Wednesday, December 12, 2007

The Newspaper Drama in the UAE

Excerpts from an article in the Guardian Unlimited.

"Frank Kane, the former business editor of the Observer, is to edit a new business newspaper in Dubai. Kane will lead a team of 70 journalists on Emirates Business 24-7, a daily tabloid that launches on Sunday with a print run of 60,000.

The new English-language paper is the reincarnation of Emirates Today, a tabloid launched two-and-a-half years ago by the Dubai-based Arab Media Group.

"The target audience is English-reading, affluent, aspirational people involved in business here," he said. "That's a huge market - and it's not a British expat product. The Asian community and Arab community read English - English is the international language."

Last year, following his departure from the Observer after five years, Kane was involved with former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil in an ill-fated attempt to launch a daily business paper in Dubai. The project had to be abandoned because the UAE's government refused to grant publishing company ITP a licence for the paper, which was to be called the Arabian Business Standard.

There will be no such problem for Emirates Business 24-7. The paper has inherited Emirates Today's licence, and the Arab Media Group is a subsidiary of Dubai Holdings, a conglomerate owned by Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. Emirates Business 24-7 will sit alongside AMG's two Arabic-language newspapers, eight radio stations and two TV channels.


The booming UAE market is already being targeted by western newspaper groups. The Financial Times distributes its European edition there, an international version of the Times is also on sale, while the Wall Street Journal circulates a digitised edition.

And former Daily Telegraph editor Martin Newland is preparing a new English-language daily newspaper backed by the Abu Dhabi government, reportedly called Capital Tribune, for launch in March."

Source:
Frank Kane to edit UAE newspaper ~ Guardian Unlimited, Thursday December 6 2007

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If there's one thing the UAE desperately needs, it is a higher quality in newspapers. Sometimes it almost seems like anything thing they change or introduce in their papers can only be an improvement. Here's hoping this is the first in a series of changes then.

Arab Lady said...

didnt get it the drama part in the story