First UAE financial daily in Arabic
We like to call attention to good news in the newspaper industry. And we are particularly happy when we can announce the launch of a new newspaper born in 2009.
Such is the case of the new Alrroya Aleqtisadiya , which means Economic Vision and enters the market as the first Arabic language newspaper in the Emirates dedicated to business, financial and economic affairs from a UAE perspective.
I find it interesting to read references to this new publication in its parent company press release, which describe the new venture as , “a financial daily and breaking news web site (alrroya.com)” .
The newspaper is printed in high quality, glossy paper, offering the standard economic daily news fare, and tons of tables with indicators from everywhere. Without much advertising at this early stage, pages display large photos, many stories and color on every page.
It is a vibrant, but crowded, newspaper market in the UAE. with five English language dailies, including one devoted to Economics, Business 24/7, plus now six Arabic language dailies, now including the new Alrroya.
According to an official Alrroya press release:
The project was launched in a record 5 months, thanks to close cooperation between the I-media team and KnowledgeView’s consultants and engineers. Publishing activities are conducted from two newsrooms in Dubai and Abu Dhabi that are linked over a secure Web, forming a single virtual newsroom. The two newsrooms were designed by KnowledgeView’s architects to comply with Convergent Newsroom mode of work.
Since the UAE’s formation in 1971 the country has become one of the world’s fastest growing economies and continues to attract some of the leading global companies.However, in terms of having Arabic business newspapers reflecting this growth the UAE has, until now, lagged but with the launch of Alrroya Aleqtisadiya a new benchmark has been set.
A first impression of the design, for a non-Arabic language reader, is of a sort of 1980s look. There is no visual wow here——not yet, anyway. Considering that this area of the world is ripe with newspapers that strut their design stuff and who have collected 37 design awards in the recent SND competition . These include the Gulf News, The National-—a real showcase of photos/graphics and sophisticated design—-and the newly revamped Kaleej Times, whose weekend edition is quite interesting and sophisticated visually. In addition, Business 24/7 provides large, detailed graphics to accompany its financial news fare.
As one Arabic journalist put it to me today:
They have a chance to make a mark, as a good financial daily in Arabic, for an audience that wants to read in Arabic. However, they have not impressed me with the layout, which tends to be old, or the content, which lacks analysis and interpretation, and is more like all the news they can get on a page. Perhaps we need to give them time to feel their way thru the market. What is interesting, however, is that this is very clearly a project that knows that it will reach many of its target readers ONLY thru online edition, and some more traditional readers with the printed newspaper.”
Coexistance of the various platforms. This is what the immediate future is all about.
Go here to read more about Alrroya, and to view today’s pages:
http://i-media.ae/services_aleqtisadiya.html
Mario Garcia Jr. discusses online navigation
Go here:
Is top navigation still necessary on news sites?
http://garciainteractive.com/blog/view/37/
:
To read TheRodrigoFino blog, in Spanish, go:
https://garciamedia.com/latinamerica/blog/
TheMarioBlog posting #219