Gulf News Weekend edition front pages
It is not just the sand that is hot in Dubai each Saturday. Now the newspaper weekend market has expanded, and readers have tremendous choices of which paper to take to the beach.
For many years, the Gulf News’ Weekend was probably the one big newspaper package to put in your beach bag before heading out to Jumeirah Beach for a day in the scorching desert sun.
Now, the new arrival from Abu Dhabi, The National, has started its weekend edition, and it is a great read, on the beach or anywhere. Complete with sections that are presented on the Page 2 index with just the first small letter of their names—such as m for magazine, hh for house and home, m for motoring, etc.—The National Weekender is a good combination of photo galleries, longer in-depth and feature pieces, all elegantly presented. While advertising is not yet as present as in the thick Gulf News, one imagines it is only a matter of times—-and better economic times. By the way, The National’s magazine, called simply “m”, is attractively designed and includes a variety of subjects of interest, from fashion to films to the very local, as in “Desert Highway: On the Road in the UAE”.
The business daily, Business 24/7 produces a weekend edition where the first big change is the use of a red box logo to brand this edition. Inside, the info-graphic driven newspaper continues that approach, but it lends its pages to content that is more leisure and lifestyle related, such as The Life of Business and The Business of Life. One sees more stories about automobiles, the movies (a recent Page One story is all about the epic film, Australia, and displays a photograph of Aussie actor Hugh Jackman on the cover).
Although Dubai’s other English language daily, The Khaleej Times, has redesigned and improved its content and organization vastly, it still does not have a specific “weekender” edition as such. However, it adds to the mix of choices for readers who want to read in English. Of course, there are three Arab-language dailies also in the market here.
As in all competitive environments, and with three newspapers providing good visual and content information for weekend reading, there is no question that the road is clear for each of the titles in the UAE to try to get better each time. In the case of weekend editions, it is not a matter of editors looking at their competitors to see which news story they may have missed. It is more like taking a close look to see what wonderful piece is there to engage readers as opposed to the content on their own.
The good reads are there in all three newspapers. One in particular, from The National Weekender, caught my eye. The headline? “Camels are the new goats”
About weekend newspaper circulation in the UAE: By the way, “weekend” means Friday for UAE newspapers. The only newspaper that is officially audited is the Gulf News. According to BPA Worldwide Newspaper Auditors, the circulation figures available for the Gulf News,Friday Weekend edition, as of September 2008: 118,642 copies.
The ad that hugs Page One
In Dubai, today’s Gulf News displays a “hugger ad” for a car tire company. It is business as usual for the Gulf News advertising department, as it sells hugger ads frequently for a variety of clients. The hugger wraps around the first section of the newspaper, covering part of Page One, but it is easily removed, but not before the readers sees the giant tires and the headline: Your One-Stop Professional Tyre Shop!
To read TheRodrigoFino blog, in Spanish, go:
https://garciamedia.com/latinamerica/blog/
Today, Rodrigo Fino writes about the almost “silent advertising” appearing on line.
Insurance against heart attacks
Belgium
2008
Agency: Duval Guillaume, Antwerp
Today’s pictures of the Burj Dubai, taken quite close to the structure by Haydee Perez, wife of Gulf News design director, Miguel Gomez. Today marked a historic day for the Burj Dubai, as it is now reached its maximum height so they placed an antenna at the top. Enjoy the views.
Yesterday evening, on the way back to the hotel, I took this picture of the ever changing Dubai skyline. To the far left is the Burj Dubai, still in construction and described as the tallest building in the world. I have been photographing it through its entire construction with every visit I make to Dubai. I am fascinated by the small crane at the very top of the building now, high up in the clouds, almost a kilometer up in the air. And, in fact, the first Giorgio Armani hotel ever, will be among the many attractions of the Burj Dubai, which will also include shopping, offices and residences. Anyone interested in seeing clouds outside the window, or desert views extending for miles, this is it!
For more information about the Burj Dubai:
http://www.burjdubai.com/
In Dubai with the Gulf News the rest of the week. Here I enjoy a midmorning Arabic coffee today, served by the newsroom office assistant, Kabir Siraz Ullah.
TheMarioBlog posting #156