Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences

Department of Writing, Journalism & Social Inquiry

Master of Arts (Journalism)

57017

JOURNALISM STUDIES PROJECT

Semester 1, 2001

‘THE ARCHIPELAGO INDONESIA REVIEW’

PUBLISHING A QUALITY ETHNIC MAGAZINE IN AUSTRALIA

AND ITS BUSINESS CHALLENGES

Syafiq A Basri Assegaff

ID: 99022764

Subject Coordinator: Liz Fell

‗ The Archipelago Indonesia Review‘

Publishing a Quality Community Magazine in Australia

And Its Business Challenges

1. INTRODUCTION:

Amid all the speculation about the death of newspapers – due to its rivals the Internet and

television -- local and community news media continues to thrive. When it comes to community

and local news, especially in small community such as Indonesians in Australia, I would argue

that newspapers and magazines are the preeminent source of information and will probably

remain so.

A community print publication has more immediate connection to its readers than larger mass

(print) media. It also has less competition from the Internet and television than mainstream media.

Community media doesn't have the same demands that larger publications do, for instance it

doesn‘t require a large pool of journalists or need to cover the full range of news and stories.

If managed professionally, a community newspaper or magazine can play an important role in the

community. It is not only the source of news from their homeland but also their new home. It

carries news, gossip, and information about areas of specific interest to the group and can be a

source of entertainment.

Sadly, however, the journalistic standard of several Indonesian media publications in Australia is

embarrassingly low. Even though the use of language is probably the most basic measure of

quality for any newspaper, most Indonesian publications in Australia seem to lack journalists with

a sound understanding of Indonesian grammar or utilise the skills of copy editors. According to

one publisher, readers overlook the errors because it is a free publication run as a small business

with limited capital and staff. ―We have tried our best to provide useful information freely,‖ a

former editor of Indo Post said. ―You just take it or leave it.‖

To challenge the notion that small business and a quality product did not go hand-in-hand, some

friends and I started a monthly magazine for Indonesian people in Australia. We called the

magazine The Archipelago Indonesia Review (shortened to The Archipelago1), a title that reflects

the diversity of the Indonesian archipelago itself, which comprises more than 13,000 islands. The

Archipelago was first printed in June 2000. During the first 12 months, seven editions were

published and the magazine was free. From the first anniversary -- the June-July 2001 edition –

the magazine was sold.

1 Originally from Italian ‘arcipelago’ which came from Greek word, ‗arkhi‘ (chief) and ‘pelagos’ (sea).

2. INDONESIA MEDIA IN NSW

For the past three years, the Indonesian community in NSW has been able to choose from several

free Indonesian language newspapers. Among others, the best known titles include Indo Media

(Indonesian Media), Indo Post (Indonesian Post) tabloids and Gamelan (named after traditional

Javanese music) magazine. All of the publications are published monthly and compete fiercely.

With advertising as the only source of income -- and a limited pool of advertisers – many

publications have not survived. Tabloids such as Suara Masyarakat (People‘s Voice), Berita

Nusantara (Our Country‘s News) and Warta Aquilla (Aquilla News) have vanished from the

market. Berita Nusantara disappeared in the late 90‘s and Warta Aquilla ceased to publish after

the death of its editor, Silvester Kodhi, in late 2000.

Late last year (2000), four new publications appeared in Sydney -- Media Sydney, ig2 and Ausindo

(Australia-Indonesia) magazines and Reformasi (Reformation) tabloid. While ig and Ausindo

target young readers with entertainment and games, Media Sydney and Reformasi are trying to

attract mature readers by publishing news.

Instead of employing professional journalists to write news and feature stories, most editors

choose to ―cut and paste‖ news stories from the Internet. Only the Gamelan cultural magazine and

the Indo Media tabloid write and include local stories to a certain extent.

Reformasi appears to have a promising future and offers high-quality news and editorial.

According to my research, Reformasi is the only publication which employs professional

journalists who run day-to-day activities.

Meanwhile its competitor, Media Sydney, almost wholly copies its content and photos from

Gamma, a weekly magazine published in Jakarta.

While many of these publications have good design and plenty of advertisement, they lack a clear

target audience. Indo Media tabloid appears to be the only publication which has a clear

readership target. The remainder covers everything, swinging from current affairs – which they

have copied from the Internet – to crime stories, immigration news, fiction and jokes.

2 There is no explanation of the word ‗ig‘ inside the magazine.

Comparison of Indonesian Media in Australia.

Media

Likely Target

Market

(Audience)

Website Editorial &

background Other characteristics

Indo Pos (tabloid) Unclear www.indopost.com.au

(not yet active)

No professional

editorial, no journalists

Photos of women are used

on the cover; contains a lot

of advertisements.

Indo Media (tabloid) Clearly targets

teenagers

www.indomedia.com.au (well designed website

but too much ‗flash‘

used; website not used

for online media.

One (amateur)

journalist who is also

the marketing manager.

Better designed, relatively

good community news,

more advertisements

Reformasi (tabloid) Unclear (tends to

older audience) No website

One or two professional

journalists

More serious articles, less

advertisements

Ausindo (magazine) Unclear (tends to

younger audience) No No journalist

Less serious, entertainment

articles, no politics or current issue

Media Sydney

(magazine)

Unclear (tends to older generation)

No Copying Indonesian

magazine (Gamma); no

journalist in Australia.

Politics, more news from Indonesia than Australia

Gamelan (magazine) Unclear No Manager works as

amateur journalist.

Cultural articles; a public

relations tool for the

Indonesian Consulate

General‘s office; more pictures of social

gatherings.

Ig (magazine)

Unclear (tends

to younger

audience)

No No journalist Entertainment articles

for youth

From meetings with Indonesian media workers in NSW on various occasions, I have ascertained

that the managers of these publications -- who are usually the editors too -- come from non-

journalistic backgrounds. A review of the news and other articles they include indicate that good

journalism, news value or consideration of the audience do not feature in these publications. It is

also important to note that most of these publications ignore the importance of copyright and

media law and regulations3.

Indo-Post.

Indo Post started business in 1998. Using ‗girlie‘ pictures as the covers, this tabloid has no clear

mission or vision. It has neither an editorial plan nor a letter from the editor or letters from readers

section. Although it has the message ‗News, Business, Arts & Entertainment‘ on its cover, at a

glance it seems to be a tabloid for light and trivial information and entertainment stories.

It features very broad range of readers and about 20% printed in colour. This publication is

similar in editorial content with (but less attractive in design than) Indo Media. Indo Post is

published in Indonesian only and the publication claims a circulation of 5,000 copies per month.

In issue No. 35 (18 April 2001), it carried stories such as the following:

3 They copied pictures and advertisements from other media, without even giving credit to the source.

Indonesian news: President Wahid‘s dream of Soekarno and Jakarta‘s situation before Parliament‘s second censure to President Wahid;

Technology: the threat of mobile phone radiation, legal action against Microsoft for

discrimination and new techniques for anti credit card forgery.

Advertorial: an article (written by an education provider) about how to chose a school and why students should go to the school mentioned in the story.

Health: Foot and mouth disease, digital hospitals in the USA, and ovarian transplants for woman.

Immigration: Assessment criteria for skilled migrant – an article sponsored by an immigration agent.

International news: The banning of the Pokemon game in Saudi and BBC‘s reconstruction

of Jesus Christ‘s face.

Jokes.

Food recipe: Laksa ala Jakarta.

Religious articles: biblical contemplation (by a priest) and information about worship

places (mosques, churches and Buddhist temple) in NSW.

Film reviews: The Mexican and Valentine.

Celebrities/gossip: Julia Robert‘s plan to marry Benjamin Bratt, Jennifer Love Hewitt‘s affair with Alex Baldwin and Indonesian celebrities.

Having reviewed the content of this tabloid thoroughly, it is clear the paper doesn‘t attribute

copyright to stories or identify the source of photos which appear to have been taken from the

Internet as they have a very low quality of resolution.

Although part owner, the editor of Indo Post, Timothy Go, has not been active in the editorial

activities. Mr Liauw Sungkono, who comes from a trading (export-import) background, runs the

day-to-day business and editorial.

The Post has a website (www.indopost.com.au) address which is mentioned on every page of the

magazine but, as at July 7, 2001, it was neither active nor does it refer to the printed version.

