I agree with you 100 percent on your last paragraph : “That’s a quaint tactic to improve standards because some media analysts do not think that the problem lies so much with entry level journalists but with the higher ups. In change management it is always the middle layer that is most resistant to change.”

I’ve worked with The Jakarta Post long enough to easily identify such problems.

This Indonesian-English media race will be worth to watch. Some of my fellow media junkies (and veteran journalists) even put a bet, which of this newcomers English paper will prevail?

James Riyadi has the greenbucks, The Jakarta Post is the “longest survivor”, The Point and The Jakarta Morning?? Guess….

Very sharp post — and a decision that made me completely rethink my thoughts on the Globe launch. Informed sources say they have a unique “twinning” policy of matching many senior “Bules” with Indonesians.

Informed sources (I’m just a ukuele player), also say Mr. Bhimanto has an incredible talent of transforming newbie Asia rookies into apparently capable bureau chiefs through deft management, shrewdness and talent.

What a star.

Informed sources (just who are they, anyway), also point to an open-mind at the Globe’s editorial helm, a willingness to hear criticism, (especially over the bar).

The big question, then, seems to be James. How much red ink will the Riady’s be willing to take in what promises to be the newspaper showdown of the decade in Jakarta ?