Economic and commercial aspects of

lifestyle magazines in Indonesia

Annisa R. Beta

•  Lifestyle magazines in Indonesia

•  Types of lifestyle magazines

•  Circulation

•  Media groups

•  Emerging trends

Lifestyle Magazines •  Lifestyle magazines

•  Post-Reformasi (1998) Indonesia

•  Lifestyle = to consume

Imagined lifestyle •  Rate of Indonesia’s economic growth : 6.8% (February 2011),

•  Consumer expenditure per capita : increased since 2000 (USD

416) until 2010 (USD 1,802)

•  More people in Indonesia have moved and are predicted to stay in urban areas with easier access to consumption goods.

Indonesia retail report - Q1 2012. (London, United Kingdom, 2012), retrieved from http:// search.proquest.com/docview/909676791?accountid=17242

•  56.5% or about 130 million Indonesians can be considered middle-class

Etalase Kelas Konsumen Baru Indonesia, Tempo (Februari 2012).

Before Reformasi

!

Medium to voice out independence in the decades prior to and following 1945

Partisan with the vexed political atmosphere in 1965-1980

SIT/SIUPP

Important part of capitalistic industry.

!

Women’s lifestyle magazines published during Suharto’s New

Order era:

Image of “softer, more

feminine women” coming from

“moral, apolitical, middle class

family” shaped by the regime.

Suzanne Brenner’s On the Public Intimacy of the New

Order: Images of Women in the Popular Indonesian Print

Media (1999)

!

After Reformasi ‘Freedom of press’ and democracy gave rise to the

growth of market

Growth of Indonesia’s

advertising revenue

‘particularity’ for segmented

audience shifted into ‘lifestyle’

Types of lifestyle magazines •  Women’s and men’s lifestyle

magazines

•  Children’s and teen’s

magazines

•  Specified editorial content

magazines

Women’s and men’s lifestyle magazines

! !

!

!

Children’s and teen’s magazines

!!

Specified editorial content magazines

! !

Circulation •  In 2008, advertising revenue for magazines IDR 864

billion. Indonesia: Print media sees less readers, more ad revenues, The Jakarta Post (December 5, 2008) http://

www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-southeastasia.asp?parentid=101843

•  86.3% of 219 magazines published in Indonesia are circulated in Java Island,

•  152 of them are in Jakarta, the capital city (Direktori Pers Indonesia, 2002-2003).

Advertising revenue (in billion rupiahs)

Readership

Media groups Group 

Print Media  

 Magazines 

Licensed

Magazines 

Other

businesses Owner 

MRA Media  16  -  Cosmopolitan;

Cosmo Girl;

Harper’s

Bazaar; Amica;

Good

Housekeeping;

Mother & Baby;

Spice; Hair

Ideas; AutoCar;

Target Car;

Esquire; Trax;

FHM; Fitness;

Bravacasa; Bali

& Beyond 

Retail, Property,

Food &

Beverage,

Automotive 

Adiguna

Soetowo &

Soetikno

Soedarjo 

Femina Group  14  Gadis; Cita

Cinta; Femina;

Pesona; Dewi;

Ayahbunda 

Cleo; Parenting;

Fit; Mens’

Health; Reader’s

Digest; Grazia;

Best Life;

Estetica 

Talent Agency,

Publishing 

PIa Alisjahbana 

The possibility of actually owning different forms of mass media

under one company is actually restricted in Government Regulation

No.50/2005

Democratized? •  MRA, or PT. Mugi Rekso Abadi, was actually founded in 1985 by

Adiguno Sutowo, with the help of Tommy Suharto, one of

Suharto’s six children.

•  Femina Group: Yudha Kartohardiprodjo and Swida Alisjahbana, the children of Femina Group founders, Pia Alisjahbana and

Mirta Kartohardiprodjo, remain as the strongest figures in the

group

Democratized? •  MRA, or PT. Mugi Rekso Abadi, was actually founded in 1985 by

Adiguno Sutowo, with the help of Tommy Suharto, one of

Suharto’s six children.

•  Femina Group: Yudha Kartohardiprodjo and Swida Alisjahbana, the children of Femina Group founders, Pia Alisjahbana and

Mirta Kartohardiprodjo, remain as the strongest figures in the

group

Emerging trends •  Licensed magazines

•  Muslim women’s lifestyle magazines