Indo Media

Perhaps the best of all Indonesian publications, Indo Media is a well-designed tabloid with news

and stories about entertainment, education and young people‘s activities. It is well positioned as

the newspaper for information on entertainment, recreational activities and education. It features

youthful and vibrant graphics and 50% is printed in full colour. This publication is the most

similar in editorial content and style to Indo Post. Generally, Indo Media features greater

advertising content than Indo Post. Like its competitor, Indo Media is also published in

Indonesian only and the publication claims a circulation of 7,000 copies per month.

On its cover, this ‗Most Contemporary Indo Tabloid in Oz‘ usually pictures objects that related to

a story – no mater how long or brief the story – such as a glass of wine (with bottles in the

background) in issue No. 31 or Miss Universe photo in issue No. 32.

The publication‘s strength is its design and use of pictures with its use of language clearly a

weakness. However, most of the pictures and design – as well as some of the international news

and features – are primarily copied from other sources without any acknowledgement.

In issue No. 31 (April-May 2001) it has a cover story titled ‗Secrets to a Wild Night‘ that relate to

a half-page of tips in Indonesia on how to choose drinks and avoid drink driving. Other articles in

this edition include:

Property: sponsored article written by Central Equity Real Estate in Melbourne with one color advertisement inside the publication.

Practical Solution to use long distance calling card: another sponsored article about how to

pick international phone card to call overseas.

Celebrities: Jodie Foster, Tom Hanks and Indonesian actresses.

Most Embarrassing Moments: this story is in Indonesian.

Travel: three-page story with lots of pictures about Ice Hotel in Montreal, Canada.

Film Reviews: Eight film reviews.

Sponsored restaurant reviews.

Around Indonesia: Small articles about the most recent news in Indonesia.

Around Campuses: sponsored articles from colleges and education consultants that

advertised in the publication.

Religious articles: as in The Indo Post, it published biblical contemplations and information about churches locations and their schedules. Unlike Indo Post, Indo Media

did not include other religious places such as mosques and Buddhist temples.

Indo Media appears to outdo other media for advertising. From 56 pages in issue No. 31, it has 36

pages of advertisements.

Indo Media‘s website (www.indomedia.com.au) is an active and well designed website, but

difficult to browse and not updated to reflect the most recent edition of the tabloid. In line with its

teenager audience, the website looks very flashy and apart from archives of previous publications

it doesn‘t have serious content, articles or links.

Reformasi.

In contrast to Indo-Post, Reformasi appears more professionally. It is an example of good

journalism with comprehensive articles, interviews with important figures (news sources) and

sound editorials. Reformasi sends its journalists to meet and cover important news. On various

occasions I have encountered Reformasi‘s journalists covering sound news events and

interviewing sources such as Indonesian Olympic athletes, Indonesian‘s presidential spokesperson

Wimar Witoelar and the Indonesian ambassador in Australia. Unlike its main rival Indo-Post,

Reformasi does not seem to be succeeding in getting enough advertisements.

Ausindo.

The Ausindo magazine tends to write almost everything but politics. Most of its content is

advertorial and written by those companies which advertise their products or services in the

magazine.

Like its counterparts, Ausindo tends to copy some pictures and articles from other sources.

In its latest edition (June 2001), Ausindo even reprinted an advertisement for a long distance

telephone company that was copied from The Archipelago’s May edition.

Media Sydney

In its first three editions, the magazine used expensive glossy paper but since then (issue No. 4

March 2001) it has used relatively cheap newspaper stock. Johny Sugiarto, the chief editor of the

magazine works as director of many other companies, including a real estate business that

extensively advertises itself in the magazine.

It includes more news from Indonesia than Australia or Indonesian people in Australia. At the

bottom of almost every article it refers to GAMMA weekly magazine with bylines such as

‗GAMMA/Media Sydney‘. Its also uses pictures which have been scanned from Gamma

magazine or website, which are clearly low (pixel) resolutions.

Gamelan

This A-4 format monthly magazine, according to its editor, Ms Ratih Kumudawati, targets people

who have interest in art and culture and doesn‘t touch political affairs or business issues. ―We

want to enhance our rich art and cultural inheritance and supporting relations between Indonesia

and Australia,‖ she said.

The magazine features cultural news and arts activities relating to Indonesian-speaking people. It

is printed in Indonesian only and claims a circulation of 5,000 copies per month.

During an event at the Indonesian Consulate General‘s residence late last year,

Ms Kumudawati indicated that her magazine Gamelan and The Archipelago were not competitors

as they have different target markets.

Ig.

This ‗underdog‘ magazine looks more like a teenagers toy than a magazine. Although difficult to

find in the market, ig targets young people who want to have fun. Its content is primarily trivial

articles such as how to find a partner using chat channel on the Internet, Napster, music and song

lists and game charts.

Like most of the media outlets previously mentioned, ig also writes religious (Christian) articles

and provides information about churches. Similar to Ausindo, ig writes almost everything but

politics. With fewer pages than its competitors it seems to have difficulty securing advertising.

Radio.

There are several electronic media outlets that broadcast Indonesian news and reviews. Among

them are SBS Radio ( FM 97.7 in Sydney every Tuesday 2-3pm; Thursday 10-11pm; and Friday

2-3pm ) and several Indonesian Community radio stations broadcasting from Sydney including

Radio Gelombang Sukses (FM 98.5 MHz ) on Wednesdays 9.15-10.00 pm; Radio Kartini

(FREQUENCY) Monday 10-11pm and Tuesdays 4.30-5.30pm; as well as Radio Suara

Indonesia (FM 89,7 MHz) on Sundays 7-9 pm.

Indonesian and Malaysian students reading:

From my observation and research over the past three years there are two categories of Indonesian

readers in Australia. First, Indonesians students and intellectuals with high English language skills

who tend to read news from national mainstream media outlets such as The Sydney Morning

Herald, The Australian, Daily Telegraph and The Age. The remainder prefer to read Indonesian

and Malaysian media published in Jakarta such as Tempo and Gatra weekly magazines or

Kompas or Republika dailies. These imported publications often come late and magazines like

Tempo, Gatra and Forum are very expensive ($5-$6 per issue), creating a shift toward local

community media, which is printed in Indonesian.

Those who have access to the Internet would go online and surf the net for news and information.

3. INDONESIAN PEOPLE IN AUSTRALIA

There are more than 63,000 Indonesian people in Australia, both Indonesian-born and Australian

born (second generation).

a. The latest Census, in 1996, recorded 44,183 Indonesia-born people in Australia,

an increase of 35 per cent from the 1991 Census. The 1996 distribution by State

and Territory showed New South Wales had the largest number (about 17,500

people) followed by Victoria (12,162), Western Australia (6,000) and Queensland

(around 4,500).

b. Second Generation Indonesian: (defined as Australian-born with one or both

parents born in Indonesia). In the 1996 Census, the second generation of

Indonesia-born parentage numbered 18,960, approximately 25,223 less than the

Indonesia-born. Adding this to the number of Indonesia-born gives an estimated

community size of 63,143 people in Australia.

According to the Indonesia Consulate General in Sydney, there were about 25,000 Indonesians

resident in NSW, Queensland and South Australia4 in 1999. From many sources, including the

Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) and the Department of Education,

Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA), it can be concluded that there are at least 99,000

Indonesians currently living in Australia.

Indonesian people in Australia in 1999 (estimated).

Indonesians permanently living in Australia (census 1996) : 63,000

Students :17,000

Other unregistered legal Indonesians (temporary resident) :15,000

Illegal migrants : 4,000

Total : 99,000

Most Indonesians come to Australia as students, businesspeople and tourists. Some of them only

stay in the country for a short period of time i.e. 2-5 years, while others stay for longer and/or

migrate and stay permanently.

1. Business people: DIMA said the top ten business migrant groups in 1998-1999 came from

countries like Indonesia, South Africa, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore,

Germany, the United Kingdom, Kenya and South Korea. It also said that 37 per cent of

4 My interview with Mr Zainul Arifin, an Indonesian Consulate General officer in Sydney, November 1999.

business migrants settle in NSW; 20 per cent in QLD; 21 per cent in WA; 20 per cent in

Victoria; with the other States and Territories gaining less than one per cent each5.

