Kompas, one of Indonesia’s leading dailies, can access their Classified section of the newspaper quicker, separate from the rest and dive into job or apartment hunting with special navigators that make their journey through the section an easier one.
This is the first Indonesian newspaper to create a separate classified section, and early reader reaction has been most positive, with over 90% of readers welcoming the new look and organization of Kompas.
This was part of a major overhaul of the design and structural organization of Kompas, led by the Garcia Media team, with Mario Garcia Sr. as chief architect and Jan Kny, of Garcia Media Europe, as art director.
In addition to creating a separate section for Classified (or Klasika, as it is called in Indonesian), other changes included:
1. Adapting a narrower width for the broadsheet newspaper, going from eight to seven columns.
2. Restructuring and enhancing of content throughout the entire newspaper including more local/regional, world and entertainment news, with emphasis on color and news/supplements for younger readers.
3. Starting the same day with new technology that allows going with Computer-to-plate technology.
Circulation of Kompas is half million daily, 620,000 weekends, making it the largest circulation newspaper in Indonesia.
“This was a quick project for us,” says Jan Kny, who oversaw implementation of the new design in Jakarta. “We had our first meeting in Hamburg in February 2005, and worked with a talented team of Kompas editors/designers diligently for several months, leading to the launch this week.”
“We started with what I would describe as an elegant and classic look, given to the newspaper by Roger Black, who had redesigned it a few years ago,” explains Mario Garcia Sr. “Our task was to introduce more modern methods of navigation, create a new color palette and concentrate on new typographic fonts. We also helped with improving the quality and frequency of use of informational graphics.”
The Kompas staff working with the Garcia Media team included: Lukas Widjaja, project director; Hardanto Subagyo, technology; Taufik Hidayat, deputy managing editor and Lim Bun Chai, Deputy Production Manager