The agency's leadership was later reorganized. Soemanang became Antara's managing editor, and while Malik became his deputy. Malik, twenty years old at the time, was credited with keeping the agency alive in its early years by building a base of supporters in the emerging indigenous middle class. After Soemanang left Antara in 1938 to become the director of the Pergoeroean Rakjat network of schools, Sipahoetar was promoted to editor-in-chief, and Pandoe Kartawigoena became the agency's deputy editor-in-chief. Sipahoetar was later elevated to managing editor, but left the agency in 1939 because of an illness. Alwi Soetan Osman, an employee of the Indies' Ministry of Justice, briefly succeeded him as managing editor before being replaced by Pandoe Kartawigoena.