2. Students: Since the economic crisis in Asia, more and more young Asians are changing

their place to study from the USA and Europe to Australia. International students not only

offer a boost to the Australia‘s economy and jobs, they also bring cultural richness, variety

and understanding to Australia from many parts of the world. In 1996, according to

DETYA6 international students pumped more than $3 billion into the Australian economy.

The number of overseas students studying in Australia in 1996 jumped almost 19 percent.

Since 1993, overseas student enrolment has increased by almost 60,000 students or

69.0%7.

Australia is attractive to Indonesian students not just because it is nearer or offers cheaper

education but also because of its cultural diversity. International students know that

Australia is, by and large, a tolerant and accepting society.

Overseas students from Asia continued to outnumber students from other regions in 1996.

The proportion of Asian students remained relatively stable with only a slight increase

from 84.5% in 1995 to 84.9% in 1996. This increase was accompanied by a decrease in

the proportion of students from Oceania (2.5% in 1995 to 2.1% in 1996), while the

proportion of students from Africa, Americas and Europe all remained relatively stable.

Among those Asian nations, Indonesia is sending a significant number of students every

year. As shown in the table below, Indonesia places second after South Korea, while

Malaysia has moved to third place ahead of Japan.

Comparison of Top 10 Source Countries 1993-1996 8

Country 1996 Change 95/96 1995 Change 94/95 1994 Change

93/94 1993

Korea (South) 20,274 46.4% 13,851 40.4% 9,862 44.5% 6,827

Indonesia 16,654 14.9% 14,494 32.2% 10,964 29.6% 8,462

Malaysia 13,724 16.4% 11,791 12.9% 10,447 3.3% 10,115

Japan 13,469 14.2% 11,794 21.8% 9,682 20.2% 8,052

Singapore 11,595 19.4% 9,708 23.0% 7,894 30.7% 6,042

Hong Kong 11,150 -0.7% 11,230 -2.7% 11,540 2.3% 11,278

Taiwan 9,684 18.3% 8,185 32.1% 6,194 25.5% 4,937

Thailand 8,055 21.8% 6,613 31.3% 5,038 29.5% 3,889

India 4,023 52.8% 2,632 75.3% 1,501 54.7% 970

China 3,527 -9.1% 3,879 -29.9% 5,533 -24.2% 7,301

Total 112,155 19.1% 94,177 19.7% 78,655 15.9% 67,873

Note: Higher Education statistics included in this table are as at 31 March 1996.

5 DIMA website: www.immi.gov.au

6 DETYA homepage: http://www.deetya.gov.au/ministers/vanstone/v173atta_03997.htm

7 www.deetya.gov.au/ministers/vanstone/v173atta_03997.htm

8 www.detya.gov.au/archive/ministers/vanstone/v173atta_03997.htm

According to Indonesia‘s Education Attaché in Canberra, the number of Indonesians

studying in Australia has been steadily increasing since 19949. With 10,964 students in

1994; 14,499 students in 1995; 16,679 students in 1996; and 18, 223 students in 1997,

Indonesia has become the second highest sending country in Australia‘s international

education system. For two consecutive years, first in 1998 with 17,462 and secondly in

1999 with 18,748 students, Indonesia was the leading provider of international students to

Australia. Indonesia contributed about $400 million to Australia‘s $3.085 billion

international education revenue. ―In 1999, nearly 44 percent of Indonesian students

studying in Australia (8,185 students) had undertaken tertiary studies, of which 2,652

studied in doctorate and masters programs,‖ said the Indonesian Education Attaché.

DIMA also cited that in the year 1998-1999 that there were at least 21,732 Indonesian

students in Australia that the department classified as ‗short and long term visitors‘10.

Here is a summary of international visitors (including students) who came to Australia in

that financial year. (For a more detail list please refer to appendix 1).

Short and Long Term Visitor Arrivals by Selected Country of Birth

By Main Visa Category and Number of Entries

Country of Birth

Main Visa Category/Number of Entries

Temporary Resident Student

Visitor(a)

All Other(a)

Total(a)

First Entry Total(a)

First Entry Total(a)

China (excl Hong Kong & Taiwan) 2434 7970 3993 8557 93262 15647 125436

India 1974 3736 4344 7329 38904 5405 55375

Indonesia 1004 2336 8767 21732 69358 3970 97396

Japan 10177 20296 6578 12486 705915 4511 743207

Korea 1820 4097 3099 9116 76841 3888 93942

Malaysia 970 2407 4574 15636 120539 5038 143621

Viet Nam *138 *231 1627 2845 10475 2113 15663

All Other Countries 6974 13503 8768 15247 199460 745973 974184

The crisis in Indonesia discouraged many from coming to Australia but, after a two-year

decline, the number has started to rise again. DIMA data from December 1998 illustrated

that Indonesia topped other Asian countries with 9,112 student visa grants, an increase of

15% over 1997-1998 program year 11

. In an interview with me last April12

, Minister of

Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Philip Ruddock said that, in the year 1998 to 1999,

Australia had 9,371 successful student applications. In the year 1999 to 2000 it had fallen to

9 Information gathered from Indonesian Education Attaché in Canberra Dr Aria Djalil (also cited in The Archipelago,

No.8, June-July 2001.

10

www.immi.gov.au/statistics/statistical_tables/studtempvist/studtempvisttab1.xls

11

DIMA Fact Sheet 56, available at: http://www.immi.gov.au/facts/56study.htm 12

Interview with Philip Ruddock, The Archipelago Indonesia Review, June, 2001.

5,646, due to Indonesia‘s currency crisis and a decreased capacity to afford an overseas

education. But the number rose again in mid 2000. As calculated by the Indonesian

Ambassador in Australia, there were at least 17,000 Indonesian tertiary students in Australia

in 2000.13

4.CONCEPTION AND PLANNING.

Upon reviewing the Indonesian media scene in Australia and audience availability, I came to the

conclusion that there was an opportunity to run a more professionally managed product with a

clearer objective. My aim was to produce a quality community magazine targeting Indonesian

people in Australia, primarily those who reside in NSW. With the help of an investor, I started the

business in April 2000. Then, along the way I was able to invite other investors who were residing

in Australia and extended the status of Archipelago from a Partnerships company to a Proprietary

Limited enterprise (Pty Ltd).

Vision and Mission. The Archipelago’s mission is to provide readers with the information and

insight needed to prepare themselves as future leaders or decision makers in every aspects of

society. The emphasis is on news and analysis and helping readers synthesize information into

useful knowledge. Archipelago’s motto is: ‗The chosen media for young people who want a better

future‘ or in Bahasa Indonesia: ―Informasi untuk maju bersama bangsa‖.

Positioning. This motto bases our position as a reliable source of relevant information for the

Indonesian (and also Malaysian) community in Australia with important and up to date news and

editorial content. The Archipelago will also feature a revised and updated graphic layout

reflecting its enhanced content. The visual appearance of The Archipelago will be attractive to its

target market.

Target markets. The publication identified certain groups of people as its primary and secondary

target markets. The Archipelago aims to be the first and only media targeting Indonesian students

as its most valuable market and other young Indonesians currently residing in Australia. As

shown from the previously outlined studies, Indonesia topped the list of student source countries.

Students, both from Indonesia and Malaysia (who speak a similar language), are hungry for news

and information, not only about their own country, but also about Australia. They need

information about study, accommodation, how to find a good restaurant, places for relaxation,

where to buy books and other goods, how to find the best deals for international telephone calls

and how and where to find part-time jobs. Their parents too are eager to know where to find good

schools and universities, where to invest and the best locations for their children‘s

accommodation. Other target markets include businesspeople and intellectuals.

To achieve the goal, The Archipelago has set up plans both for short and longer terms.

a. Short term: to print and publish a 32- to 40-page magazine with Indonesian students as the

primary target market.

13

Interview with Mr Syahrizal Effendi, Indonesian Ambassador to Canberra, Sydney, June 2000.

b. Long term: to target a wider audience including business migrants and tourists from other

nationalities who speak and read similar languages such as East Timorese, Malaysians and

Singaporeans. Also in this term, construction of a website for the magazine would begin.

