In the end, it was a mercy killing.
The Jakarta Globe, that was born on November 12, 2008 amid doubts by some and optimism by others grew to be a healthy paper. But its health began to decline when its owners realised that a daily was too much a sinkhole for investment that they could not or didn’t want to afford. The paper deteriorated after that till it was a joke of a publication in recent months. It’s sad declined in chronicled here. But yesterday they finally pulled the plug.
Those who have had friends who were journalists there would have seen the Facebook feeds of one last gathering to celebrate the end – and a dubious “new beginning” online (it’s been online all this time, but how it will be a formidable force with most of the best and professional journalists already out of the organization remains a mystery).
And thus a chapter closes on Indonesian journalism.
To those who had worked in newspapers, however, it must have been one hell of a ride. To be young, or at least young at heart, working in the frenetic pace of a newspaper has got to be one of the best experiences in one’s life. The excitement, the adrenalin rush of meeting deadlines, the euphoria of scooping everyone else, the anxiety as the politicians and the powerful on the receiving end vent their anger and threaten lawsuits. There is nothing like a daily newspaper to bring people together.
But now that is gone. The diaspora of the Globians has already begun two to three years ago, Indonesian journalism is the poorer for it but that is the way of the world. Life goes on.
Unspun 
“To those who had worked in newspapers, however, it must have been one hell of a ride. To be young, or at least young at heart, working in the frenetic pace of a newspaper has got to be one of the best experiences in one’s life. The excitement, the adrenalin rush of meeting deadlines, the euphoria of scooping everyone else, the anxiety as the politicians and the powerful on the receiving end vent their anger and threaten lawsuits. There is nothing like a daily newspaper to bring people together.”
It truly was, Ong 🙂 It was a daily sense of fulfilment that I don’t think online newsrooms can replicate – each day starts with a blank canvas, then various parts of the news organization go about their own ways to put bits and pieces of the puzzle together, until each night closes with a complete edition that people will read in the morning.
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