About Rolling Stone Indonesia

Rolling Stone Indonesia

Rolling Stone Indonesia was the Indonesian edition of the American music magazine Rolling Stone. It was published monthly in Jakarta, in the Indonesian language, from 2005 until it ceased publication at the start of 2018. For twelve years it brought the Rolling Stone name and format to Indonesian readers as a domestic music magazine, combining material connected to the American edition with coverage of Indonesian music and musicians. Its first edition carried Bob Marley on the cover, its best-known staff included figures who became closely associated with its identity, and its brand extended for a time beyond print into a physical cafe in Kemang, Jakarta. The magazine ended not with a gradual fade but with a formal announcement, dated 1 January 2018, in which its Indonesian licence holder stated that it no longer held the licence to operate the magazine and website in Indonesia.

Overview

The Indonesian edition was a licensed national version of an American music magazine, adapted for its home market in language, location and subject matter. It was published in Jakarta and written in Indonesian, which made it an Indonesian publication in practice even though its brand, name and part of its editorial material came from the United States. It appeared monthly throughout its existence, giving it a regular rhythm of publication from its first edition in 2005 to its final period at the end of 2017 and the start of 2018.

Its lifespan placed it across a changing period for music media in Indonesia. When it began in 2005, print music magazines still held a central place in music journalism. By the time it ended, digital media and webzines had placed severe pressure on Indonesian music print titles, and another long-running Indonesian music magazine, Hai, had already stopped its print edition in the previous year. Rolling Stone Indonesia's twelve years therefore covered both the establishment of a new standard for Indonesian music writing, as its Indonesian Wikipedia article later described its arrival, and the eventual withdrawal of its licence in a far more difficult environment for print.

Launch and First Edition

Rolling Stone Indonesia was first published in 2005 by JHP Media. The arrival of the magazine introduced the Rolling Stone title to Indonesia as a locally published monthly edition, rather than as an imported American magazine alone. Its first edition in 2005 carried Bob Marley on the cover. That choice placed a globally recognised music figure at the front of the new Indonesian edition from its very first appearance, signalling the international scope that the title brought with it.

The contents of that first edition showed the balance the magazine presented from the start. Alongside Bob Marley on the cover, the edition also covered Linkin Park, Metallica and Britney Spears, three internationally known acts from different parts of popular music. At the same time, it covered the Indonesian band Slank. The inclusion of Slank in the first edition demonstrated that the Indonesian edition was not devoted exclusively to foreign music. From its beginning, it placed Indonesian musicians within the same publication as major international names. That combination of the American brand, international coverage and Indonesian content defined the edition's founding identity in 2005 and remained the basis on which it was published from Jakarta for the following twelve years.

Editorial Approach and Reputation

The Indonesian edition developed a reputation for the character of its writing. The Indonesian Wikipedia article on the magazine noted that its arrival set a new standard for music journalism in Indonesia. According to that assessment, the magazine offered longer and more in-depth writing than other Indonesian music magazines. That distinction concerned not only the subjects it chose but the depth and length with which it treated them, setting it apart from the existing field of Indonesian music publications at the time it appeared.

A further part of that reputation rested on its access to material from the United States. The magazine carried exclusive material from the American edition, alongside its Indonesian coverage. That combination gave its readers content that originated with the parent Rolling Stone while also reading a magazine written in Indonesian and published in Jakarta. The mixture of longer, more in-depth domestic journalism and exclusive American material shaped how the edition was remembered. It was described as having raised expectations for what an Indonesian music magazine could provide, and that description formed a central part of its legacy after its closure in 2018.

Covers and Notable Appearances

Covers played a visible role in the magazine's history, beginning with Bob Marley on the cover of the first edition in 2005. A cover appearance marked a prominent place within an issue, and the musicians chosen for that position across the magazine's life reflected both its international inheritance and its Indonesian focus. The first edition's combination of Bob Marley on the cover and coverage of Slank inside captured that dual orientation at the outset.

Musician Iwan Fals appeared on its cover in May 2007. That appearance came two years after the magazine's launch and placed a major Indonesian musician in the cover position. It showed, in concrete form, that the Indonesian edition gave its most prominent space to Indonesian artists as well as to the international figures associated with the wider Rolling Stone world. The May 2007 cover became one of the specific dated moments recorded from the magazine's earlier years, standing alongside the 2005 first edition as evidence of how the edition balanced its American origins with the Indonesian music scene it was published to cover.

Staff and Leadership

The best-known staff of Rolling Stone Indonesia included three figures whose names remained closely associated with the magazine. Adib Hidayat served as its editor-in-chief, holding the senior editorial role within the publication. Wendi Putranto served as its digital managing editor. Ricky Siahaan served as an editor, and he was also known as the guitarist of the metal band Seringai. His dual presence, as both a magazine editor and a performing musician in a metal band, connected the magazine's staff directly to the Indonesian music community it covered.

Wendi Putranto's association with the magazine was especially long. He had been with the magazine since its founding, which meant his service stretched back to its beginning in 2005. In his farewell message, he marked 12 years, 4 months and 25 days of service. That precise reckoning recorded the full span of his time with the publication, from its founding period through to its end. It also mirrored the lifespan of the magazine itself, which the licence holder later described as twelve years. The farewell message therefore provided a personal measure of the same twelve-year history that the formal closure announcement recorded in institutional terms.