Content and Editorial. The Archipelago is to be published monthly. With 5,000 copies of up to

40 pages of news, reviews and advertisements to be published, the magazine aims to be the best

vehicle for businesspeople to target their Indonesian and Malaysian communities, particularly the

young and wealthy. We assumed that these groups speak both Indonesian (or Malaysian) and

English languages and read quality publications. They also seem to have a relatively higher

buying power.

The magazine is based in Sydney and distributed freely (for the first year) throughout Australia. It

reports on Indonesian, Malaysian and Australian business and politics, on education and student

life, science and technological development, lifestyle, entertainment and leisure and other useful

news and information. It contains about 25 % English news stories compiled from various

sources. Writers and contributors from almost every state of Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia –

as well as students themselves – will be recruited. The vision is for thousands of business people,

leaders and academics across Australia and Indonesia to rely on The Archipelago as one of their

ways to be informed.

To implement the plan, I considered four main issues management and myself would face in

order to run The Archipelago successfully. The four areas, which will be discussed later, are:

a. Business, Management and Human Resources.

b. Marketing and Sales.

c. Distribution and delivery.

d. The Editorial site.

5. LAUNCHING A PRINT MAGAZINE.

Two months after the business was established, the plan was implemented with the first issue

published in June 2000. Initially it was published every two months but since issue four it has

been published on an almost monthly basis.

In the first couple of months the business was operated from our homes using our personal

computers. I wrote stories then sent them to our graphic designer who happened to be one of the

partners. On weekends we would gather at his apartment and spent the night checking the draft

copy. This collaboration worked well for the first two months and resulted in the first issue of the

magazine. The following months, we kept doing the same frame of work. We had no formal

office to work but our homes, until September 2000 when we moved the office to one of our

partners‘ front room in Redfern. The room has been used for free of charge in exchange to shares

offered to the house owner. From this office we conducted marketing and sales forces, but other

work such as writings and designs remained in our homes. As the location near Redfern station

was pretty ‗handy‘ for sales people, from time to time we managed to get more advertisers in the

following editions.

But the office didn‘t last too long. In early March 2001, due to owner‘s personal reasons the

office once again had to move to Arncliffe where we are conducting the business now. This time

the office was not for free. But to reduce cost, we shared the two-bedroom unit in Arncliffe with

two Indonesian students. We used the living room as our office while they used the bedrooms.

Fortunately they were also willing to work part time for the magazine, thus it is better for the

business to create new synergy with limited resources. From the new office, we continued the

management aspects of the business, mainly in marketing and sales (including distribution),

finance and administration.

A. Business, Management and Human Resources.

When I first began the business, I did not know many things. I didn‘t know that it was so easy to

establish and register a business entity in Australia. Unlike in Indonesia, where there were too

many ‗red tapes‘ for people to start a business, the officer in the Department of Fair Trading in

Elizabeth Street, Sydney, served me very well and efficiently. While I was wondering around

about the requirements for someone to begin a business in New South Wales (NSW), the officer

in the department has only taken 25 minutes to make my business name registered. Instantly I was

on the business and interestingly they said that I could do almost anything I wanted using the new

business name.

But, then I needed to make business calculation. Without any help from anybody else, I made

plans in budget and marketing aspects of The Archipelago. At this stage, I calculated that the

investment should make a Brake-Event-Point (BEP) – the stage when income catches all the

expenses -- within one year. Yet, it was a kind of miscalculation. In fact, after almost one year in

the business, our income has never been able to meet the costs we spent. I then considered this as

a learning curve to be paid by every new company in its first couple of years. The other lesson I

had to exercise in the day-to-day operation was how to combine my journalism skills with

marketing, sales, human resources and administration capabilities.

As the GST was introduced to the Australian business in July 2000 (just about three months after

I established the business), The Archipelago business has also been ‗trapped‘ in difficulties to

convey to this tax confusion. Perhaps as other thousands of business people in Australia, I

personally must find answers to questions such as how to conduct book keeping records, what

kind of taxes we will have to pay, for how much, and when. Also, I had to locate where to find

help and which accountant will be able to help me with low budget.

Finding an accountant was not so hard. At least it was not as hard as finding experienced people

who were willing to work in small company. Should we have big amount of capital the case

would be different. But, as we didn‘t have huge amount of money, I only managed to employ few

casual workers mainly Indonesian students who were willing to be under paid or who were happy

to gain some unpaid work experience in our office. Yet, by employing these people, I knew that I

could not expect too much. They were all neither experienced employee nor their English were

advanced enough for the business to run fast. Consequently, I had to handle many business and

management tasks by myself, while maintaining the pace in catching up deadlines for the

magazine contents.

B. Marketing and Sales.

Generally speaking, business students as well as business people are taught that marketing is

totally different with sales. When marketing speaks about long term plan and strategies, selling

talks about short term, instant ways to get money for the business. Quoting Professor Theodore

Levitt of Harvard, Marketing Guru Philip Kotler14

drew a perceptive contrast between the selling

and marketing concepts:

Selling focuses on the needs of the seller; marketing on the needs of the buyer. Selling is

preoccupied with the seller‘s need to convert his products into cash; marketing with the idea of

satisfying the needs of the customer by means of the products and the whole cluster of things

associated with creating, delivering and finally consuming it.

The marketing concept, according to Kotler, rests on four pillars: target market, customer needs,

integrated marketing and profitability. When marketing focuses on outside-in perspective, the

selling concept, contradictorily, takes an inside-out perspective.

For The Archipelago, our marketing strategy was not complex. Given that the business is

relatively small, we only engaged in issues such as target market, delivery and finding the way to

satisfy readers‘ needs. As mentioned earlier, The Archipelago mainly targeted Indonesian and

Malaysian students and intellectuals in Australia, primarily from the age of 19-35 and residents of

NSW and Victoria. Furthermore, we also set English-speaking people who have interests towards

Indonesia and or Malaysia as our secondary target market. That was why we incorporated English

articles as part of The Archipelago‘s content. In order to meet readers‘ satisfaction, we positioned

The Archipelago as the only quality bilingual magazine in Australia, which gives them useful

information and insights.

Since I was not able to learn enough information about community media, particularly Indonesian

media, in Australia, I based most of the plans only on assumptions and instinct. The only study I

have conducted was a simple market research (using random sampling method) followed by a

group discussion with ten students several months ago and telephone interviews with advertisers.

From this research, I gained relatively useful information such as market composition, market

needs and their perceptions towards Indonesian media. In the study I compared several

Indonesian media, mainly Gamelan, Indo Media and Indo Post. Here is the summary of the

research:

Reader’s Focus Group’s Findings:

Group discussion indicated that some of the existing publications positioning were confusing, as respondents were unsure as to what market segment the media were

targeting.

The contents were criticized for being too lightweight and not containing enough news from the Indonesian community both in Australia and Indonesia.

Most of current publications graphic layouts were seen as inferior to other similar

community media not as professional.

Respondents found some of the media‘s advertisements to be useful, particularly entertainment, legal services and real estate categories.

Participants are extremely price sensitive and would be highly reluctant to purchase the media, unless they offer better news and information.

14

Philip Kotler, Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control, 9th edition, Prentice Hall,

Inc., New Jersey, 1997.

Results of readers’ questionnaire

Respondents did not rely solely on Indonesian media for their news and only occasionally read these publications.

Respondents wanted more information on the Indonesian community in Australia.

One third of respondents only read current publications for their advertising content.

41% of respondents liked short news items.

In addition to studying the readers, we conducted telephone interviews with advertisers -- indeed

they have been and are community media‘s ‗prime customers‘ -- who run their ads in those three

media. Here are some findings:

Advertisers in general felt that Indonesian publications were all undifferentiated in terms of target audience.

Most advertisers think they have no other choice but to put their ads in one (or more) of

those ‗unprofessionally-managed‘ media.

Advertisers used these media only to reach Indonesians in general, without specifically differ to any social or demographic groups.

Advertisers often used more than one Indonesian publication and they did not have brand loyalty. For example, Telstra places advertisement in Indo Post as well as Indo Media and

Gamelan.

Yet, since all Indonesian media in Australia were freely distributed, it was pretty hard to gain a

more thoughtful and genuine perception especially about the audience‘s buying behaviors. As far

as we could conclude, audience concerned more to the type of news and information they needed

from these media. It was not easy for us to know market competition and how sensitive was the

market to the price of the products.

