The first newspapers in Semarang

1845 - 1850

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Caption Bahasa Indonesia

Samarangsch Advertentie-blad, issued on Saturday, 5 January 1850.

Source: private source

The oldest newspapers published in Semarang are the government-owned "Semarangsche Courant", which was first published in 1845, and the "Samarangsch Advertentieblad", which was one of the private advertising newspapers published before 1850.

More information about the Press & Newspaper in Semarang:

Semarangsche Advertentieblad is known to have been printed at the company Olifant & Co. This company was the only printing company in Java apart from the Landsdrukkerij in Batavia. The workshop of Messrs. Olifant & Co.'s Semarang branch, which supplied newspapers containing advertising articles in Semarang on a weekly basis. Olifant & Co. was mainly engaged in printing books on the Arts and Sciences and was based in Surabaya.

It should be noted that newspapers at that time could only contain advertisements or engage in advertising. This phenomenon was based on the strict censorship of the press by the government at that time as if it feared and hated printing; and the press was the most bitter enemy for the peace and prosperity of the colonised country.

>>More information regarding of Press in Dutch East Indie<<<

1857 - Oliphant & Co Semarang is acquired and passes into the ownership of G. C. T. van Dorp & Co, Boekhandel en Drukkerijen.

1863 - Semarangsch Handels Advertentieblad changes to De locomotief. The choice of name was based on the public discussion about the construction of the railway line (Semarang-Vorstenlanden N.I.S. 1862), which was one of the new modes of land transport at the time.

"De Locomotief-Samarangsch Handels en Advertentie-blad, issued on 14 July 1865"

Source: https://archive.org/details/ddd_010286787_mpeg21

Until the 1930s, De Locomotief had a wide circulation, with a total of 3000-6000 copies printed in one year. Conditions got better for De Locomotief in the 1940s, when sales increased with a total of 6000-9000 copies in one year. The newspaper survived the forced closure after the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, and reappeared in 1947, until 1956, when it was completely shut down.

1924 - Another newspaper, Algemeen Handelsblad voor Nederlandsch-Indie, emerges that is quite popular with the people of Semarang and the Dutch East Indies in general. This competitor newspaper to De Locomotief was printed by N.V. Drukkerij Benjamins, and generally in addition to news contains advertisements and trade news. Aglemeen Handelsblad voor Nederlandsch-Indie survived until 1942, as other print and press products did, during the Japanese occupation.

"Algemeen Handelsblad voor Nederlandsch-Indie, issued on 16 April 1924"

source: delpher.nl