Media jobs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi

We regularly get asked about jobs in the UAE and how to get them. So to throw it out there to readers:

- how did you get your own job?

- what are the best recruitment agencies for media jobs in Dubai? and the worst?

- which job ads sites are most useful?

- is there need to visit the UAE and go doorknocking, or can jobs be picked up remotely?

- what about jobs on the sales side as well as editorial?

A rival for The National?

According to a commenter:

It seems a new newspaper will soon be launched in Abu Dhabi. It's recruiting reporters - http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1250147
Are you surprised to hear this? Is there a market for more newspapers in the UAE? I thought the ad market was drying up.

The ad points to "the projected launch of a new local daily print publication for Abu Dhabi" by "a successful local publisher (small, well-funded, profitable, keen, entrepreneurial) with a number of print, online and video products".

More interestingly, they seem to be expecting some kind of Armageddon to break out among the seven-star hotels of the world-leading cultural capital of the UAE:

"this is not a job for those who like safety, an easy life, or the support infrastructure of a big organisation."

Screenshot in case it disappears:

Mass staff cuts at TMF

Rumours have been swirling and here's some corroboration:

As a former staff member, I can confirm that around 16 staff from TMF have been laid off in a mass staff cut at the company.

Citing the loss of the Thai airways inflight magazine Sawasdee, low ad revenues across the company and generally poor business results, the unfortunate decision has been made by TMF management.

The company is still a going concern, and will continue through this tough period.

Even as a staff member affected by the cuts, I can confirm that these events have taken place, believe this, not any erroneous reports printed elsewhere online.

We are all disappointed, but understand the business reasoning behind the decision, though all regret the sudden nature of the news.

Our sympathies to the staff that have been laid off, and we hope you find new positions soon. Anyone who's hiring, or knows any companies that are, feel free to post about it in comments.


EDIT: I just want to clarify that we're approving all the comments we can, but unless sources are provided, we can't publish some of the allegations that have been made regarding the management of TMF. Likewise allegations about their personal lives. If you can stand them up, then feel free to post with sources or email us. Comments that we consider fair opinion or "fair comment" are however going up.

Media Week staff quit?

New post request:

Media Week’s editorial staff has left the building, it seems. The current roster of writers and editors have now either left, or are serving their last days today, leaving the Emirates Neon Group magazine without an editorial team, for the moment.

Although no-one’s saying as much on the record, AdNation understands the team quit over unpaid wages. Dues for some staff remain unpaid since the summer, we hear.

ENG publishing director Mike Orlov didn’t comment directly on the suggestion that ENG wasn’t paying its staff, but described the current employment situation as “volatile” and said ENG wished its former Media Week employees all the best.

“It’s a very difficult market situation. A very high number of companies are owed a great deal of money by their customers, which has led to problems with companies meeting their requirements, and ENG, amongst many other businesses, has suffered,” said Orlov.

Full story here

Down the tubes

Is your publication going down the tubes? Budget cuts, non-payments, layoffs, CEO just transferred all the remaining dirhams to his Swiss account, etc?

Here's a thread to spill the beans.

Turning the mirror back on PR

One commenter has requested we tackle the issue of PR; we agree - let's face it, half of you will end up working in PR anyway, so we're all for it.

How about we do PR for a while. Stop sending me 2009 calendars, stop 'reverting shortly', stop saying 'do you remember me, we worked together with...' (yes moron, i remember you - I'm not 94 years old). Stop filling every press release with the following words: solution, integrated, delighted, strategic, iconic, leading, inaugural.

Who gives a crap if a two bit company has been 'awarded' a contract? if the company is listed maybe, but most aren't so why bother - all it does is tell people how small the company actually is. Why do you approach me about clients you clearly know nothing about? Why do you think i would like to go to dinner with your insurance company client - even if it is free! If i say i'm not interested why do you approach my colleagues trying to get in that way - no means no!

Why, if your client's stock price is going down faster than a Somali hooker, aren't you having them talk to the public about how great their order book is? What the hell is your job if not to make the company more viable to investors?!?!?!

I could go on but i also know my co-media member friends will want to shout loud about the utterly ridiculous crap they receive and deal with each day. PR in the UAE, its not just the media that is full of people who couldn't get a job anywhere else.

Is there still no love lost between PR and media? If there are so many ex-journos in PR, why are the press releases still craply written? And, do any PR people have any balls? And do any of them truly understand deadlines - especially for news wires?

Update: and what happens when a magazine like MEED hires JiWin to do its PR? At a time when the construction and real estate industries are falling apart, will MEED have to stick its neck in to avoid upsetting some of JiWin's clients, like Sama Dubai, Tatweer, Tecom and Dubai International Capital?