Furthermore, another important issue we needed to know was in the strategy to sell out our space

to the advertisers, particularly in implementing the best and fastest way for the business to attract

income sources. Apart from that interview with advertisers, in the first couple of months we

almost have had no way in knowing when and where to get sufficient advertising, how to invite

advertisers and for how much money. Thus, the only way for us to get across this issue was by

doing trial and error. We set up a schedule of advertisement, then made corrections whenever

necessary. All the way from the first issue to the last edition (number eight), which was published

on June 2001, we have always been forced to negotiate our adverting rates. Often I had to spend

hours in persuading prospective clients for them to be willing in purchasing spaces in the

magazine15

.

As our publication was considered a newcomer in the market, we had to do our best in four

important selling steps in order for advertisers to buy the space. The first step was to make people

aware of our availability before we were able to get their interest. To do this, we printed as many

as possible the first three number of issues, no matter how low the space has been bought by the

advertisers. Starting from the forth issue, which was the time when we thought they have already

attracted to The Archipelago, we strived for people to have a desire in buying the space. By

persuading them we hoped that these prospective clients would act to purchase our publication‘s

15

For advertising schedules please refer to appendix 2.

space. The same steps were also taken by our salespeople in every meeting with new prospective

advertisers.

In this regards, I can conclude that there were two different types of advertisers: bigger companies

and smaller Indonesian (or Asian) owned businesses. The big Australian owned enterprises that

targeted our readers as their audience, perhaps because they have more disposable budget for

promotions -- such as Ethnic Communication Pty Ltd (who represents Telstra), Citibank and

Garuda Indonesia Airlines -- usually easier to be ‗gripped‘ and faster in paying their advertising

fees. But the second type of advertiser, the smaller businesses – such as restaurants and grocers –

were really hard and demanding in negotiation process and difficult in paying their debts. While

the first one usually had prepared own advertisement designs, the later always needed to be

helped in the design and writing advertisement copies (wordings).

Having said this selling strategy for The Archipelago, I learnt that we have been facing difficulties

to generate enough income for the magazine to survive in a relative short period of time and make

big profit in the longer term. From one-year experience running this business, I understood that

for any community media such as The Archipelago to have a sustainable growth it is imperative

that the business succeeds in maintaining its selling capability over a sufficient period of time. In

other words, the (advertisement) selling, more than the editorial issues, is always an integral to the

business for making money and stay alive.

C. Distribution and delivery.

Second only to finding advertisers in its degree of difficulty is the day-to-day running (including

the selling of the most recent edition) of the magazine. Even during its first year as a free

publication, it was difficult to manage the task of distribution as we were uncertain where the

magazine should be placed. In our first year of publication, we continued looking for new outlets

to place the magazine.

In the beginning we only knew of a handful of Indonesian restaurants and grocers in the eastern

suburbs of Sydney such as Kingsford, Kensington and Randwick (where most Indonesian people

reside) plus a few scattered places in NSW. But as time went by, we managed to find more places

and more people to help in distribution. We also found students activists from various universities

in NSW – such as the University of Technology Sydney, University of New South Wales,

University of Sydney and Macquarie University – who were willing to distribute the magazine

among their peers. Then, from word of mouth, we were able to attract more students from other

universities like the University of Western Sydney, University of Wollongong, University of

Newcastle, and Australian National University in Canberra.

Word of mouth was one of the most useful marketing tools for the magazine. It enabled us to

build broader contacts with community organizations and activists such as Minang Saiyo (West

Sumatra), Ikabema (Maluku), and Arek Jawa Timur (East Java). Word of mouth was also

effective in establishing contact with religious organisation from churches, mosques and Buddhist

temples. Over time, The Archipelago‘s network has steadily increased and has been accepted by a

broader audience. In turn, more and more people contacted the magazine, either by email or

telephone and facsimiles.

Now, as we are trying to sell the magazine for $ 2.00, our distribution task has to shift to a

different strategy. Different from previous distributions – when we can easily drop the magazine

at any time to any person in the outlets -- we are now beginning to find ways for the outlets to be

willing to sell the publication. We have to ask outlet owners‘ written approval in receiving and

putting the magazine on their shelves. Some agree to cooperate and get 50 cents for every copy,

but many still reluctant to do so particularly for reasons like ‗busy‘ or ‗no time‘ to control people

who take the usually-free papers. Perhaps different with other communities who have better

reading habits, most Indonesians seldom go to news agencies, thus the way for any Indonesian

publication to distribute their media is through outlets such as Indonesian restaurants, grocers, and

shops.

If the shop and restaurant owners have their own judgment, it is more difficult for us to manage

the distribution among community leaders and religious places where naturally don‘t have certain

place to sell any publication. For this people, the only way we might do in the future is by

encouraging them to be subscribers. It seems to me that subscription will ease us in collecting

money from buyers. It will be a lot easier than to collect money from those outlets and agents.

D. Editorial.

Editorial was another big challenges we have been facing in running The Archipelago. Had we

established our position as ‗just another media‘ (with inferior value of content), it would be easier

for us to write more light weigh stories, trivial news and simple graphic design utilizing just a

small amount of source and money. But, since we have set up our publication not just to be

different from the rest of Indonesian media but also to be a quality publication, we have always

wanting to get all necessary news and articles from reliable sources.

Some of the issues we have been confronting include finding answers to questions such as how to

get news and how to find English-speaking journalists. To fulfill those concerns, again we have to

first make the magazine available to a wider audience – hoping that it will make people aware

about our existence. In the first three issues, it was obvious for me that journalists from small

media like The Archipelago needed to establish themselves in the media market for certain period

of time until audience recognize its availability. Our experience told us that in the first four to five

months of publication we hardly could find useful news sources who meet our target markets.

But, after the third issue, when more and more people have already been ‗awaken‘ by our

existence, we started to be recognized. Acknowledgments began to arise. Audience started to send

us faxes, emails and letters talking various kind of concerns related to The Archipelago‘s role

among the community. Also, many invitations arrived from sources wanting to be covered by our

publication. Our correspondent in Melbourne, for instance, has already got opportunity to cover

important news such as S-11 demonstration on September 2000. By the fifth edition, we already

in the situation that has allowed us to cover more important news stories such as interview with

Mr Paul Keating and Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab during his visit to Canberra.

From edition to edition, we have been sending copies of magazine to relevant sources and

newsmakers such as government people, business community and vox pops. Among others, we

sent copies of magazine to Premier Bob Carr of NSW, Minister of Immigration and Multicultural

Affairs Philip Ruddock and many academicians in various universities across the continent.

I have to admit that one of the biggest difficulties in editorial issue is in finding native speaker

who is willing to write stories and translate the Indonesian version of the content with minimum

wages. In the first three issues, I only managed to get two English-speaking students from non-

journalistic background to write features inside the magazine. One of them was Xylia Ingham, a

UTS student who had visited Indonesia a few months before she wrote for the magazine. Yet, the

sustainable effort we made brought a better result. By the end of the year 2000 I managed to

contact English speaking journalists or at least people who have interests in journalism such as

Sonya Sandham, Jo Martin-Rizzi and Robyn Ball. Sonya used to work for The Sydney Morning

Herald and is a freelance writer for The Jakarta Post. Jo was a friend from one of my journalism

classes in UTS and Robyn is currently working as one of online editors in the Australian

Financial Review.

In regards to issues like copyrights we always put our effort to take pictures ourselves or, when it

was not possible to make one, we usually bough them from news services like AAP. Recently I

also managed to get in touch with Indonesian newswire company Antara in order to arrange

picture acquisition for our next issues. Furthermore, our designer has also been advised to create

his own designs – although to a certain stage it means spending more time and money.

Editorial content.

Almost every month The Archipelago‘s reports different focus for readers and advertisers. We

aim to furnish readers with in-depth analyses of various news stories such as current affairs,

education and student life, science and technology, immigration issues and stories, opinion and

discussions, career advice, art and cultural stories, and business news. Here is the list of The

Archipelago content from the first issue to the most recent (June-July) edition:

No Main Issue/ Cover Story Other Important articles Notes

1, June 2000 Student criticism of Indonesia‘s

President Wahid‘s strange

leadership style.

Prof Arief Budiman (from

Melbourne University) and

his opinion about

Indonesia as a new Federal

State.

