Forbes: There'll be Newspapers as Long as there are Old People  

It was a gathering of corporate eagles in Bali last week. Over 400 business leaders and entrepreneurs attended the Forbes 13th Global CEO Conference, hosted by the publication best known for its rankings of 'bests' in the business world. Although the conference theme was 'Taking the Lead', the discussions were a celebration in communication, as selected CEOs shared their insights and expertise on leadership, entrepreneurship, technology, toughness and philanthropy, demonstrating their acumen as communicators. The message seems to be: there's optimism in the media business, as long as one adapts to the reality of the fast-moving social media. As one Forbes executive put it, "Forbes.com has 50 million viewers, but we're dedicated to print." In Bali, Steve Forbes discussed various issues with Tempo English correspondent Philip Jacobson.

Below is part of the interview. The complete version can be found in the 1411th edition of Tempo English, available on print.

Why did you pick Indonesia as the conference venue?

Obviously Indonesia has made enormous economic progress, plus it has democratized since the late 1990s and getting six percent growth rates is quite impressive. It has made good tax changes to keep the process going. The fact that there will be elections here next year, both congressional and presidential, show how far Indonesia has come. It is the third largest democracy in the world, in terms of population. So, here's the largest economy in Southeast Asia, with good growth prospects. Why wouldn't we have it here?

There are nine Indonesian companies in the Forbes Global 2000 rankings. How can more Indonesian companies make that list?

First, having a vibrant economy, even though there's been some hiccups recently--and I think those are of a temporary nature--they will not set back the country, when you have a dynamic economy; you get companies coming out of seemingly nowhere to achieve prominence. We do live in a global economy, and most companies realize that at some stage they've got to go beyond their immediate borders. You've got a vibrant community in Southeast Asia, and obviously so do China and India. So, when you have that kind of perspective, I think you'll see more companies emerging. But the key is not just large in global terms, but how many new small companies come up, the ones you don't hear about. That's critical for a dynamic future.

Corruption is a big problem in Indonesia and other emerging economies. How do you fight it?

By having an open media market. That's what you have here, and as you get more and more of a middle class, people become less and less tolerant of certain practices. I think this is a very healthy sign. No one denies it, and that's part of the antidote: doing a diagnosis.

The ASEAN Economic Community is set to be launched in a couple of years. Do you think that the member states are ready, given the political and economic differences between them?

If there's a political will, it will happen. Europe did it, despite 1,000 years of constant warfare, when they finally set their minds to it. There have been numerous free trade agreements negotiated, like the US with Canada. For 150 years we couldn't get one done then suddenly we did, and one with Mexico. So I think you'll see more of those agreements in the future, because the rise of an entrepreneurial class wields pressure. But this cannot be done by one political entity. It can be done by negotiating a reduction of barriers, and in this way, commerce has a wider canvas in which to paint.

But is free trade possible among the ASEAN countries?

There are always pressures from protectionism and trying to help the home industry. But I think the key is to have the political dynamics, as we are starting to see in some of the negotiations, both regionally and with the one-on-one, to remove barriers. And the more it's done, the easier it becomes to remove the next set of barriers. The idea that we might even be entering serious negotiations with Japan on a free trade agreement would be remarkable. I'm not sure it will happen, but it's light years away from where Japan was 10 or 20 years ago.

Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos--whose face you put on the cover of your magazine last year--recently bought the Washington Post for US$250 million. He reportedly said that print newspapers will cease to exist in 20 years. Do you agree?

There'll be newspapers as long as there are old people. But I think magazines have a future in the sense that people do like the tactile feel of a magazine. Forbes magazine and Forbes.com work interchangeably, and I think the magazine has improved because of it. Don't get caught up in the medium. The question is do you have a message to convey with a medium?