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BeritaSatu Media Holdings, one of the country’s fastest growing multimedia companies, has appointed Sachin Gopalan as its new chief executive officer as part of its strategy to become an industry leader. 

Last year was a landmark one for BMH as it recorded strong growth, outperforming the industry average by a significant margin. The company also expanded its portfolio to include television and digital platforms. 

Gopalan, who had been the chief operating officer for the past two years, will lead the group’s expansion into new businesses as well as growing the existing business lines. 

“I am very excited at the opportunity to build a world-class media organization that is founded on our five pillars: international credibility, commitment to social change, positive journalism, technological excellence and financial viability,” Gopalan said.

“We aim to be among the top media groups in Indonesia through our innovative approaches in developing viable business models for media,” Gopalan continued.

BMH was recently recognized by media and marketing giant Group M as Indonesia’s most innovative media group. 

BeritaSatu Media Holdings has been building a multimedia integrated newsroom since mid-2011 and has centralized all its operations into the Citra Graha building, which will soon be renamed BeritaSatu Plaza.

This is being done to make the news-gathering operations more cost-effective and to build a strong news brand within the highly fragmented Indonesian media industry. 

“It has been the dream of our shareholders to build an independent, integrated news organization, the first of its kind in Indonesia, that is focused and committed to champion nation-building activities and that will take the country to the forefront of Asian representation in the world,” said Peter F. Gontha, BMH’s group publisher.

“Our vision is to impact lives through news you can trust, and we aim to be the most credible international source of news in Indonesia,” he added. 

The organization, which was formerly known as Globe Media Group, is Indonesia’s largest and strongest English-language publisher. It was renamed BeritaSatu Media Holdings last year to better reflect the wide range of news brands it owns across multiple languages, multiple platforms and multiple news cycles. 

To reflect its ambitions and vision, BMH has over the years brought on board several prominent media personalities such as Gontha, Theo L. Sambuaga, Tanri Abeng, Shoeb K. Zainuddin, Primus Dorimulu, Bhimanto Suwastoyo, David Plott, Lin Neumann, Didik Rachbini and Fasli Jalal, whose combined experience and expertise lend the organization a dynamic and powerful presence at a regional level within the industry.

In a recent move to strengthen its business operations, BMH brought in Don Bosco, former head of news at SCTV, to establish its news broadcasting services. Daniel Rembeth, the former CEO of The Jakarta Post, came on board recently to assist the management in advertising sales, circulation and other new initiatives at a group level. 

BMH currently publishes Investor Daily, Suara Pembaruan, the Jakarta Globe, Straits Times Indonesia and the Student Globe newspapers, as well as several magazines such as Majalah Investor, Globe Asia, The Peak, Campus Life and Kemang Buzz.

It has also recently developed the BeritaSatu news brand consisting of an online news portal, apps and a high-definition television channel that it plans to launch nationwide in 2012. Several of BMH’s publications are available in online and mobile digital platforms and have a social media presence.

“Our products are market leaders in their respective segments and this is the basis of how we choose our diverse media portfolio,” said John Riady, the company’s digital and business development director.

“Our selection of new media platforms is also inspired by keeping a close eye on emerging media habits of our youth that are increasingly using mobile, online and social media.”

The organization plans to expand into several media-related businesses that will strengthen its market share and increase revenue and profitability.