporting).
What say you ?
Support. Can’t wait to read the comments from intelligent people (Indonesian and Bule) on the fate of traditional newspaper against internet. I thing I will learn much from it.
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Popon says:
I think its better to put this matter aside, it’s nothing related to the newspaper. personally I think they will cover it fair and square
Unspun says
I think that it is not too difficult for anyone who knows what they are doing to match or exceed the Post, but the real test for The Jakarta Globe will be how they cover Lippo-related stories. I would love, for instance, to see how the Globe will cover the Astro-Lippo Dispute or answer the question of who actually is Billy Sindoro in the Lippo firmament – rogue executive or bagman for James? -
Well Igun, here you go from their very own launch, Sigit Pramono:
As for Indonesia, I believe print media won’t die within the next 15 years.
Dedy Nur Hiday:
As for Indonesia, print media is now at the declining level. The indicators are decreasing profits and sales. It is more difficult for a new media company to compete at this stage as the market is already well-established with old players.
“He disagreed that low readership levels meant a greater market opportunity.” ?
There was also some talk of it at http://www.indonesiamatters.com/2793/news-coverage/
Anyway, like I tried to say to Achmad but failed because i misunderstood his question, first ask what is the goal? How do you measure success? Is it money making, or is it readership levels, is it influence, or something else or all combined? In my mind traditional media have a massive advantage and head-start, name-brand recognition, huge stored levels of trust and perceived authority. It remains for them to adapt better to the internet and there’ll be no stopping them. Blogs are largely irrelevant outside a small portion of the internet audience, if we’re talking numbers.
In 2008, I don’t think interactive is something you can add at a late stage into the final product, like clove into tobacco.
You can do it overnight, or even in an afternoon, as quick as switching a template, or changing systems, on the technical side. Whether they have the people to visualise and see it through is another matter, I guess the problem with companies is they have committees and ladders of authority and that can hamper them if there’s a stick in the mud somewhere.
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Seksi Mr. Patoengs Yth,
You can do it overnight, or even in an afternoon, as quick as switching a template, or changing systems, on the technical side. Whether they have the people to visualise and see it through is another matter, I guess the problem with companies is they have committees and ladders of authority and that can hamper them if there’s a stick in the mud somewhere.
Will all respect, I couldn’t disagree more. I think the second biggest problem newspapers face is their culture, especially the Woodward-Bernstein ideal fantasy many reporters seem to follow.
Yes, you’re right, it could technically be done in an afternoon. But just try mentioning words like “Blog,” “layoffs,” and let alone, interactivity or even worse, “twitter” or “social networking” to any journalist over 40 and see what reaction you get. (I never get to meet them out here in this Javanese village).
Deep down the reaction you’re getting is simple:
Fear of the unknown.Fear of losing authority and status.
Fear.
It’s amazing how the traditional media are snatching defeat from the jaws of victory…
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I did mention ‘blog’ once to a journalist, he was under 40 though, and yes he tried to steer the talk in other directions at that point, although I think he was just afraid of the extra work. Yeah I’m looking at it from a webmasterly angle, there are aspects of it that I don’t know about and have no experience of, but well a lot can be achieved from work in that area.
Got any best practice examples of interactivity in the old media world?
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I received three copies of the new newspaper. I look at it and “wow..this is good! different, news from various aspects and it’s full color!!”
This is what I call ” a new change in the information industry”.
Keep it up! Who knows, one day The Jakarta Globe will become a great newspaper such as The Herald Tribune and other foreign newspaper.
Regards,
Adila -
Seksi Mr. Patoengs,
According to media news sites, the Christian Science Monitor, the 100-year old Boston-based paper, is going completely online next year.
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The question is whether they can keep and improve on the “quality”. The issue of how they report Lippo and Lippo affiliated subject material might be resolved with not reporting at all on those issues. This would seem to remove any allegations of positive spin on Lippo issues because there would be no spin at all.
Perhaps a comparison can be drawn between how TVOne deals with Lapindo related news and how The Jakarta Globe might deal with Lippo related news.
News portals will supplement traditional print media for a while and will include the use of blogs as a source of supplementary news and views on the workings of the world.
There has been a fear that e-books would take over and run traditional printed books out of town. This has not happened to date. So, why the fear that new media like blogs will run traditional print news out of town?
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Ross says:
Still ain’t seen it at any street news-stands. Is it only on sale in the malls?
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Seksi Mr. Robs,
For why Blogs – or rather the internet – are wrecking shop – try googling “job losses” and “newspapers”…
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Ya might enjoy this, Achmad – Watching the Times struggle.
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Well, tried Blok M Plaza, Pasaraya, all the smaller stalls from Panglima Polim to Puri Indah, but no Globe. Don’t think much of their distribution!
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Finally got one this morning. One swallow does not make a summer but it is very impressive, way beyond the JP – and I don’t just mean in terms of my usual criticism of the Pest. They’ll need to sharpen up distribution though. The guy in Kedoya who sold it says they don’t get many buyers, not surprisingly in bule-lite West Jakarta, but probably if they used more little outlets they’d sell more. And they are non-existent in Blok M.
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ramon says:
The Jakarta Post wanna be!
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Where can we get it? It’s gotta be an improvement…I hope!