Maverick Indonesia

Click Of The Week #25: Algooth ‘Aergot’ Putranto

God spell the words to make a world. Journalist use the words to change the world everyday

I like this sentence. It is how the journalists explain their work to other people in a short and simple way.

The sentence becomes a tag line for Algooth’s blog: It’s about all word’s. Algooth is a journalist for Bisnis Indonesia, reporting for the Sunday edition. Unlike most of his colleagues that write about business and economy, Algooth write-ups cover lifestyle, music and movie review, art and other leisure stuff.

In his blog, Algooth likes to write about prominent figures, local as well as international. And personally, I gained a lot of new information through his blog. For instance, this person named Carlos Slim Helu, does it ring a bell to you? I found out from Algooth’s blog that he is actually the new richest man in the world according to Forbes Magazine (next comes Bill ‘Microsoft’ Gates).

Interestingly, sometimes Algooth also post his writings that – for some reasons – cannot be published in the newspaper, like this post.

Click Of The Week #24: Manda La Mendol

We Indonesian love to eat and if you happen to be heading toward Surabaya, with a hankering for “jajanan pasar” or street food you might find this blog, jagomakan, useful.

Kept by Manda La Mendol, the blog is a delightful list of the author’s intimate knowledge of Surabaya’s favorite food haunts. Manda is a journalist for East Java Traveler Magazine and Surabaya City Guide, magazines that focus on tourism, including food, around Surabaya. She also told Maverick through e-mail that she used to be a food taster for her grandmother’s food catering service. So she’s well qualified to write about food.

Manda, who used to work in local newspapers/tabloids like Kompetitor, Kredit, Berita Sore, Surabaya Pagi, and Mossaik, reviews the entire variety food in Surabaya and nearby areas, ranging from traditional food such as pecel terong, sate ponorogo, klepon, to international food such as dim sum, lobsters, and steaks.

Because of her blog, Manda has been appointed a moderator for milis Bango, a mailing list focused on traditional food in Indonesia.

So if you are Surabaya-boudn and a foodie like the Mavericks in this office are, you might want to check her blog before getting on board your plane.

Click Of The Week #23: Pepih Nugraha

Where can you learn to write? Well, if you aspire to write in Indonesian check out Pepih Nugraha’s Beranda t4 Berbagi (Verandah for Sharing). Pepih, who’s a senior journalist at Kompas, describe’s his blog as a “place for everyone who wants to learn about writing, especially if you work for the print-media.

His first lesson in writing is where to get the ideas for writing an article. Some people, he says, think that you have to go somewhere, to the beach or up a mountain, to be inspired. That’s a luxury for writers of fiction but not for journalists who have to write to deadlines. Story ideas, he says, are in fact everywhere in our daily lives - from our chats with other people, attending seminars or discussions or even when we’re window shopping in the mall.

His blog has interesting accounts of his daily life as a journalist, including interviews with the famous to traveling overseas on assignment.

Pepih is also an active member of Indonesia’s blogosphere. After starting his own blog in February 2006, Pepih joined Blogfam and contributes iarticles for its online Blogfam Magazine. You can check out his writing for the on-line magazine here. He also contributes articles to mediacare, a discussion group on the Indonesian media.

Keep on blogging Pepih.

Jelita and Clara

Once again, another print media bites the dust. This time it is Jelita, a tabloid-sized women’s magazine. Since 9 August 2007 Tabloid Jelita was officially closed down. Jelita is the latest casualty in Indonesia’s Press Wars. In June the magazine Lisa were also closed down.

Our news vendor says Jelita was closed down temporary to prepare for some major changes on its appearance but when contacted, the receptionist at Jelita said it would be closed down permanently because of some “personal matters.”

I’ve tried to contact one of my friends in Jelita, but apparently she has already moved to another company. She just mentioned that it was apparent that Jelita would be closing down as long as four months ago but she declined to elaborate.

The demise of publications like Jelita, however, seems not to have deterred newcomers. Clara, another monthly women’s magazine targeting women above 27 years old began publishing last month.  Indonesia’s media scene is, if not anything else, exciting.

Click Of The Week #22: Bagja Hidayat

Is it cool being a journalist? Ask this question to Bagja Hidayat, a Tempo Magazine journalist, and find his answer in his latest posting: “Wartawan Itu Enak, Kata Orang” (It’s fun being a journalist, so people say).

