Arab News has unveiled a new identity and a “2020 vision” to cement its positioning as the leading Middle East English-language daily.
The newspaper, which is based in Saudi Arabia with bureaus across the world, also has a new tagline: The Voice of a Changing Region.
The changes were unveiled at Arab News’ second International Media Gala held on the first day of the Arab Media Forum.
The new design — both in the printed newspaper and online at www.arabnews.com — reflects a new approach to stories that is better suited to the Internet age.
Adding value
Stories will be supplemented with the contextual analysis and elegant graphics and background facts giving richness to the newspaper’s stories. Many now come in two forms; a full version, and a “speed read” that can be more easily digested. They are also accompanied by panels of instant facts and statistics that can be quickly and easily understood.
The changes were unveiled by Faisal J. Abbas, the editor in chief of Arab News, to a packed audience at The St. Regis Dubai hotel in Al Habtoor City.
Abbas used the speech to call on technology companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter and traditional news publishers to work together for the sake of combating fake news and preserving editorial integrity.
Call for fairer models
He said that this starts with the digital monetization model for media — and called for a fairer model for the content creators.
“Producing fake news is cheap, but producing quality, fact-checked, fair and balanced reporting is costly,” Abbas said.
“The only way forward is to ensure sufficient monetization of our digital platforms. The truth is, none of us are able to compete with the rates that the likes of Google, Facebook and Twitter themselves can offer — nor we can afford to cut down on quality at the expense of the truth.
“What I suggest is that it is time we all stand together and discuss a sustainable future which ensures fairer revenues from digital platforms, a future we can build together to protect us, our children and our children’s children from fake news.”
Recognizing Khaled Almaeena
The International Media Gala also saw a special honorary trophy presented to former Arab News Editor in Chief Khaled Almaeena, presented to him by Faisal J. Abbas on behalf of Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan Al-Saud, chairman of the Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG), the publisher of Arab News.
Mr. Almaeena was also the winner of the second International Media Gala annual lifetime achievement award. This was presented to him by Mona Al-Marri, the director general of the Dubai Government Media Office, who was the guest of honor at the gala.
Khaled Almaeena served as editor in chief of Arab News twice — between 1982 and 1993, and again between 1998 and 2011 — and in November 2016 was given the honorary title of “editor emeritus.”
Established in 1975, Arab News is the Middle East’s leading English-language daily.
As “The Voice of a Changing Region,” the newspaper is renowned for providing the Arab perspective on international affairs via its network of reporters, opinion writers and analysts. It is considered the newspaper of record on major Arab affairs for a large number of global media outlets, governments and academic institutions.
The newspaper is based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with a network on international bureaus.