The Media Industry: Convergence and Conglomeration

2015 was always going to be a year of going 'back to basics' for the Indonesian media industry. The 2014 election year saw a media landscape in which many companies clearly supported presidential candidatesalthough to what extent and why varied. The influence of media owners has been exacerbated by the increased concentration of media industry through convergence, with proprietors who previously only owned one platform (such as print, radio or television) building large, powerful multi-platform oligopolies. Put simply, Indonesia's big media companies are getting bigger in the digital era, and the influence of owners has heightened as their companies increasingly dominate the media landscape. The arrival of new 24-hour television news stations in 2015, such as Hary Tanoesoedibyo's iNews and Chairul Tanjung's CNN Indonesia, continues this trend.

This year saw many news organisations begin their 'one newsroom' modelwhere reports from 'content providers' (previously known as 'journalists') are shaped by 'content curators' (previously known as 'editors') to create 'multiplatform digital stories' (what we used to call 'news'). This process is still in transition phase, so 2016 will be a year of experimentation as news practitioners attempt to figure out the best model of journalism, networked content, marketing and advertising for their increasingly digitally driven companies.