Kompas is the most widely read newspaper in Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

. Published by Kompas-Gramedia Group

Kompas-Gramedia Group

Kompas Gramedia Group is the largest media conglomerate in Indonesia.- History :After the success of the magazine Intisari , P. K. Ojong and Jakob Oetama launched a national newspaper called Kompas...

 Publishing since June 28, 1965, it has a reputation in Indonesia for high-quality writing and investigative journalism. It is written in Indonesian

Indonesian language

Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....

.

History

The paper was first suggested by General Ahmad Yani

Ahmad Yani

General Ahmad Yani was the commander of the Indonesian Army, and was killed by members of the 30 September Movement during an attempt to kidnap him from his house.-Early life:...

, then the Army Minister and the Commander of the Army, when he suggested to Frans Seda

Frans Seda

Franciscus Xaverius Seda , popularly known as Frans Seda, was an Indonesian finance minister in the early days of Suharto's presidency...

 publishing a newspaper that was balanced, credible and independent.
Seda sounded out the idea to his friends, P.K. Ojong and Jakob Oetama. Ojong subsequently agreed to undertake the project and Oetama became its first editor-in-chief.

The publication was initially named Bentara Rakyat (People's Herald). At President Sukarno

Sukarno

Sukarno, born Kusno Sosrodihardjo was the first President of Indonesia.Sukarno was the leader of his country's struggle for independence from the Netherlands and was Indonesia's first President from 1945 to 1967...

's suggestion, it was renamed to Kompas ("compass"), for the direction-finding instrument.

Kompas began publication on June 28, 1965 from an office in central Jakarta

Jakarta

Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

, with an initial circulation of 4,800 copies. Since 1969, it has been the largest national newspaper in Indonesia. In 2004, its daily circulation reached some 530,000 copies, and its Sunday edition, 610,000 copies. Readership totaled some 2.25 million.

Like many major daily newspapers, Kompas is divided into three major parts: a front section containing national and international news, a business and finance section, and a sports section.

Kompas features the Benny & Mice

Benny & Mice

Benny & Mice is an Indonesian comic strip made by Benny Rachmadi and Muhammad "Mice" Misrad.-Background:Benny & Mice first appeared in 2003 in the local newspaper Kompas Sunday edition. The comic strip features Benny as he is, tall and frizzy-haired, while Mice has glasses and a big nose...

 and Panji Koming comic strip every Sunday.

Closed regional section

January 2011, the newspaper has closed down regional (local) sections and returned to a uniformed edition nationwide. The first regional section is East Java at 2003 and followed by Central Java, Yogyakarta, West Java and 2 other Sumatra's regional section. No clear reason for the action.