Bisnis Indonesia's "new" Tabloid

The Mavericks would like to congratulate Bisnis Indonesia as it celebrates its 21st anniversary today. Some of us actually went to Wisma Bisnis Indonesia there earlier today during lunchtime to congratulate them. 21 years is quite a long time and the newspaper has come a long way to become one of the most prominent business publication in Indonesia.

In today's edition, Bisnis published two pages of "Special Report" on the current “Media Business Trend”. Although overall it has that self "Congratulation Ad" feel, it is still very informative. It also has comments from Trade Minister Mari E. Pangestu, who probably gets quoted by Bisnis at least every other day.

On its 21st anniversary edition, Bisnis Indonesia is also announcing that its Sunday edition "Bisnis Minggu" will start coming out in a new format: a Tabloid.

Bisnis Minggu will be printed in fancier paper, will have more pictures, more features on business opportunities, tips, investment, automotive, etc. With all this, hopefully they will also earn more in advertising revenue.

Like other print media, Bisnis Indonesia has also tried publishing spin-off tabloid or papers of its main paper. The Trendigital tabloid is still on the shelves, but its sister publication Bisnis Uang only lived for a short period of time. Let’s hope for the best for this Sunday tabloid.

If you didn't already know, The Jakarta Post is also preparing its "Weekender" monthly magazine that's coming out in January 2007. This monthly magazine is also out to grab the ad money from the "lifestyle" products and services that have been "reluctant" to place ads in the daily paper edition. In a couple of months, TJP will decide whether this monthly supplement magazine could actually become a weekly edition.

So, we'll see how two newspapers will compete in the Sunday issue battle. The Jakarta Post currently has a circulation of under 40,000 while Bisnis Indonesia is over 80,000. Let's see how the math works out for the ad buyers.

Here's a peek of "Bisnis Minggu - Business Lifestyle" Tabloid. A journalist held a copy of its very first edition for Maverick's Shilla. This copy will be available for public on Friday 15 December 2006, but M. Sarwani (the editor of Bisnis Minggu) has given Mavericks several copies of it today.