No certain format for this

first issue; almost no

advertisements.

2, Aug-Sept 2000 ‗Welcome to Australia, Mate‘,

Indonesian President Wahid‘s plan

to visit Australia and relations

between the countries.

Interview with Indonesian

Ambassador to Australia;

interview with Wahid‘s

spokesman Wimar

Witoelar; article about the

Harbour Bridge Walk for

Reconciliation.

Image of PM John Howard

and Indonesia‘s Wahid

(purchased from AAP);

This edition contained a

few advertisements.

3, Nov-Dec 2000 A roundup after the Sydney

Olympics and Indonesian athletes.

S-11 demonstration in

Melbourne; news about

Australian media biases

towards Indonesia; feature

story about the Community

Council of NSW.

Used photos of popular

athletes (such as Ian

Thorpe) purchased from

AAP; More

advertisements.

4, Dec 2000 Get Rich.Com: Internet and E-

Commerce.

Interview with an

Indonesian traditional

mask dancer Monica

Wulff; Article about Rhino

conservation at Ujung

For the first time, one of

our own journalists

photographed PM John

Howard.

Kulon, West Java,

Indonesia.

5, Jan-Feb 2001 Indonesian Business Skills

Migrants in Australia.

Interview with Paul

Keating; interview with

Indonesia‘s Foreign

Minister Alwi Shihab.

For the first time, a

crossword puzzle offering

a prize to readers was

printed; Modification of

The Archipelago logo

6, Mar-April 2001 Ms Megawati‘s turn as President? Asian students‘

achievement in Australia;

Jennifer Lopez in Sydney;

opinion about

‗Understanding

Indonesians‘ by Nuim

Khaiyyath of radio ABC.

Advertisement contract

signed with Garuda

Indonesia airlines.

7, April-May 2001 Quo Vadis Indonesia: Where is

Indonesia heading - democracy or

chaos?

Interview with Ric Smith,

new Australian

Ambassador to Jakarta;

PM Howard‘s launch of

the illicit drug campaign.

Magazine reduced by four

pages (36 pages instead of

40 pages).

8, June-Jul 2001 Australia‘s immigration programs

and treatment of Indonesians:

Exclusive interview with Philip

Ruddock).

Anti corruption seminar;

Non-AusAid students‘

children became victims of

Australia‘s Department of

Education‘s unfair policy.

Magazine sold for $2 per

copy; Magazine format to

be changed to A-4 (for

cost saving reasons),

another modification on

the logo and content

design.

In the next edition (No.9), a special issue with a cover story on private colleges and school is

planned. This edition aims to provide readers with information about schools in Australia, mainly

in NSW. It will contain information such as how to pick a good school/college, tuition fees,

reputation and student‘s personal experiences and why they chose a certain school. School will be

ranked on the quality of their products or services, the long-term vision of their management, their

innovativeness and financial soundness, and their position in the marketplace.

6. DISCUSSION: Community Media, Between Business and Civic Journalism

As discussed earlier, community printed media will continue to survive with minimal impact from

the development of new media (Internet) and television. Recently, experts have said that

conventional media businesses are under attack from two sides16

. First, aside from declining

circulation, newspapers are threatened by new advertising business players who sell directly to

customers. Second, they must compete with online news and information services. Andy Grove of

Intell predicted that all companies would soon be Internet companies. In the next few years there

will be unprecedented change in almost every aspect of our life, including the way we consume

news and information17

.

16

Caught in the web, The Economist magazine, 17 July 1999, available at:

www.economist.com/tfs/library_tframeset.html 17

Caught in the web, The Economist magazine, 17 July 1999.

The challenge Grove mentioned appears to apply to mainstream print media but not community

and small local media. Internet and television do not pose a major threat as community media

continues to have a closer connection with its readers (far more than big media outlets). The only

concern is the fierce competition among the community media itself.

Although community media operates with a smaller pool of journalist and covers specialist topics,

it continues to play a more important role as an agenda setter in the community. In multicultural

countries like Australia, it is imperative for a reliable and accountable community-based media

outlet to exist. A community can depend on the information and the media can depend on the

community for it source of news.

For the sake of discussion in this paper, I will use the local media and community media

phenomenon intermittently, as they share many similarities. One clear difference is that

community media, such as The Archipelago, has a readership of people mainly derived from the

same nation or culture (i.e. Indonesia) situated in different areas, whereas local media has a

readership of people (usually from different countries of origin) in the same town or council. Also

in multicultural countries such as USA and Australia, both community media and small local

media have the same role in civic journalism. Civic journalism is defined as ‗journalism that tries

to get citizens more involved in civic life‘18

.

To some extent, Indonesian media in Australia also can play a relatively important role in civic

journalism. The media engagement with Indonesian people and public participation in the media

helps the community set their (public) agenda.

When I established The Archipelago with five other shareholders, I was struck by the connection

it fostered with readers. People wanted more reporting on what was going on not only in

Indonesia, but, more importantly in their community in Australia, in their suburbs, their schools,

their churches and mosques. The readers wanted more explanation, more features, and more

photographs. Various kinds of invitations, emails and telephone calls were received at our office

seeking coverage of events such as soccer matches, students‘ graduations, weddings and

community leaders elections.

Almost every month I found myself explaining that there were stories we just would not be able

to cover. Our staff consisted of myself (as editor), a native English speaker who wrote casually

(for very little money) because she loves Indonesia, a reporter-photographer, a correspondent in

Melbourne and two (and sometime three) part-time salespeople. We also have two correspondents

in Indonesia but they rarely send news article. A majority of contributions come from freelancers

who are not looking for money but rather to see their bylines in the magazine.

Perhaps like other community editors elsewhere, I have to fill multiple positions: reporter, editor,

editorial writer, layout editor, and proofreader. Every month I go to the graphic designer‘s home

to proofread the latest version of the magazine before it goes to the printer. The last two days of

publication are long days with little sleep. Since the publication‘s income depends totally on

advertiser, I must lead the sales team myself, contacting advertisers, make appointment, drafting

sales contracts, and chasing payments.

18

Arthur Charity, Doing Public Journalism, Guilford Press, New York 1995;

A big challenge for community (or small) media outlets is the business aspect of management. It

is difficult for small media outlets to survive without enough funds, regardless of the high

standard of journalism. In America there have been cases recently of small media outlets have to

sacrifice quality in cases such as Dave Denison‘s experience19

. Although Denison‘s case involves

a local paper (not community media), the similarities are evident.

Denison was involved in the big business of small newspapering. He was the editor of the

Arlington Advocate, a suburban weekly in Massachusetts owned by Harte-Hanks

Communications, a mid-sized chain based in San Antonio. The Advocate had been a family-

owned paper for more than 100 years until Harte-Hanks bought it in 1986. Readers in town were

quick to tell Denison, according to him, that the paper had gone downhill ever since. One day he

found a newsletter from Harte-Hanks headquarters, the owner of his paper, where the president

and CEO stressed the important of company income. It said every employee had to keep in mind

that ―revenue growth is my job.‖ Denison pondered the message. ―Attending to the endless details

involved in getting the paper out already exhausted me from week to week. And now revenue

growth was my job, too?‖ Denison said.

Further more, as the paper was then (in 1994) sold to a newspaper group owned by a giant

company, Denison worried that the day of the independent, family-owned newspaper is over.

―What is not yet clear is whether or not corporations will find a way to reinvest in—and truly

improve—community newspapers,‖ Denison added.

It is seems to me that what worries Denison would not happen in the Indonesian community

media in Australia. First, because these media target only a relatively small audience, thus it is too

small for big corporations to be interested in. Secondly, since most of them, if not all, are

managed by owners who don‘t have journalistic experience or idealism, professional advisors (of

big companies) would not expect these media could be authoritative enough to be community

watchdogs as Denison‘s Advocate in Massachusetts. Consequently, the Indonesian media in

Australia will always be small and confronting difficult business challenges.

In the study that focused on urban community newspapers in the 25 largest American cities,

Jeffres and Cutietta20

cited that many community papers make frequent changes in staff, location,

format and function as they grow. It is almost exactly the same with what has happened in our

Indonesian media in Australia. Many papers have changed their format, content and staff. While

the Indo Post changed its staff mentioned in the masthead, the Media Sydney changed its paper

from high-quality glossy paper to a much cheaper alternative.

