“Starting Monday next week, I’ll be in Reader’s Digest,” said one of PC Magazine journalist. “The rest will be working on computer books, in the parent’s company book publishing division.” Next month’s edition is going to be the last PC Magazine Indonesia.
I heard the rumour two weeks ago from my colleague in a PR company. Shortly, I learned that it was true. The news shocked me. As a business journalist, troubled companies leading to their dismissal are quite common to me, it’s just another story to write. But not if it’s a media company, specially when it has a worldwide reputation as PC Magazine.
The IT magazine began publishing almost four years ago, after Femina Group–one of major media group in Indonesia- acquired the franchise from US based Ziff Davis Media. In the helm of PC Magz editorial board is Sigit Widodo –Detik.com journalist- as Chief Editor. Later, Dalyanta Sembiring from PC Media joined as Managing Editor. Among the early editorial staffs are Wahid Masrukan, Catur Meiwanto and Leonard Indrayanto who left last year.
For quite some time, all editorial activities were based in Femina’s headquarter in reputable Kuningan premises. I reckoned PC Magz editorial staff were among a few men in an office mostly covering women lifestyle with good looking models come and go.
Shortly after, the media group formed separate company PT Teknomedia Favorit Internasional as publisher of PC Maz Indonesia. But it seems all the marketing activities still under HQ’s coordination. The spin off company were located at an old ex-Femina Group building at Kebon Kacang. Although their new premises is adjacent to landmark Plaza Indonesia, it’s far from fancy. But there, PC Magz built their own lab for testing gadgets. They also started to do some community event that I considered very successful.
So what had happened ? There was no clear answer, but I believe franchise or license fee is among the problems. As global well-known brand, it takes plenty plenty of money to acquire the right to label ‘PC Magazine’ on your publication. Name is not enough. You got to do a lot of marketing in this country where PC penetration is very-very low.
“But why ‘PC Indonesia’ not even considered as an option ?” I said hey, what’d you expect from a media group that has crystallized itself as leader in women’s lifestyle.
Earlier this morning, I was trying to call PC Mag Indonesia at their Femina Office at Kuningan. Originally I tried to call the Kebon Kacang office, but someone over there said that they had move out. My initial plan was to contact Mr. Sigit Widodo to discuss about the continuity of my organization’s cooperation with PC Mag (my organization is BEM Fasilkom UI). The people from Kebon Kacang told me to call the Femina office. So this morning I called to that office. To my surprise, the operator there said that PC Mag is no longer with Femina. So I started looking into the internet.After checking their Website, which has no information about their current location, I stumbled upon your blog.
It’s kinda shocking u know, after having a good relationship for 2 and more years. I guess my last contact with this company was 3 months ago, when I send them a Lebaran card. Thx for the info.