Farewell to ITP arms

Seems the ever-revolving door at ITP Business is spinning even quicker with the rumour that Sean Cronin, editor-in-chief of Arabian Business, has stormed out - apparently because of internal censoring. Another recent escapee is David Westley, editorial director of ITP.net. Could they both be heading up the Sheikh Zayed Road to join Richard O'Sullivan in Abu Dhabi?

7 sent

From a commenter:

Can we get a thread going on City 7’s X factor-style hunt for a new women’s show presenter(s)? It’s proper car-crash TV, which is ironic as it’s hosted by Adam whassisname, the car safety expert. It’s required viewing if you can stand the sheer horror of watching a bunch of impressionable bints being patronized by a panel of cretins who all look like extras from a M&M’s advert. One life-affirming moment follows another as the bald guy and the two fat girls exercise their idiocy in a studio setting not too dissimilar to those that Al Qaeda use when they’re X-factoring their hostages heads off.

For sure. We didn't even realise City 7 still existed!

Impressionable bints being patronised by cretins? Sounds like a regular Tuesday night in Scarletts.

The Aussie exodus

As more and more Dubai media people seem to be fleeing Down Under, we've actually had a request by a newly-Sydney-based PR type for prospective job candidates. You don't need to be Australian - their company has been recruiting from the UK.

So if you're fed up of sand and camels and ITP then drop us an email to the usual place (dubaimediablog gmail) and we can pass the details on. No word if the package includes a six cylinder kangaroo, but you never know.

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?

Banned on the run

A recent comment on DMO asked: "I'm about to leave a Dubai publishing company and move to another. I am presuming my company won't want me to go to a competitor (ie rival publisher, the titles aren't in direct conflict), but I'm reassured that DMC don't uphold bans on journos. Anyone had problems making a move?"

Forget about press freedom - are hacks able to move between companies without incurring a work ban? Do publishing houses use nefarious means to spoil a former employee's move? And, do they pay up on gratuities or force you to pay back huge sums of "relocation" fees? In pre-Dubai Media City days, it used to be far better for a journo to get themselves sacked if it was after less than three years at the company than it was to resign, which meant their gratuity was reduced by two-thirds.

What are the implications for a hack wishing to leave their job if they realise they've made a terrible mistake/been lured to Dubai under false pretences/hate everyone they work with/get offered more money from The Nation*? (* delete as applicable)

Actual journalists need not apply

There is lame, and then there is Dubai media lame, and then there is the execrable bloody human excrement dregs of lame that appears to be Martin Newland's new newspaper The Nation, as well as his journalistic courage.

The Press Gazette's Axegrinder dug up these nasty little nuggets. You can read the full excerpts here and here, but here is our favourite little piece of turd-dom:

"I can tell you now that every application from a journalist wanting to come and work here who has included in his or her portfolio an "investigative" piece about labourers' living standards has gone straight in the bin. Not because the theme is unworthy – it is and we will do it – but because we are looking for other, more nuanced and mature avenues into the national story."

So essentially if you are a journalist with the least miniscule microbe of talent, experience, news sense and ethics, no need to bother applying to Newland's Abu Dhabi government PR rag. Not unless you first sit UAE Media Course 101: How to prostitute every last shred of your integrity for the sheikh's oily dollar.

Once bitten, but not twice shy?

It seems the prodigal sons and daughters are flocking back to ITP like lambs to the slaughter. (Forgive the mixed metaphor, but it's apt.)

First, news broke that Alicia Buller was returning to ITP as managing editor of Arabian Business, where she was formerly features ed. Now Sean (Puffy) Cronin - ex-Construction Week editor, then Bloomberg - is leaving the newswire behind to head back into the ITP fold as editor of Arabian Business.

Both will be working under Anil Bhoyrul.

UPDATE: Apparently Alicia's off to join the Abu Dhabi paper now. Did she get a chance to warm her seat at ITP before joining the exodus?

REUPDATE: Alicia starts at Arabian Business tomorrow (Sunday) and was never heading to the Abu Dhabi paper - we were wrong and our source has been severely chastised. (Our willingness to publish a retraction is a bit of an alien concept in Dubai!)

Crossing the fence

Hardened hacks are throwing down their quills and taking up comfortable jobs on the other side of the fence, either for PR, government, or DubaiInc.

Anyone else swapped newspaperdom for PR? If so, any regrets?


**ANNOUNCEMENT**
In other news, as you may have noticed we're a bit up against it and would welcome more contributors. Just drop us an email if you are interested. And do it from an anonymous account, not your itp or toady.com address.

The Neverending Job Ad

This has to be seen to be believed (click for the full size version):



Anyone planning to apply?