Jakarta Post to lay off employees, may go under.

dafluff

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Indonesia's premier English language newspaper is facing tough times and is considering laying-off 50-60 employees, out of 215, according to this news article. However, some reporters on Twitter think the cut may be even deeper and that if JP can't break even it may be shuttered.




 
Indonesia's premier English language newspaper is facing tough times and is considering laying-off 50-60 employees, out of 215, according to this news article. However, some reporters on Twitter think the cut may be even deeper and that if JP can't break even it may be shuttered.





"The First Cut is the Deepest" ..... Meatloaf again
 
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I'm pretty sure you're right BA - if Meatloaf did "First Cut" it must have been a later cover.

That sucks about JakPo. While it was easy to make fun of their not infrequent errors, on the whole they have been a beacon of transparency and rational thought.
 
Oh, I thought Cat Stevens/PP Arnold back in the 60s - showing my age ;) :/ hmmmm

Yeah I think you're right BA, I went for an early stroll this morning & thought "hang on, that wasn't Meatloaf". ............... Anyway, I just want to get that out of my head now.

Apologies, back on topic
 
Like a bat out of hell, JakPost will be gone in the morning light.
It seems to be mostly written by university students but the standard of English is much better than Tempo and it is better laid out than the Globe.
 
It seems to be mostly written by university students

Damn, I wish I had the citations to back up what I'm going to assert, but when I left Indonesia I discarded a lot of things, including a wonderful book of Jakarta Post editorials and essays that went all the way back to at least the 1990s up to sometime in the 2000s.

Anyway, the book was a fine collection of democratic, humanistic thought, containing some pretty subversive commentary with regard to political structures in force at the time of writing. It was pretty amazing that they got away with some of their harsh criticisms of government hypocrisy, inaction, and indifference to the welfare of Indonesia's citizens. Sometimes they didn't pull punches, including on sensitive topics like religion and gender.

My guess is that the reason they were able to get away with it was because JakPo was in English. Had it been written in Indonesian, I'm sure jail sentences would have resulted for some of their writings.

Personally, I have a soft spot for JakPo, having known various people associated with it throughout the years. I also taught writing classes for them for a couple of years around 2015 or so, while Endy Bayuni was editor in chief, and the prime mover-and-shaker behind the idea of writing classes. Pak Endy is one of the most intelligent, thoughtful, kind people I've had the privilege of knowing.

(And yes, JakPo was often comically ridden with proofing/copyediting errors during my time in Indonesia. I believe I am on record at the old message board rolling my internet eyes at their mistakes. A pity they couldn't do better, but resources of both the human and financial kind were limited. They did the best they could.)
 
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Perhaps the typos were deliberate to stop them being picked up in internet search engines for censorship
 
Not much of a paper anyway. I read the guardian, more academic and less pompous
 
Not much of a paper anyway. I read the guardian, more academic and less pompous

And then you go and quote the daily mail in another thread. The Guardian is pretty good but I find that when they report on Indonesian issues it tends to be one sided. Since you are reading an Indo expat message board then surely you can appreciate how important an Indonesian based english language paper is.
 
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I’ll be sad when they’re gone. As pathetic as it sounds, they were actually part of my English learning. My uncle subscribed to them from the 80’s to the 90’s.

They did employ college students. One of them was my wife’s classmate, who interviewed me in the MPR/DPR complex the day Suharto stepped down. My name was in the next day’s article, that was my 15 seconds of fame. I should buy a reprint for posterity.
 
I’ll be sad when they’re gone. As pathetic as it sounds, they were actually part of my English learning. My uncle subscribed to them from the 80’s to the 90’s.

They did employ college students. One of them was my wife’s classmate, who interviewed me in the MPR/DPR complex the day Suharto stepped down. My name was in the next day’s article, that was my 15 seconds of fame. I should buy a reprint for posterity.

'


4:26. Bruh was that you?
 

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