WSJ To Launch Indonesia News Site In Bahasa

JAKARTA/HONG KONG/NEW YORK CITY — In a move to further expand its local and digital platforms in Asia, The Wall Street Journal announced today its plans to launch a dedicated Indonesia news site as well as a mobile news reader in Bahasa.  The anticipated launch is the summer of this year.

The web site and mobile reader will deliver news and analysis from The Wall Street Journal to readers in Indonesia, one of the world's largest democracies and fastest-growing economies.

Commenting from Jakarta, Robert Thomson, editor-in-chief of Dow Jones and managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, said, “Indonesia's transformation—economic and democratic—has become a model for the developing world.  The country's global role grows with each passing day, so the world must be better informed about Indonesia and Indonesia needs more news and analysis about influential international events.  Our aim is to ensure that Indonesians are well briefed in their own language by the world's best journalists.  For all at The Wall Street Journal, our expansion in Indonesia is a source of profound pride and great responsibility.”

To begin building its digital presence in Indonesia, earlier this month WSJ.com launched “Indonesia Real Time” (http://realtime.wsj.com/indonesia/), an online site in Bahasa that features daily insight and sharp analysis on law, policy, economics and culture, in addition to select Bahasa translations of WSJ.com articles.  Identical “Real Time” sites focus on China, Korea, Japan and India in English as well as in their respective local languages.

Online and mobile content for Indonesia will include coverage of business and finance, in addition to a selection of translated articles from The Wall Street Journal’s global editions.  The Bahasa mobile reader will be designed for the BlackBerry, which has more than 10 million users in Indonesia.

The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires have operated a combined news bureau in Jakarta, Indonesia since 1976.  A locally based editor, with primary responsibility for the Bahasa news site and working within the existing news bureau, will be named in due course.

“The Indonesia edition is another clear demonstration of The Wall Street Journal’s commitment to Asia and the breadth and depth of our coverage in this region,” said Almar Latour, editor-in-chief of both The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires in Asia.  “Our focus will remain on providing readers across multiple geographies, languages and platforms with the news and analysis they need to make informed decisions—particularly at a time when their decisions are driven by global markets.”

In Asia, The Wall Street Journal is available in Chinese and Japanese-language editions online, which together attract more than five million monthly unique visitors.  The Chinese and Japanese-language smartphone and tablet apps have been downloaded more than one million times in total.  Most recently, a German-language news site (http://WSJ.de) with mobile and tablet editions was launched in January 2012.

Mr. Thomson is in Jakarta this week following his recent participation in the Seoul Digital Forum in South Korea, where he delivered a speech on “New Technology and Journalism” that featured how The Wall Street Journal has significantly extended its reach through online, mobile and video platforms worldwide and in Asia.