Let me start by saying that I have been visiting Dubai for more than eight years now. My first visit here was to do a complete redesign of the leading English-language daily, Gulf News. Since then, I have stayed on retainer with the Gulf News, working closely with its editor-in-chief, Abdul Hamid and art director, Miguel Gomez, on a variety of subsequent projects, redesign of each of the supplements published by the Gulf News, and, of course, for the creation of X-Press, the weekly free newspaper now two years old.
During those eight years of regular visits to this city of change——buildings appear everywhere all the time, to the point that each visit here requires marking up a new running route, since the previous “nice” one with a view of a certain location has been replaced by a monstrous 45-story building, so search for a new one—as I did this morning—-I have monitored the newspaper situation.
And although there are not as many newspapers as construction crews and cranes here, I am always surprised by the number of dailies available –about 10 in both English and Arabic language—and their staying power. Newspapers don’t disappear in Dubai, they simply reinvent themselves. For example, Emirates Today, a lively tabloid, turned into a sophisticated financial daily, Business 24/7.
THE NEWSPAPERS CIRCULATING IN DUBAI:
Here is a list of the current daily newspapers appearing here:
English language:
Gulf News, The National, Khaleej Times, Business 24/7, Seven Days, Gulf Today and the free weekly Xpress.
Arabic language:
Emarat al Youm
Alkhaleej
Albayan
Alittihad
HOW A LOCAL MEDIA EXPERT SEES IT:
An Emirate newspaperwoman with whom I chatted about the state of daily newspapers in the UAE—-and who did not wish to be identified here—had this to say:
About the Arab-language dailies: “Too many of them, in my view, and not all good quality. Most of them carry articles that are simply too long—who in Dubai is going to read these long pieces that are like from newspapers from another era. In my view, Alittihad is the ultimately most boring of them all, but it is government subsidized, so it survives; Albayan has greater appeal to readers, and truly has revamped itself to display news and photos well; Alkhaleej is the more traditional one, with good journalists and good content, but also long on text, and not so neatly designed and organized. It had its heyday, those days are gone, and competition is tougher now. Perhaps the one Arab newspaper that has the greatest appeal to the young is Emarat al youm, with its compact tabloid format, the nice illustrations, and content that has appeal. As for the new English-language daily, The National, I take one look at it, and it is beautiful, and I think, if it wasn’t for the intense heat of Dubai to remind me, I would think I was in London when I see The National. ”
I TAKE A LOOK AT THE NATIONAL:
www.thenational.ae
The National-—I was eager to take a look at this new entry into the UAE newspaper race.
Designed by the talented Lucy Lacava, The National is a joy to the eyes. Everything in its place, and a place for everything. An interesting Page Two navigator. White space that travels up and down the broadsheet pages to remind everyone that there is room to grow here. Overall, it is a sort of The Guardian of London, before it redesigned to the Berliner format. If one word describes the look of a newspaper, gravitas comes to mind here. This is definitely not a newspaper for everyone. It is aimed at the elite reader who has been around, gotten a couple of degrees along the way, and wants his newspaper to be as perfectly organized as the classical music in his iPod, the meetings in his electronic agenda, or his winter vacation in the Swiss Alpes. But it works at this level, I presume.
Best of The National: Arts & Life, a section that belongs in London, New York City or Boston. And, of course, in Montreal and Toronto! It opens with a poster-like image, and it waltz into fashion, books, the Sunday interview—all calmly presented. Type, photos and color step gingerly into the page, with text playing a larger role that it should, perhaps, but, obviously the editors know what their readers want, and based on my copy of The National, they want to read and keep reading.
My biggest disappointment: On this Sunday everyone was talking about the incredible performance of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, who won the 100-meter at the Olympics, setting a new record time of 9.69 seconds. The National carried this as a promo (sans photo) on page one. The visual lead on page one this day was the face of a sad Iraqi girl, part of a weeklong series on the suffering in Iraq. It is all about choices, and those who make them and for whom, of course.
NICE SURPRISES IN ALBAYAN
www.albayan.ae
Although I cannot read Arabic, I stopped several times to see the visual surprises offered in this newspaper. Surprises start on page one, and carry through. This newspaper must have a very involved visual editor—-plus plenty of space to spare. Photos are used about three to four times bigger than in any other newspaper here or anywhere. Overall, a newspaper with great appeal to young readers, or those who prefer to “look” more than to “read”.
I will devote a segment of the Dubai Report this week to an analysis of the use of typography in Emarat al Youm, designed by Al Trivino, who will contribute his comments.