Bernas Daily Newspaper Officially Stops Production after 71 Years
28 February 2018 17:54 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Management of Media Bernas Jogja - publisher of Harian Bernas newspaper – decided to entirely close down the business as of March 1, 2018.
“Yes, that is true. We decided to stop publishing starting from March 1,” said Harian Bernas Company Head Fransisca Diwati on Wednesday, February 28.
The newspaper was originally founded by Indonesia’s first Minister of Information Mr. Soemanang on November 15, 1946.
According to Sisca, company managements have discussed the business closure since 2015 when the media’s ownership was taken over by businessman Putu Putrayasa, who acts as the President Director and owns 50 percent share at Media Bernas Jogja.
“In 2015, we attempted to keep it alive considering that the daily news had existed for so long. We wanted to show our appreciation towards our employees who fought for the newspaper’s existence,” said Sisca.
Unfortunately, the three years of struggle did not show any positive results. The production costs hiked while at the same time the number of readers and ad revenues dropped.
However, according to the president director of Media Bernas Jogja Putu Putrayasa, the company is committed to expanding its business to other lines of business such as book production, event organizing, and property. However, they will also develop its digital version bernas.id, introduced 2.5 years ago, which was an exit plan to anticipate the closure of the print version.
Pribadi Wicaksono