Jakarta – Not everyone is a political news buff. And for those who can no longer stomach news on corruption and growing religious intolerance, there is always the yellow newspaper, that never fails to whet the appetite of readers for sex scandals, ghost stories and gory details of road accidents.
Go to your nearest newspaper stand and chances are you can find newspapers with sensational headlines such as "Berburu Perawan Setelah Lebaran Butuh Modal Tidak Sedikit" (It takes a lot of money to look for virgin prostitutes after Idul Fitri) or a mouthful heading like "Cewek Cantik ke Posyandu Mencari Model Buat Iklan Susu, Eh Ternyata Dia Tukang Tipu Korbannya Tiga Ibu-Ibu" (Beautiful Woman Comes to Community Health Center To Look for Model for Milk Ad, She Turns Out to be a Fraud and Conned Three Mothers).
Both headings were the headlines on Sept. 12 for Lampu Hijau newspaper, one of the best-selling yellow papers in the city.
Every morning these types of newspapers sell like hotcakes in newsstands across the city, a source of entertainment for the city's working class residents hungry for sensational stories.
Newspapers such as Lampu Hijau (formerly Lampu Merah, which had to find a new name after the Press Council reprimanded its newsroom for being too vulgar in 2008), Pos Kota, Non-Stop or Berita Kota sell copies by creating sensational headlines in oversized letters, often for news on petty crimes. The front page of these papers are full of local slang and puns, cartoon and pictures that appear to have little connection to the stories.
"I read Lampu Hijau because stories are written in a really simple language and are short, unlike those 'heavy' newspapers," an avid reader of Lampu Hijau, Mardi, a security guard, said earlier this week.
Mardi, whose work station is in the vicinity of a newsstand, paid a regular visit to the booth to check the day's headlines. "When I find a sensational article in the paper, such as a crime story, and I happen to have enough small change, I'll buy it. Or else I just scan the newspaper for their headlines," he said.
Another fan of gutter press is Rojali, a delivery man in Rawa Belong, West Jakarta. He said that "yellow" newspapers made him laugh. "I find headings, like the one from the other day that read 'A pickpocket was caught by a mob and, oops, he dies', very funny," he said.
Rojali also said that the catchy headlines and oversized headlines were easy to browse rather than buy. "Most of the times I go to the newsstand only to read headlines without buying the paper," he said. Rojali said that the biggest draw of the newspapers were its pictures of beautiful and curvaceous women.
But others read the papers only for their ads. A newspaper agent in Slipi, West Jakarta, who identified himself as Babeh said that Pos Kota sold more copies than other "yellow" newspapers because it used much of its space for used-car ads.
Babeh said every day he could sell up to 250 copies of Pos Kota, above the average 200 copies for other "yellow" newspapers. The average price of the "yellow" newspapers is between Rp 1,500 (10 US cents) to Rp 2,000.
Another incentive for readers to buy the papers are apparent clues to lottery numbers. "I sell more of certain newspapers on certain days because usually the papers give readers a clue on lottery numbers," Babeh said.
Heri said that most readers of the "yellow" newspapers were males who go straight to the papers' sex stories.
Business is good for yellow journalism, one of the newspaper editors said. Lampu Hijau chief editor Dwi Prihantara said that the newspaper, a member of the Jawa Pos group launched in 2001, could sell an average 45,000 copies a day.
"The number usually drops to 30,000 during the Ramadhan of fasting month," he said, adding that it may have something to do with Muslims constraining themselves from reading titillating stories and pictures.
Dwi said that the newspapers were currently available in the Greater Jakarta area, West Java and some parts of Central Java.
He said that management of Lampu Hijau were forced to "soften" its stories, particularly on sex scandals, after the Press Council reprimanded the newspaper in 2008. "We used to print vulgar or bloody pictures and gave detailed descriptions of sex scenes. But after 2008, we stopped doing that," he said.
Dwi added that although copyeditors were free to tweak news headlines, they were only allowed to edit stories in formal Bahasa Indonesia. "We do this to attract the attention of potential readers," he said. (swd)