The Archipelago also has changed its design, lessened its content and replacing some staff during

its first 12 months of operation. This was a calculated step. I cut the content from 40 pages to 36

pages to save on printing cost and new staff had to be found to replace a graphic designer and

other staff who had returned to Indonesia or were busy with school assignments and

examinations.

19

Dave A Denison, The big business of small newspapers, Editor & Publisher, 5/27/95, Vol.128 Issue 21.

20

Leo W Jeffres and Connie Cutietta, Differences of community newspaper goals and functions in large urban areas,

Newspaper Research Journal, Summer99, Vol. 20 Issue 3.

From 141 community papers surveyed by Leo W Jeffres and Connie Cutietta, more than half

showed how important owners‘ interest were in their paper‘s publication. In the survey, editors

were asked to select from a list of five descriptions for how their paper began, or to offer another

description. Some of the results were:

About 55 percent checked that as an individual or couple they were interested in journalism and their area so they began the paper as a personal goal

About 16 percent checked that as a set of community activists they began the paper to support

their group‘s goals.

In the case of Indonesian media in Australia, personal goals – particularly in achieving profits --

appear to be the motivator. I draw this conclusion from meetings with editors and owners of

Indonesian media in Australia. Also, a significant trend in the Indonesian media is that most of

them cater to the owners‘ interest rather than to meet readers‘ expectations. The fact that most of

Indonesian media runs stories and news from sponsors shows that the owners are interested in

making money first before serving the community. Secondly, most of these media outlets run

religious articles and information that suits their own (Christian) beliefs.

It is understandable that such media want to serve their religious community. As stated by Jeffres

and Cutietta, one of five functions community media has is in campaigning for societal objectives. According to Jeffres and Cutietta, the functions fulfilled by newspapers and other

media are generally summed up in global terms such as keeping the public informed or providing

a timely account of current affairs. Quoting Denis McQuail, Jeffres and Cutietta elaborated on

what is involved in these functions and the purposes media serve for society:

1) information - providing information about events and conditions in society and the world;

indicating relations of power; facilitating innovation, adaptation and progress;

2) correlation - explaining, interpreting and commenting on the meaning of events and

information; providing support for established authority and norms; socializing; coordinating

separate activities; consensus building; setting orders of priority and signaling relative status;

3) continuity - expressing the dominant culture and recognizing subcultures and new cultural

developments; forging and maintaining commonality of values;

4) entertainment - providing amusement, diversion, the means of relaxation; reducing social

tension;

5) mobilization - campaigning for societal objectives in the sphere of politics, war, economic

development, work and sometimes religion.

Frankly, apart from the one I discussed earlier, I can only assume that the Indonesian media have

already met information, continuity and entertainment functions, but not the correlation function

as can be seen from their light weigh content. Yet I am not sure whether this assumption is valid,

for it needs further study for us to know more about how far these functions brought down to the

community level.

7. CONCLUSION

In summary, from one year of struggle in running The Archipelago, I can draw these conclusions:

1. It is easier in theory than in practice to run and manage a media business in Australia with

limited resources. Small (community) media management is not about news gathering,

reporting and writing but marketing and sales, distribution and promotions. No matter how

good the published articles, the business‘s success hinges on resources.

2. It was relatively easy to find people willing to write – even for free - as long as their

qualifications were not a concern. People like to see their names in print but getting a

byline in mainstream media outlet can be difficult.

3. Keeping the business running and looking for income from advertisements and

subscription while maintaining quality and sensible news was the greatest challenge.

4. Our preliminary research and experience showed The Archipelago has found a niche in the

Indonesian newspaper market. We have also determined that the market is extremely

price-sensitive and we therefore can not propose that publication be sold for at least the

first years of its existence.

5. The Archipelago have only indirect, but not a direct -- competition from Indo Media, in

terms of target market, content and layout. The magazine concentrates primarily on

quality news and useful science and technology information while Indo Media tends to

focus on entertainment and cultural stories. Therefore, The Archipelago will maintain its

quality and English articles, thereby providing readers with news and useful information

that cannot be found among its competitors.

8. FUTURE PLANS: GOING ONLINE?

As The Archipelago has introduced a quality product with in-depth Indonesian news, reportage

and analysis, the publication will repackage itself via revised and improved graphic design, and,

when the time comes, operating online to attract a wider audience. So far, we have already

registered two domain names and made several attempts to build a good website for the

publication. Here are The Archipelago‘s websites that currently still under constructions

(Appendix 3).

www.journalism.uts.edu.au/subjects/oj1/oj1_s2000/archipelago/info.html

www.archipelago2000.com.

www.dewacorp.com/archipelago/liststory.asp?SectionId=6

These innovations – particularly the magazine‘s website -- will facilitate better positioning of the

magazine. Furthermore, an increased demand for the publication is anticipated which will in turn

lead to higher circulation figures. This will provide a platform for future advertising rate increases

and ongoing business success.

Yet, it is not easy for any printed media to shift its business to be online. There are challenges

media will face in running media on the web (Internet). All conventional printed media,

newspaper will be distributed and delivered by vehicles to agents, homes or offices of readers as

audience. The physical process allows the paper-and-ink media to be published few times every

day. In most country, in Australia and Indonesia for instance, they are only circulated no more

than once a day. The news in these printed media is going in one way traffic only; all are pushed

from providers to audience. The news is what journalism professional decided it was.

Figure 1: News making in the conventional print media21

.

News Sources Journalists Editors Layout Presses/Printer ---- vehicles Newsstands Audience

It is a lot different with the Cyberspace media distribution these days. As shown in Figure 2, all

the traditional operations after the newsroom will be removed. Internet will allow its database to

be accessed from anywhere in the world and send the information directly to the audience. Here

the network of control has shifted from the news provider to the news consumer: computer users

who customise their news filtering agents to search out stories on any number of subjects that

interest them. More interestingly in the near future they will be able to personalise their TV

newscasts. Thus, with the consumer now beginning to pull the levers, it requires that we adopt

new ways of thinking about what constitutes news.

Figure 2: News making and flow of information on the Internet.

News Sources Journalists Editors ----Internet (database) ---- Audience (and ‗new journalists‘)

(interactivity and personalisation)

When The Archipelago goes online, for instance, we have to convey our business using this

paradigm. In the news making, for instance, we should allow our audience to be able to write

instant comments and other information that match their needs and wants. Using interactivity

phenomenon, editors should be ready almost at any time in responding audience‘s comment.

Like it or not, journalists and editors like The Archipelago news workers have to admit that

interactivity is one of key words in the Internet era media. On-line Editor for the Sydney Morning

Herald and its family websites, including the flagship web news site (http://www.smh.com.au/),

supports this idea. In a discussion at UTS22

, Burton argues that journalists‘ role as the gatekeepers

in the traditional media role is now critical in a period where consumers have been told to sort out

the credible for themselves. It is, he says, a paradox but one that will only become more true as

the web becomes more and more pervasive. ―In this context, the big challenge I believe for

journalism is interactivity. Mass media circa 1994 was all about presenting a selection of editorial

content for mass market consumption, ordered in a linear hierarchical fashion - you either liked it

or you didn‘t,‖ says Burton. ―Now the web allows a non-linear presentation; that is, the user

deciding the order and sequence of how they wish to consume their information. But equally

profoundly, demands users to be able to directly interact with their fellow users.‖

Another crucial issue is that most of news and information we print in the magazine should be

updated in timely manner, as it would be out of date to publish just what already available in the

21

Maps from this figure and figure no.2 are adopted and modifications from similar map written by John E.

Newhagen, The Future of Journalism in a Distributed Communication Architecture, in Borden and Harvey (Eds), The

Electronic Grapevine, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, USA, 1998, p.9. 22

Tom Burton, ―The Web: Democracy in action or the death of Journalism?‖ The George Munster Journalism

Forums, UTS, Sydney, 5 September 1999, available at: http://jsa-4.hum.uts.edu.au/acij/munster/f1_050999.html

printed version. On the editorial side, media like The Archipelago should consider about the

difference between online news consumption and offline papers. Perhaps I should warn myself

that my online audience don't want long articles and prefer headlines, which frequently updated.

