Indonesia: news agency LKBN Antara seeks state funding to become content provider

Posted by Alisa Zykova on November 25, 2008 at 11:54 AM

State-owned Indonesian news agency LKBN Antara, which provides news stories to media sources, asked for a IDR450 billion (US$35.9 million) government bailout from the State Ministry for State Enterprises. The money would be used to "revitalize" and improve the company's economic performance as well as to redesign the website, Asia Media wrote.

"We are planning to become a content providing company and to enrich our website with multimedia content, and we need help from the government to carry this out," CEO Ahmad Muklis Yusuf said.

Antara is currently experiencing a financial deficiency because its annual production cost is four times higher than the IDR10 million (US$800) that media outlets pay, according toYusuf. He added that by 2012, the company intends to become a separate business entity.

The response from the Secretary of the Minister for State Enterprises was "positive", Yusuf said. The government office will support the news agency's progression and is currently evaluating how much funding it will offer.

Source: Asia Media