PENGELOLAAN MEDIA MAJALAH BOBO

Abstract

Digital disruption has pressured Indonesia’s print media industry, causing several children’s magazines such as Kiddo, Album Donal Bebek, Bobo Junior, and Mombi to cease publication. Amid these conditions, Bobo Magazine has remained in weekly print for more than five decades, even though its circulation fell from 385,000 copies in 2013 to an average of 53,600 per issue in 2025. This study aims to describe and analyze the media management strategy Bobo Magazine applies to survive in the digital era. It uses a qualitative single instrumental case study design with a post-positivist paradigm. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with three informants (the Marketing Communication Director, a Visual Editor, and a consumer) and secondary data from Bobo’s digital platforms, then analyzed through open coding, selective coding, and pattern matching using five frameworks: the Decision Sequence Framework, editorial management, gatekeeping, news values, and the resource-based view. The findings show that Bobo’s survival is a directed, layered process of adaptation guided by the principle of adapt the format, protect the values. The strategy includes an environmental reading that repositions Bobo as intellectual property with dual positioning for parents and children, layered gatekeeping and brand guardrails that protect safety and educational value, meaningful cross-generational content, and resources that competitors find hard to imitate.