Indonesia Media Landscape Highlights 2019: How to reach out to both Digital and Traditional Media

Indonesia’s media landscape has become increasingly digital and mobile but traditional media still plays an important role. The Nielsen Consumer & Media View survey 2018 indicates that Indonesians who read news daily on print media stand at 42 percent of this segment. As fake news proliferates, readers are shifting to print media as trusted news sources. Print media focusing on business news, such as Kontan and Bisnis Indonesia, have reported a growth in their subscriber base. Therefore, it is important for communications campaigns to cater to both digital and traditional media.

To provide various perspectives for PR professionals to consider, PR Newswire’s Indonesian Audience Development team has distilled key numbers from industry reports, drawn from our recent experiences and interviewed two senior business journalists from media (Warta Ekonomi and Marketing.co.id) that are ranked within the top ten business publications in this market as reported in PR Newswire’s recent APAC Media Survey 2019. 

Indonesia’s population of 270 million ranks fourth in the world while the number of mobile internet users ranks fifth with 106 million. Indonesia also leads key Southeast Asia markets in terms of the size and growth rate in online media with a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $9 billion and a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31% from 2015-2025. This is mostly led by online advertising, online gaming and online music & video. This means that as businesses formulate PR strategies to build brand awareness and win trust, generating engaging digital and multimedia content is vital.

So, what’s are the characteristics of audiences consuming digital and traditional media? The Nielsen Consumer & Media View survey in 2018 indicates that digital media and traditional media complement each other. It’s just that media consumption varies across different age groups. For example, 97 percent of Generation Z (10–19 years) watch television, 50 percent access the internet and 33 percent listen to the radio. For Generation X (35-49 years), a similar proportion watches television (97 percent) and listens to the radio (37 percent) but a lower percentage accesses the internet (33 percent).

Outside Java (around 45% of the population lives beyond this island), Indonesians also prefer reading local news in print rather than in digital format. For example, 80 percent of readers in Makassar, a large city in South Sulawesi, prefer reading news in print newspapers, almost double the national average of 42 percent.

This Nielsen survey also indicates print media in Indonesia are consumed by readers from the age range of 20-49 years (74%) and the higher-income groups (54%). As Vicky Fadil from Warta Ekonomi states in his interview later, print media reporting seeks greater depth and analysis to cater to these readers. Therefore, print media plays an important role particularly for B2B marketing, products and services that prioritize trust (such as financial services) and thought leadership.    

Moonton – Communicating through digital and traditional media

In July this year, the PR Newswire team invited journalists to a Jakarta press conference organized by Moonton, launching ASEAN’s first e-sports professional league, “Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League”. Mobile Legends is a game developed by Moonton.

Over a hundred journalists from digital and traditional media attended this press conference to cater to the millions of Indonesians who are avid mobile gamers. Following a detailed presentation of the upcoming league’s plans and engaging journalists at this event, Moonton sent a multilingual press release.

This press release also included a link to a media kit which facilitated reporting in both English and Bahasa Indonesia from digital (e.g. e-sport) and traditional media (e.g. newspapers and television).

In our opinion, this is an excellent example of enriching a product launch with different news perspectives for digital and traditional media to report on such as holding an event (press conference where Moonton management answered specific media queries), industry insights (highlight the lack of standardized contracts between e-sports teams and players) and a commitment to the industry (invest $8 million in e-sports).

Voices from the Indonesian media

Our team invited two senior Indonesian journalists (Vicky Fadil, Vice Editor, Warta Ekonomi, a leading business media and Tony Burhanudin, Managing Editor, Marketing.co.id, a portal targeted at Indonesian marketers) to discuss their views on how PR practitioners can navigate the Indonesian media landscape. Both Warta Ekonomi and Marketing.co.id operate digital and print media.

1. Please briefly introduce yourself and your publication

Vicky Fadil:

Since 2015, I worked for Warta Ekonomi for both print (magazine) and online (wartaekonomi.co.id). As for now, I cover corporate activities, SME business, macroeconomics issues and political updates. Warta Ekonomi Magazine is the first economic magazine in Indonesia established since 1989, published bi-weekly, which offers a fresh perspective on business & economics to decision-makers in government and top business institutions.

Tony Burhanudin:

I have been with Marketing.co.id since 2016. I write about topics in marketing, digital marketing and advertising while interviewing senior representatives from both large enterprises and SMEs (small and medium enterprises). Marketing.co.id was founded in July 2011 and seeks to facilitate learning, discussion, and sharing about the world of marketing. We also operate Majalah Marketing, a print magazine.

2. In the next 12 months, what do you think will be the biggest changes in terms of the way content is produced and distributed in Indonesia?

Vicky Fadil:

For the next year, I don’t see many changes in the way news is produced. Relative to online articles, for print media we need greater depth and analysis. Regardless, for both media, we go back to basics in terms of accurate supporting data and high-quality photos.

On distribution context, I do think there’s a change that we in Warta Ekonomi must address. It’s obvious that posting our print or online content on social media can amplify our reach. But I think we must customize each posting for different social media platforms, not just “copy-paste” from the original content.

Tony Burhanudin:

I see news (especially live events or launch events) being reported using a vlog style, or other short-video reporting format. Other than that, I see data-driven journalism, where data is narrated in an easy-to-digest multimedia format, gaining more readers’ attention.

3. Tell us a bit about the stories that your readers love and what new product launch stories gained good traction on your publication recently?

Vicky Fadil:

In 2019, all our print cover stories so far are related to digital business or IoT economy. Titles such as “Big Data Big Opportunity”, “Mobile Payment is Big Business” reflects our readers’ preferences. For online media, it’s much more dynamic.

For product launch stories, I think articles related to mobile gadgets, consumer electronics, consumer apps, e-commerce promotions still get lots of views, such as the launching of iPhone 11, Samsung S10, e-commerce festivals, etc.

Tony Burhanudin:

We are known for our coverage of the latest marketing concepts or phenomena and annual awards, such as Marketing Awards and Venture Capital, etc.

4. What should PR professionals take note of when pitching to your publication to cover an event?

Vicky Fadil:

As business media, data is of paramount importance. Businesses can provide figures related to sales, growth percentage, market share, or your press conference talking points. Please let us know whether other news-makers are attending your events. If you can give us a one-on-one interview session, it will be even better.

Tony Burhanudin:

For new product launches, make sure you include the talking points about how your product is positioned within the industry, what are the differentiation points relative to others, the potential impact of your product, and don’t forget to give the supporting figures. Most of the time, we only quote these figures from your release.

5. What kind of content in a press release do you prefer as it is beneficial to your content?

Vicky Fadil:

I like press releases that are packed with data and interesting news angles. It makes my job easier to incorporate such information into an article.

Tony Burhanudin:

I prefer a press release that uses an inverted pyramid structure, that places the most important content in the first paragraph. A press release should also contain figures, relevant quotes and high-resolution images that we can download.

This blog post is contributed by Afif Maulana, Audience Development Executive at PR Newswire. Before joining PR Newswire Indonesia, Afif had 8 years of experience as a business journalist on some of the biggest business magazines in Indonesia; SWA, Bloomberg Business Week and Fortune. His expertise and network on helps the Indonesia team expanding reach on local and national media. He also played a part as a mediator for client and media, when working on some issues and activities.