The English daily The Point has temporarily ceased its publication since mid last week. Our source said that the suspension may last for at least a month while the publisher discusses internal matters.
So, what is really happening with The Point? Will we see more of it anytime soon or should we say goodbye?
I’ve read The Point a few times from time to time (mostly when I’m in a coffee shop) and I always found no adverts in it. Then, every time I read it I wonder, how can a newspaper like this survive without adverts?
I’m surprised it lasted this long – all newspapers must run at a loss for a while, maybe a couple of years, before they start to break even, but with absolutely NO advertising the Point hadn’t even got off the mark… and as the only place you ever saw it was in messy heaps in Starbucks there were clearly distribution issues…
I do mourn its passing as Indonesia could use another English language paper, but whoever sets it up needs a bit of focus, and crucially, needs to make it something different. The Point offered nothing new; it was messy, shambolic, had no “voice”. It carried wire news stories on its “comment” page for god’s sake, which suggests that who ever was putting it together had no idea what a paper was supposed to look like….
I think there could be a market for a proper weekend paper with suppliments, but as the demise of The Indonesian Observer a few years ago and The Point now suggests, dear old Jakarta Post is all we need; there is no call for another daily…
Weekly Bali Times in Bali is pretty good actually…
Please feel free to leave your comments in Indonesian, Malay or English. I write in English because my command of other languages is wanting. So my fault, not yours. Most readers of this blog know two or more languages so fire away.
March 18, 2008 at 2:26 pm
I’ve read The Point a few times from time to time (mostly when I’m in a coffee shop) and I always found no adverts in it. Then, every time I read it I wonder, how can a newspaper like this survive without adverts?
March 22, 2008 at 3:22 am
I’m surprised it lasted this long – all newspapers must run at a loss for a while, maybe a couple of years, before they start to break even, but with absolutely NO advertising the Point hadn’t even got off the mark… and as the only place you ever saw it was in messy heaps in Starbucks there were clearly distribution issues…
I do mourn its passing as Indonesia could use another English language paper, but whoever sets it up needs a bit of focus, and crucially, needs to make it something different. The Point offered nothing new; it was messy, shambolic, had no “voice”. It carried wire news stories on its “comment” page for god’s sake, which suggests that who ever was putting it together had no idea what a paper was supposed to look like….
I think there could be a market for a proper weekend paper with suppliments, but as the demise of The Indonesian Observer a few years ago and The Point now suggests, dear old Jakarta Post is all we need; there is no call for another daily…
Weekly Bali Times in Bali is pretty good actually…