International Journal of Indonesian Studies Volume 1, Issue 3 | Page 29

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN STUDIES
SPRING 2016
surrounds, and to bring peace and security to these communities by giving resident readers
information on crime hot spots.
The daily circulation of Lampu Hijau in July 2011 was 50,000 copies. The highest
circulation of 130,000 copies was reached between 2004 to 2006, when it was still using the
name Lampu Merah. Although its circulation has dropped to an average of 50,000 copies
since 2011, Lampu Hijau remains successful in terms of circulation and readership.
The area of distribution of Lampu Hijau includes Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Bekasi,
Tangerang, West Java (Karawang, Purwakarta, Bandung, Tasikmalaya, Garut, Banjar, Ciamis
and Cirebon), Banten (Serang, Lebak, Cilegon and Pandeglang) and Lampung (Sumatra
Island). Lampu Hijau’s target readers can be described as 19 to 45 years old and categorised
as urban workers. The paper also specifically targets young communities (such as motor
clubs and fan clubs). Lampu Hijau is a paper for low-income people, which is why it is sold at
a low price—Rp. 2,000 or equal to AUD$0.20. Lampu Hijau tends to use simple words to
cater to its readers who are mostly not well educated and have low literacy levels (Interview
with the editor-in-chief of Lampu Hijau, 25 December 2011).
Similar to Pos Kota, Lampu Hijau uses some tabloid-specific styles, as described in
the following section.
Strong visuals
According to the editor-in-chief, colourful headlines and engaging pictures are the main
strengths of Lampu Hijau. Its headlines, which use a combination of upper case, underlining
and italics, are eye-catching. In addition, Lampu Hijau uses unusual formats for its titles,
such as snippets of conversation or bullet points. The paper often uses rhymes as well as
local slang, which make the titles very catchy.

Figure 3. Some editions of Lampu Hijau from December 2011 and January 2012.
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