I know Bagja from his blog, but we’ve never had the chance to meet in person in the “real world”. A journalist friend of mine mentioned his blog to me when I was browsing through the Internet for tips on writing good articles. And what do you know…Bagja got all the answers.

When I read his blog for the first time, it reminded me about a book that I read years ago: Seandainya Saya Wartawan Tempo. The book presents basic news-writing skills and portrays some of Tempo journalists’ experience at work. I would say that his blog postings really represent what the book says about news writing.

Bagja’s blog is not focused on one particular issue. He tackles everything that catches his interest: social, economy, soccer, parody, and of course, journalism itself. Almost all of his postings are interesting because Bagja has the ability to deliver a common theme in appealing ways, making his postings enjoyable to read.

Check out his blog and decide for yourself: Salju di Paris.

Newspapers in Indonesia: The ‘late’ tendency

Everywhere you hear stories of the printed media being challenged by the so-called new media. They have to contend with falling readership, competition for immediacy from the internet. Newspapers are all trying to cope with these new trends.

Not in Indonesia though, it seems. The have more immediate problems to cope with - like getting the paper out on time.

Over the past few months, newspaper deliveries have been unreliable. Rarely a week goes by without one or two newspapers being delivered late. On June 29th, for instance, Media Indonesia was late. A few days before that it was Investor Daily. Other habitual tardy newspapers are Indo Pos and Bisnis Indonesia.

Media Indonesia being late is an interesting case since it has its own printing plant to better control its distribution. But someone somewhere, in a feat of short-sighted planning, decided to locate its printing plant in Kedoya, North Jakarta. Each time there is heavy rain the area floods and the printing is stopped until the floodwaters recede. Business Indonesia is another tardy newspaper even though it has its own printing plant. Insiders say that the paper’s printing machines, for some reason or other, keep breaking down, resulting in delays.

So even with newspapers that have their own printing plants, we have newspapers that cannot meet deadlines. What hope will these paper have to compete, since younger Indonesians are now slowly, but surely embracing the internet and all its promise of immediate delivery?

Click Of The Week #21: Anugerah ‘Nugi’ Perkasa

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I believe journalism can endorse democracy process through the true information, called the practical truth.
….

This quote was taken from “The Journey Of My Life” a blog by Anugerah ‘Nugi’ Perkasa. Nugi is a journalist at Bisnis Indonesia. Before he covered on the banking industry, he was a politic writer at the paper.

Prior to join Bisnis Indonesia, he was a reporter, covering Majelis Mujahidin, for Pantau, a foundation set up to train journalist. Pantau used to be a monthly magazine back then.

The posting on his blog are mainly from his article that appeared in Bisnis Indonesia.

Most of his posting begin with anecdotal leads of individuals, expanding into examination of bigger issues that they reflect or represent.

The topics he convey in the blog mostly touch on banking issues such as central bank, and insurance company. He also writes on political issues such as the fight of people who was accused of being member of the Communist Party of Indonesia.

The issues he writes on are interesting but his posting do tend to be long and a bit short of excellent.

Anyway, congratulation Nugi

Click Of The Week #19: Zaky Yamani

This is a story of a young journalist in Bandung. The story of Zaky Yamani, who work at Pikiran Rakyat daily newspaper.
Pikiran Rakyat is a major local newspaper in Bandung.
I always remember Pikiran Rakyat, memories about a paper-boy (or man?) who delivered Pikiran Rakyat very early in the morning to my parent-house. Maybe this is the reason why at that time my father prefer to subscribe to PIkiran Rakyat than any other daily publication: our paperboy was able to delivered first thing in the morning, the earliest newspaper that we can get.
At that time, I always wonder: How do they prepared the newspaper, so they can delivered it very early in the morning? They must be a hardworkers. I really want to know what kind of people they are.
Well, Zaky Yamani is one of them.
Further more, his hard-work in journalism gives him an award from Aliansi Jurnalis Indonesia and Unicef for his coverage about children in this year.
While do some working as a journalist, Zaky also tried to run a blog. Through his blog we can see his daily activites, stories, and … his poem (well who would know that behind his tough-looking face he still have a romantic-side?)
In accordance to develop his blog, he sent invitation to all journalist who would like to participated in his blog. Just take a peek on his blog.
Congratulation Zaky!!!