Moreover, on the Net, it is likely easier for me and The Archipelago team to have more resources,

but on the contrary it seems more difficult for us to deny sources access to any media. Using the

Net itself, newsworkers (like me) and news organisation (like The Archipelago) can easily click

any Web site at any time from any place. Thus, prior to an interview with a source, for example,

we will go to their ready-to-tell sources and resources for a huge amount of information. By doing

this, The Archipelago editor and reporter from Sydney or Jakarta will be able to control our new

source who works in another city like Melbourne or even another country like East Timor. Yet, it

is almost impossible for us to avoid or deny sources‘ access to our media or other media as the

sources themselves will also have same opportunity to the Net either as a medium or as a

message.

To comply with the new paradigm we might contend that The Archipelago should not just put our

print content on the Net. We could not just go online and change our status to be Web enabled

because online media have their own specifications, contents and contexts that are very distinctive

from the print version. Not only it is interactive and ‗personable‘, but also because it has the

ability to easily archive information. For example, if we are reading an article on East Timor in a

news media format and want more information about the agony in the province, then at a click of

a button we could retrieve detailed background information about East Timor and Indonesia. We

could even see other related current articles, or a huge number of archives, about Indonesia and a

map showing East Timor location.

However, if we (The Archipelago team) – because of limited fund resources, for example --

persist to sell the same old content on the Net (with a risk becoming Web disabled) we will have

to face new ‗news providers‘ or portals as our new dominant competitors. Companies such as

Yahoo! had grown up in the new media and much better in doing their jobs. They don‘t only

provide huge accesses to news wires such as Reuters and AP but get more revenues from

advertisements too. They had become economic superstars. According to Brown, at January 1998

the ‗Web centric‘ Yahoo! capitalised at US$ 2.7 billion. About 15 months later, at May 1999,

Yahoo! worth US $ 33.9 billion23

.

With every one can be both a reader and at the same time a writer, many more people and groups

will be able to tell their own version of truth or event. These people will easily create raw and

unprocessed news. Therefore, perhaps The Archipelago journalists will suffer from our function

as ‗conduit of pipe‘ or intermediary. It means that as gatekeepers we will confront the prospect

that the Net may usurp our role as agenda setters and news filters.

But as cited by Ellen Hume,24

people are overwhelmed by news products and imitations such as

infomercials, talk shows, and Internet gossips which all are competing with traditional news

stories in the old and new media. Therefore citizens need a trustworthy guide not just for stories

23

Chip Brown, ―Fear.Com, The State of American Newspaper‖, American Journalism Review , June 1999, p.50-71. 24

Ellen Hume, ―Tabloids, Talk Radio, and the Future of News: Technology's Impact on Journalism,‖ The Annenberg

Washington Program in Communications Policy Studies of Northwestern University, 1995, available at:

http://www.annenberg.nwu.edu/pubs/tabloids/

about what "officially happened" around the world each day but for the enormous flow of

information that is approaching into their homes. Thus, we still can be sure that as long as our

audience know us well and trust us as their trustworthy (reputable) gatekeepers, our Archipelago

online version will survive.

We also can argue that we should not exaggerate the presence of unprofessionally written news.

As Kawamoto25

contends that it is all right to have both formal-professional and informal-

unprofessional channels as happened in many communities and villages, because both of them co-

exist and have their own detractors. Kawamoto adds, “The important thing about new media is

that it can be used as a professional tool by traditional news and information providers, allowing

these providers to add value, flexibility, and creativity to what they already offer.‖

As if supporting Kawamoto, Lasica26

also implies that giving readers [thus, people who could

write unprofessional news] a window into the newsroom will instill a sense of trust that news

judgments are made honestly and responsibly. And ―interactive journalism is that window.‖

Lasica (AJR, November 1996) argues that:

One of the most hallowed traditions of journalism is the veil of secrecy that

newsrooms cast over the newsgathering process. That mystique--wrapped up in

inaccessibility and arrogance -- has hurt us. It feeds the public's mistrust of large

institutions. It gives ammunition to the conspiracy theorists and creates doubts even

among loyal readers. And it gives us a far too comfortable insulation from the public's

ire when we fail to live up to our standards.

Perhaps Lasica is right. Since journalism theories show that society mistrust journalists,

consequently journalists need to show that they are not bad genius people sitting in the cockpit

pulling the levers to manipulate news values. As we argue, in order to develop better symbiotic

relationship we (The Archipelago journalists) should build our connections with our sources and

audience based on honesty. The Net itself is a many-to-many way communication medium and

not only a publishing medium. In other words, to borrow Lasica (AJR, 1996), it is a two-way

communication medium, not a megaphone but a conversation. Its interactivity and

interconnectedness gives a unifying principle for every one at any place.

--- 0o0 ---

25

Kevin Kawamoto, ―News and Information at the Crossroads: Making sense of the New On-line Environment in the

Context of Traditional Mass Communication Study,‖ The Electronic Grapevine,

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, USA, 1998, p.178.

26

J.D. Lasica, ‗Whose News‘, From November 1996 American Journalism Review, AJR News Link, available at:

http://ajr.newslink.org/ajrjd19.html

Appendix 1: Short and Long Term Visitors by Selected Country of Birth, 1998-199927

.

Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA)

Short and Long Term Visitor Arrivals by Selected Country of Birth

By Main Visa Category and Number of Entries

For Financial Year 1998-99

Country of Birth

Main Visa Category/Number of Entries

Temporary Resident Student

Visitor(a)

All Other(a)

Total(a)

First Entry Total(a)

First Entry Total(a)

Austria *242 471 *131 *194 17413 879 18957

Canada 5500 8965 758 1064 54534 3271 67834

China (excl Hong Kong & Taiwan) 2434 7970 3993 8557 93262 15647 125436

Denmark 314 870 *256 335 17468 708 19381

Fiji 632 895 405 941 20117 6635 28587

France 1153 3728 593 935 50182 1912 56757

Germany 1927 5224 1286 1728 132684 4974 144610

Hong Kong 501 1777 3030 12527 69708 8619 92630

India 1974 3736 4344 7329 38904 5405 55375

Indonesia 1004 2336 8767 21732 69358 3970 97396

Ireland 8424 11140 *45 *94 29228 1993 42456

Italy 464 1021 *197 *288 47720 2653 51681

Japan 10177 20296 6578 12486 705915 4511 743207

Korea 1820 4097 3099 9116 76841 3888 93942

Malaysia 970 2407 4574 15636 120539 5038 143621

Netherlands 4259 7091 *220 311 46564 3886 57853

New Caledonia *5 *61 *77 *194 12098 380 12732

Norway *146 763 889 1514 10088 488 12852

Papua New Guinea 423 699 945 3159 18796 5679 28333

Philippines 669 1498 683 1039 35839 6112 44488

Singapore 695 2317 4060 15685 154692 4002 176696

South Africa 2471 5174 *207 366 47973 6811 60324

Spain 329 600 *102 *146 10215 559 11519

Sweden 511 1534 1050 1475 24900 500 28409

Switzerland 431 954 758 894 36005 1640 39493

Taiwan (Province of China) 659 2573 2352 8558 135924 4356 151412

Thailand 508 1168 2638 7359 43383 2147 54057

U.S.A 6245 22178 3902 6373 316513 10154 355217

27

http://www.immi.gov.au/statistics/statistical_tables/studtempvist/studtempvisttab1.xls

United Kingdom 35294 58827 403 1095 462704 68221 590847

Viet Nam *138 *231 1627 2845 10475 2113 15663

All Other Countries 6974 13503 8768 15247 199460 745973 974184

Not Stated *6 *21 *2 *26 *223 11701 11971

Total 97297 194123 66739 159246 3109723 944826 4407919

Appendix 2: An overview of The Archipelago’s advertising rates.

Ad Format Size Rate per Exposure Contract period

Budget Classifieds 1/32 page $50 Minimum 6 months

Black & White Full Page $800 1 Exposure

Half Page $500 1 Exposure

Quarter Page $300 1 Exposure

One Eighth Page $160 1 Exposure

Additional feature Quality Rate per Exposure Contract period

Colour Full Colour + $250 1 Exposure

Colour Spot Colour + $75 1 Exposure

Discounts Percentage Issues

10% 3

20% 6

30% 12

Appendix 3 : The Archipelago websites.

SBA/29 June 2001.

12080 words.