Anniversary and Community Activity

The magazine marked its anniversaries publicly during its years of publication. To celebrate its sixth anniversary in mid-2011, its publisher held a giveaway of 1,000 free guitars to street children. The anniversary fell six years after the first edition in 2005, at the midpoint of the magazine's eventual twelve-year life. The celebration took the form not only of a commemoration of the magazine itself but of a large-scale distribution directed toward street children.

The scale of the giveaway, 1,000 guitars, made it a notable recorded event in the magazine's history. It connected the publication, whose work centred on music journalism and music coverage, to the distribution of musical instruments themselves. The mid-2011 event showed the publisher using the sixth anniversary as an occasion for activity beyond the pages of the monthly magazine. At that point the edition still had more than six years of publication ahead of it, and the anniversary stood as a marker of an established title that had moved from its 2005 launch into a recognised position within Indonesian music media.

Rolling Stone Cafe in Kemang

The Rolling Stone brand in Indonesia extended beyond the printed magazine and its website into a physical venue. The Rolling Stone Cafe was located in Kemang, Jakarta, the same city from which the magazine was published. The cafe carried the Rolling Stone name into a social and commercial space, giving the brand a physical presence that readers and music audiences could visit, separate from buying or reading the monthly edition.

The cafe did not outlast the magazine. It had already closed in May 2017, several months before the magazine itself ceased publication at the start of 2018. Its closure therefore came first in the sequence of endings that closed out the Rolling Stone presence in Indonesia during that period. First the Kemang cafe closed in May 2017, and then, at the beginning of the following year, the licence for the magazine and website came to an end. Together, the two closures marked the withdrawal of both the physical venue and the publishing operation that had carried the Rolling Stone name in Jakarta.

Closure and Licence Announcement

Rolling Stone Indonesia ceased publication at the start of 2018. The ending was formalised in an announcement dated 1 January 2018 by PT a&e Media, which by then was the Indonesian licence holder. In that announcement, PT a&e Media stated that from 1 January 2018 it no longer held the licence for the Rolling Stone Indonesia magazine and website to operate in Indonesia. The statement applied to both the printed magazine and the website, covering the full publishing presence of the edition.

The announcement also dealt with the ownership of the brand. PT a&e Media stated that all brand ownership connected with Rolling Stone Indonesia had been returned to the brand owners in New York and to Rolling Stone International. The Indonesian operation therefore ended through the return of the brand to its owners, rather than through a transfer to another Indonesian publisher recorded in the announcement. PT a&e Media thanked its employees, readers, clients, musicians, bands, labels and contributors for the magazine's 12 years. That thanks acknowledged the full community that had sustained the edition, from the people who produced it to the musicians and labels it covered and the readers who bought it, across the twelve years from 2005 to the start of 2018.

Indonesian Music Print in the Late 2010s

The closure of Rolling Stone Indonesia took place within a wider contraction of Indonesian music print media. Its fellow Indonesian music magazine Hai, which had been published since 1977, had stopped its print edition in June 2017 and moved online. That decision came only months before the Rolling Stone Cafe closed and less than a year before Rolling Stone Indonesia itself ended. Hai had existed for forty years by that point, far longer than the twelve years of Rolling Stone Indonesia, yet it faced the same shift away from print.

The movement of Hai online was described as part of the same pressures from webzines and digital media that affected Indonesian music print titles generally. Those pressures formed the environment in which Rolling Stone Indonesia's licence ended on 1 January 2018. Print music magazines that had once competed on the length and depth of their writing, the exclusivity of their material and the prominence of their covers now operated in a media landscape reshaped by digital publication. The near-simultaneous endings, Hai leaving print in June 2017 and Rolling Stone Indonesia ceasing at the start of 2018, marked a clear turning point for that sector of Indonesian publishing.

Aftermath and Regional Expansion

After the Indonesian edition had closed, the wider Rolling Stone organisation continued to develop its international plans. In 2019, Rolling Stone International announced new investment and editorial expansion across Asia-Pacific. In announcing that expansion, it noted the Indonesian publication's shutdown the previous year. The reference placed the closed Jakarta edition within the organisation's own account of its regional position, acknowledging that Indonesia, which had supported a monthly Rolling Stone edition for twelve years, no longer had one as the Asia-Pacific expansion was announced.

Rolling Stone Indonesia was therefore remembered as a complete and bounded publishing venture. It was launched by JHP Media in 2005 with Bob Marley on the cover of its first edition, published monthly in Indonesian from Jakarta, and was credited with setting a new standard for music journalism in Indonesia through longer, more in-depth writing and exclusive material from the American edition. It was led by editor-in-chief Adib Hidayat, served for its whole life by digital managing editor Wendi Putranto and counted Seringai guitarist Ricky Siahaan among its editors. It celebrated its sixth anniversary in 2011, lost its Kemang cafe in May 2017 and ended on 1 January 2018, when PT a&e Media returned the brand to its owners in New York and to Rolling Stone International and thanked all who had sustained its twelve years.