On third July 2009, half of the students from the literature class were given a chance to go to Jakarta in order to visit Femina magazine and The Jakarta Post's offices in the name of study tour. This study tour was also meant as an introduction to a field job we as literature students might end up as one day.
We departed from Indonesia University of Education approximately at 7am, and spent about three hours on the road. By the time we reached the building of the Femina magazine office, it was already ten o'clock in the morning. We were immediately greeted by the head editor of Femina herself, who managed to give us a presentation of some overview of the Femina magazine's missions and characteristics despite her being in a hurry to catch a plane to Bali. After she left, she was then replaced by two of managing editor of Femina magazine. They both then proceeded to explain that Femina magazine was targeted for active women whose age range between twenty-five to thirty-five years old. According to them, about sixty percent of Femina's readers were from Jakarta, and that was why the seminars or any other events that were organized by Femina mostly located in Jakarta. They also stated that one of the characteristics of a magazine was its covers, and that its covers determined the image the magazine want to convey to the reader. For example, Femina is a magazine that is designed for active and/or working women, and that is why for the covers, it mostly shows the models whose facial expressions were arranged so that they looked optimistic, friendly, attainable with semi-professional clothes. This is from different from, say, Dewi magazine, which, even produced under the same roof or the same main group, is targeted for those who cares much about fashion and obviously from the upper class – and that is why Dewi magazine puts models whose expression are arranged to look cold, bordering on arrogant, even. That is why it is important to put the right expression on the cover of a magazine – because it determines the target and what might be the content of the magazine.
Further, they both told us about the editorial organization structure of Femina magazine – or any magazine in general, which consists of a Chief Editor in the highest position, followed by two or more Managing Editors, Executive Editors, Senior Editors, Artistic Coordinator, and etc. They also mentioned that the mission of Femina magazine is to educate, entertain, fulfill the need of modern Indonesian women and enrich their souls. This is so that women realize the meaning of their existence and use it to make themselves useful and productive for not only themselves, but also those around them. It is also hoped that they would start to have advanced and modern thinking style without leaving their Indonesian characteristics. Other than that, it is also expected that women would have what it takes to make their lives better by their own hands. Those are some of the mission and vision of Femina magazine.
After that, we had lunch on the bus on the way to The Jakarta Post's new office building. New, because the building is really newly built and according to the one of the Editors who greeted us, they hadn't yet finished moving everything yet. The Jakarta Post is an Indonesian English Newspaper, in the sense that it delivers Indonesian news in English Language. The newspaper was first published in 1983, as a part of Kompas Group – one of major national newspaper publisher. According to the editor also, one of the main reason The Jakarta Post was built was because Indonesian was a big country which was developing real fast at the time, and also in order to get other countries to understand us better. According to him also, they used to send their newspaper to the neighboring countries such as Malaysia or Singapura, but ever since the Internet technology started to become very popular, the demands for the newspaper was decreased because people chose to get the information they need through the net instead. Further, he also mentioned how with so many online media available through the Internet, it reduced people's interest in printed media; he even predicted that if this kept on, it was possible in ten years, The Jakarta Post would be forced to migrate to the Internet also.
Regarding the recruitment itself, he stated that The Jakarta Post usually would recruit about ten people every year, usually taking place in January. The requirements are as follow: they had at least an Undergraduate Degree, a minimal TOEFL score of 550, and passed the interview. He also mentioned how it would be preferred if the applicant was a stubborn, shameless and insistent person – as a job as a journalist might require them to be so. He also told us not to worry if we weren't graduated from English department, since surprisingly, most of those who worked In The Jakarta Post were also from any other department than English.
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