International media up the pressure

One reader has asked us to open up the debate on the upcoming UAE versions of the Financial Times and International Herald Tribune. This follows on from the local edition of The Times.

How do you think these titles will fare? Will local papers like Gulf News and the newly-launched The National suffer? Or, will it just mean that existing FT and IHT buyers have easier access to their paper of choice, and there will be very little effect on the local market? And, will this further highlight the lack of available talent at the upper end of the local business media market (with newswires and publications already struggling to fill their vacancies)?

Return of the media mack daddy

Another Dubai media behemoth rises again .... Former ITP sales god Neil Petch is now managing director of ENG Media, formed by Emirates Neon. He has poached Graham Stacey from CPI (where he headed up OK Middle East), who is now group editor.

Details on what publications they plan to launch are sketchy at best, but our money is on a celeb gossip title at least. Our spies tell us that Stacey is on a serious recruitment drive.

Updated: thanks to the poster who submitted a first look at one of the ENG magazines, BHW.

What's next for What's On?

Motivate is now officially on the market, as Obaid al Tayer apparently doesn't want to buy out Ian Fairservice.

Any ideas what will become of this bastion of Dubai publishing? And what will happen to Ian, the Godfather of Advertorial?

D Day for The National

Well chaps, this is the day when the face of journalism in the UAE changes forever ... or so they would have us believe. The National closes its first edition today and hits the streets tomorrow.

Seriously, we hope you prove us wrong and manage where all else have failed before: to launch a UAE paper with consistently high standards and sensible reporting that is neither sensationalist nor smarmy.

Good luck to all of you!

Grand National?

From an anonymous commenter:

This month's issue of Commerce magazine [we couldn't find this online - do chuck us a link or scan if you have it] carries a five page interview with Martin Newland in which not only is this website namechecked, but he talks about censorship, Conrad Black, why he resigned at the Telegraph, and how he came to be in Abu Dhabi. He also talks in detail about his plans for the new paper. I think it is the first interview he has given since he's been here.

It also has an interview with the current Editor in Chief of Gulf News in which he talks about why he is not worried about the competition the new paper will present (he thinks all of the talent in Abu Dhabi will be gone in a year because they won't be able to deal with lack of free speech). He also talks about the other papers that have come and gone, and why the Gulf News will always succeed.

The new Abu Dhabi paper apparently changed its name from The Nation to The National because Gulf News ramped up its "The Nation" section in recent months.

NB: If you want to post your own stuff here which would be great, just drop us a line and we'll add you the team. dubaimediablog at gmail.

EDIT: the interview is available here.