UMN Partners with Suara.com and IMS, Ready to Launch Future Digital Media Startups

The inauguration of the partnership between UMN, IMS, and Suara.com, represented by UMN Rector Ir. Andrey Andoko, M.Sc., Ph.D. (right), CEO of PT Arkadia Digital Media and Chief Editor of Suara.com, Suwarjono (center), and Asia Director of International Media Support Lars Bestle (left) at the Local Media Summit 2025 on Tuesday (October 7, 2025).

TANGERANG – Universitas Multimedia Nusantara (UMN) officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with International Media Support (IMS) from Denmark and Suara.com as the organizer of the Local Media Summit (LMS) 2025 on Tuesday (7/10/2025). This collaboration marks an important step for UMN in strengthening cooperation between the academic world and the media industry.

The MoU was signed by UMN Rector Ir. Andrey Andoko, M.Sc., Ph.D., Asia Director of International Media Support, Lars Bestle, and Editor-in-Chief of Suara.com, Suwarjono, during the Local Media Summit 2025 event. This year’s Local Media Summit theme is “Digital Media Sustainability for a Healthy Information Ecosystem.”

This collaboration includes curriculum development and support for academic activities in the digital media business. According to Samiaji Bintang, the Head of the UMN Digital Journalism Study Program, this collaboration focuses on developing education that is relevant to industry needs.

“[This collaboration includes] the development of a journalism education curriculum, specifically for students at UMN, related to media business or digital media business. So, we are collaborating with International Media Support (IMS) and Suara.com to develop an education curriculum related to media business models,” said Bintang, who also teaches the “Digital Media Business” course in the Digital Journalism Study Program at UMN.

Bintang added that this collaboration has been implemented through the “Digital Media Business” course, which began in the first semester of 2025/2026. “Digital Media Business” is one of the signature courses in the UMN Digital Journalism Study Program, designed to foster entrepreneurship in the media field. Through this course, students learn to understand the dynamics of the digital media industry and are challenged to create sustainable and innovative media business models.

In the “Digital Media Business” course, students are assisted by Eva Danayanti, IMS Program Manager, to understand the practical aspects of media business development. The collaboration with IMS, said Bintang, is a concrete step in preparing UMN Digital Journalism Program graduates to face changes in the digital media ecosystem.

UMN Rector Ir. Andrey Andoko M.Sc., PhD., accompanied by Suwarjono, CEO of PT Arkadia Digital Media and Chief Editor of Suara.com (left) and Lars Bestle, Asia Director of International Media Support (IMS), took a photo with the research team and lecturers of the UMN Faculty of Communication Sciences at the Local Media Summit (LMS) 2025 event held at the JW Marriott Hotel, Jakarta, Tuesday (7/10/25).

Meanwhile, Dr. Ignatius Haryanto, Head of the UMN Communication Science Master’s Program and a researcher who participated in the Local Media Summit 2025, explained that this collaboration also allows lecturers and researchers to share their research findings with media industry players.

“At the Local Media Summit, the UMN research team, including myself, presented our research findings related to the current digital media market. We presented these findings and received feedback from platform providers, advertising agencies, and companies that advertise in the media,” Ignatius explained.

He believes that this synergy with industry players aligns with UMN’s mission to bridge the gap between academia and the needs of the working world, especially in understanding the dynamics of digital media.

As part of implementing this collaboration, seven groups of UMN students from the “Digital Media Business” course had the opportunity to pitch their media business ideas to media managers. The Local Media Summit 2025 event also became a platform for students to showcase their innovation and creativity in digital media.

“We really appreciate and are very proud of this opportunity for UMN Journalism students to be able to present their ideas in front of media executives who attended the Local Media Summit event yesterday,” Bintang said.

Bintang also noted that the ideas presented by UMN journalism students demonstrate significant potential in developing new media startups relevant to current trends. The ideas from UMN Digital Journalism Program students also received recognition from media executives and digital media stakeholders.

In addition, Ignatius Haryanto believes that this pitching experience significantly impacts students’ understanding of aspects of media entrepreneurship. He said that activities like this train students to think strategically and communicatively.

“The important value of the pitching experience is how students must have self-confidence, and before that, they must formulate well what they want to present,” Ignatius said.

UMN Digital Journalism students pose together after presenting (pitching) their media business ideas to local media managers at the Local Media Summit (LMS) 2025 at the JW Marriott Hotel, Jakarta, Tuesday (7/10/25).

Furthermore, Bintang explained that the UMN Digital Journalism Program plans to follow up on these student ideas with the support of the campus business incubation unit, Skystar Ventures UMN. This way, the students’ ideas can have an impact and not just remain “on paper.”

“This means that we are trying to encourage these ideas to not just remain on paper, but also be realized. So, we will try to collaborate and promote them, both to local media and Skystar Ventures UMN, one of the business incubation units at UMN,” Bintang explained.

This pitching activity also reflects UMN’s enthusiasm for encouraging students to be media consumers, creators, and innovators in their fields. Through academic and industry collaborations such as those established at the Local Media Summit, UMN remains committed to equipping its students with competencies that are adaptive to the dynamic changes in the media world.

By Melinda Chang | UMN News Service

English translation by Levina Chrestella Theodora

Kuliah di Jakarta untuk jurusan program studi Informatika| Sistem Informasi | Teknik Komputer | Teknik Elektro | Teknik Fisika | Akuntansi | Manajemen| Komunikasi Strategis | Jurnalistik | Desain Komunikasi Visual | Film dan Animasi | Arsitektur | D3 Perhotelan , di Universitas Multimedia Nusantara.