Urbain Magazine Gets Under Jakarta’s Skin

The Jakarta Globe, Armando Siahaan

Urbain Magazine is a monthly publication covering Indonesian urban culture. (Image courtesy of the magazine)

In September of 2005, Febian Sumaputra had a revelation. The internationally-renowned street dancer was judging a break dancing contest, and all around him the competitors and spectators alike were sporting baggy clothes, baseball caps and funky sneakers, and the whole scene was bathed in a DJ’s booming hip-hop.

The scene opened the 26-year-old’s eyes. Urban culture — a term often used to describe the contemporary subcultures of the inner city that included break dancing, hip-hop, street basketball and others — had been growing rapidly in Indonesia, yet not a single publication focused on those communities.

Febian, who spent almost four years studying film in the United Sates and Australia, together with his best friend, Rico Lubis, a professional street basketballer, decided that launching a free magazine on urban culture was a risk worth taking.

In January this year, about 7,000 copies of the first issue of Urbain magazine were distributed throughout Jakarta’s major shopping centers, youth clothing stores and hip restaurants.

In addition to covering hip-hop subcultures such as streetball, graffiti and break dance, Urbain also reports on four-wheeled skateboards, body-decorating tattoo artists, avid followers of guitar-bashing music and how-to guides for nocturnal party-goers.

“Most of the media here is not aware that these communities exist, and it’s actually a vastly untapped market,” said Febian, who is the publication’s editor in chief. “Urbain magazine wants to cover these smaller communities.”

Urbain has run interviews with people like Ewok One, a legendary New York graffiti artist, Steve Sampow, a Sydney-based sneaker junkie who owns hundreds of sneakers, and Jodia Natapradja, an Indonesian fashion designer who draws sketches for Insight51, an Australian surf clothing label.

“It’s about the people, the communities and what they’ve done,” Febian said. “It’s about talking about communities that people think have already vanished.”

Urbain also serves as a guide on how to dress urban, highlighting independent local clothing lines. Some of the labels that they’ve written about include Mischief Denims, Nikicio, and Archive — local brand names that are usually only found in distro (small, independent boutiques).

“Local products can definitely compete wit h imported ones,” Febian said. “We want to help raise the profile of the local industry.”

The 54-page magazine also promotes parties that are held by these communities, but these are not your typical shake-and-booze nightclub scenes.

“Parties aren’t necessarily the best way to describe the events that we promote,” he said, adding that the “parties” they cover range from music concerts, art exhibitions and product launches.

Bandung-born Febian said that these under-the-radar communities are experiencing increased interest in the country.

For example, when “Sneaker Pimp,” an international touring sneaker exhibition, hit Jakarta in 2006, about 13,000 urban culture lovers attended.

“We wouldn’t make the magazine unless we knew that the market is actually huge,” Febian said. “But it’s also about how most Indonesians have no appreciation for these kinds of communities.”

Although Urbain welcomes people from all ages, Febian said that the main target market is urban dwellers who are between the 20-35 years old.

“We’re also targeting high school kids, but mainly those in college and older.”

Industry peer Ariadi Jaya, who runs Daily What Not web magazine, initially had mixed feelings about the start-up.

An avid observer of urban culture, he said that it wasn’t until Urbain expanded their scope of focus to include comic book illustrators and tattoo artists that he started to enjoy the content more.

“For someone my age, I want something that’s light and not too serious,” the 29-year-old said.

He also said it seemed that the magazine had an identity crisis early on, as it adopted many artistic styles.

“Maybe they were still unsure about where the magazine was going,” he said. “But based on the recent editions, their identity is much clearer.”

Targeting a youthful demographic, the magazine boasts of eye-popping visuals. The cover page typically combines an image of a model with a colorful and modern graphic design artwork.

When it comes to photo-article compositions, Urbain tends to cater to those who crave eye candy more than food for thought.

“People tend to be more interested in looking at the pictures first before reading the content,” Febian said. “Since this is a free magazine, our content doesn’t have to be too in-depth and extensive.”

Andi Rharharha, a visual and performance artist, said that Urbain was unique in the way it covered urban communities. He said he was particularly impressed by the attention given to the street art community.

“[The street art community] is so huge, it has even entered the commercial world such as in advertising,” he said. “But not many magazines follow the development of street art, or gives as much space as Urbain.”

Febian also emphasized that the magazine was fundamentally different to most free magazines in Jakarta in that it wasn’t a catalogue of party photos full of drunken faces.

Although finding events to cover has never been a problem, financial backing has caused its own issues.

When Fabian and Rico first came up with the idea, they knew that the magazine would have to be free.

“Since we’re new, we needed to break the market to introduce ourselves to the public,” Febian said.

“Who would buy the magazine if we don’t establish our name first? Many people here don’t even like free magazines, let alone paid ones.”

Rico, who is Urbain’s managing editor, said the decision was simple. He argued that sales of paid magazines in Indonesia are drastically deteriorating because people simply don’t want to spend their money on a magazine. The average cost of a monthly lifestyle magazine here ranges from Rp 50,000 to Rp 80,000 ($5 to $8).

“I’ll use myself as an example,” he said. “I used to be a national streetballer, but I never wanted to buy the only basketball magazine in country because it is too expensive.

“People in the big city prefer to spend their money on hanging out and that’s why a free magazine is preferable.”

Rico said that when they first started the company, they had to find an investor who believed in the product. Fortunately, Febian’s parents were willing to fork out the funds.

Once they had the initial capital, they hit the road to find advertisers to support their start-up venture.

“In the first edition, we had to count on the businesses of our personal friends and families to cover half the printing costs,” Febian said.

But things gradually became easier with each edition. Rico said that urban culture brands began to recognize Urbain as a magazine that could deliver their products to the right market.

Some of the brands that have placed ads in their magazine include AND1, kicks prominent among the street basketball community, Airwalk, foot gear for skateboarders, and local brands like Magic Happens.

But the magazine is yet to attract big name companies, which usually place bigger advertisements for longer periods of time, usually ranging between six months and a year.

“Those big companies are very difficult to get because they have agents that we have to go through. Since our company is relatively unknown, they’re usually scared to place an ad at our magazine,” Febian explained.

With such limited resources, the Urbain crew relies on alternative strategies to market their glossy magazine

The editorial team is comprised of people who are actively involved in the urban communities — aside from Febian and Rico, the executive editor is a skateboarder who knows many bands and frequents distros and tattoo parlors; the fashion editor is well-connected with fashionistas and party organizers; and the art director is a break dancer.

“Since most of us are part of the communities, we do a lot of word-of-mouth marketing and it’s quite effective for us,” Rico said.

Febian added that they also capitalize on the Internet’s viral marketing via Facebook, and also with online magazines, such as Dailywhatnot.com, Footurama.com, and Tembokbomber.com.

However, despite all their efforts, Febian said the magazine is still far from lucrative.

“Sometimes we make money, sometimes we don’t,” he said. “When we do, it’s probably just enough to cover the overheads, like printing costs, distribution and transportation fees.”

But Febian said the lack of funds won’t prevent them from putting out the magazine. “When we started this, we wanted to make money out of it,” he said. “But for now, we’re willing to fight on for urban culture’s sake.”

As Rico has pointed out, this financial predicament is understandable. “It’s business — it’s not as easy as just a flick of the wrist.”

Where to Find Urbain Magazine

Malls: Plaza Senayan, FX, Grand Indonesia, Senayan City
Coffee Shops: Starbucks, Coffee Bean, J.CO Donuts, Dunkin’ Donuts, Oh La La
Distros: Deadboy, Capital, Nanonine, and various distros in Bandung.