NEW JORDAN DAILY SHAKES UP MEDIA MARKET

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 006576 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KPAO PGOV KMPI PHUM KMDR JO SUBJECT: NEW JORDAN DAILY SHAKES UP MEDIA MARKET ¶1. Summary: A new Jordanian daily newspaper ("Al Ghad" - "tomorrow") hit the stands August 1, billing itself as an independent (financially and editorially) alternative to Jordan's staid and risk-averse media establishment. Its owner, a marketing tycoon with connections to the Royal Family, promises a slick, probing and professional product that aims to end the dominance of the government-owned (and famously dull) daily, Al-Rai. The paper has hired away some of Jordan's best young journalists and editors and is paying salaries well above the average. Editorial bent appears liberal (pragmatic, pro-modernization, free trade),though the opinion page includes regular columns representing differing viewpoints, including Islamists, and the paper already features loaded terms in its reporting on Israel/Palestine and Iraq. Innovations such as home delivery and opinion polling aim to change the newspaper reading culture in Jordan, according to the publisher, and its arrival comes amidst a broader media and advertising boom in Jordan. Though still in its early days, the paper is seen by some as an opportunity to shake Jordan's media establishment out of its docile and ineffective role in society. End Summary. -------------- Journalism With a "Business Model"? -------------- ¶2. "Al Ghad" (tomorrow) made its long-awaited appearance on Jordanian news stands (and on doorsteps) Sunday, August 1 with a three-section, multi-color layout. The paper is owned by Mohammad Alayyan, a young, British-educated marketing tycoon whose other major projects (a weekly all-advertisement newspaper and a scratch-and-win lottery game) have been hugely successful. Alayyan is connected to the Royal Family through marriage, and comes from a business family that owns, among other things, the Kia automobile dealership in Jordan and dairy factories. Al Ghad is Jordan's fourth Arabic daily newspaper. Alayyan aims to unseat the dominance of government-owned (and highly profitable) Al-Rai and has hired away some of Jordan's best young editors, reporters, columnists and cartoonists to make that happen. Al Ghad will be the second independently-financed daily, after "Al Arab Al Yawm" (which, though independent, was taken over from its original owners by Al-Ahli bank, owned by the Muasher family, with close government ties). Al Ra'i is 66 percent government-owned, while Al-Dustoor is 33 percent government-owned, through shares held by the Social Security Administration. ¶3. The launch of the paper has been anticipated for nearly a year. Alayyan ran into bureaucratic and logistical delays in setting up the venture, which he told IO was conceived after the success of "Al Waseet," Alayyan's free, all-advertising paper that went from 24 to 48 to 96 pages (and from six to eight columns) in the course of five years. Alayyan is fundamentally a marketing man, and believes Jordan's advertising market is ripe for a new, aggressive daily newspaper as part of a broader explosion in new media in Jordan, particularly radio and magazines. Alayyan imported a USD 2.5 million digital printing press from the U.S. that he says is the most modern in the Levant and Egypt (though perhaps not the Gulf) with the capacity to print numerous products, including books and textbooks, which Alayyan sees as another area for future growth. The paper has plugged in to Al Waseet's detailed delivery network to begin home delivery, an innovation in Jordan, where most people purchase their papers at traffic lights or receive them at their workplace. The paper will offer other innovations, like opinion polling and product promotions/give aways, that aim to build enthusiasm. Alayyan said he is aiming more at an elite than mass audience; Jordanians with purchasing power and youth are the principal targets. -------------- Pay them, and they will come -------------- ¶4. The paper's chief editor is Imad al-Hmoud, a former Deputy Editor of Al-Rai (and former International Visitor). The editorial staff includes Jordanians with experience working for Reuters, BBC and other international news outlets. The paper has hired away some of Jordan's best young reporters with entry-level salaries that are on average double what the other dailies pay. According to Alayyan, total staff is currently 170 (whereas Al-Rai maintains a staff of more than 600). The paper has hired Jordan's preeminent editorial cartoonist (Imad Hajjaj) and brought in a web designer from Lebanon to produce an attractive internet version (www.alghad.jo). The paper appeared following a major, multi-week advertising buy on billboards and television throughout the country that targeted -- by name -- Jordan's other major dailies and weeklies and angered many in Jordan's journalistic community. When asked about that in a meeting before the paper's launch, Alayyan told Charge and IO that he didn't "spend this much money to be the third out of four." -------------- Liberals, Martyrs and Occupiers -------------- ¶5. Editorially, the paper promises to present "all viewpoints." Unlike other Jordanian papers, it will not publish a daily editorial, but rather reserves its two opinion pages for by-lined contributors (including some who are part of the editorial staff). Regular contributors include an Islamist and persons known as "reformers" or liberals. One Embassy contact, a US-educated political science professor, told IO that in a letter he received from al-Hmoud inviting him to submit regular columns to the paper, al-Hmoud said the paper seeks to present a "liberal" viewpoint. The paper is not above loaded terms and editorializing, however, with Palestinians killed in clashes with Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza referred to as "martyrs" and bylines from "Occupied Palestine." U.S. forces in Iraq are referred to both in the neutral "American forces" and the loaded "occupying forces" in wire stories reprinted by the paper. Al-Hmoud told IO in a conversation prior to the paper's launch that the intent is to focus on local issues and to uncover stories not treated by other papers in order to gain credibility and readership. ¶6. Whether the paper is able to succeed in not only gaining market share but nudging Al-Rai from its long-held perch at the top of Jordan's media market remains to be seen. However, the money invested in Al Ghad has made it the first credible challenger in a long time. Similarly, whether it is able to maintain editorial "independence" in a notoriously controlled media environment (and perhaps in spite of the publisher's own family connections),is also unclear. The paper's foundation as a "marketing platform" built on a solid business model is new in Jordan and consistent with broader societal trends taking shape in the country. Alayyan is representative of the younger generation in Jordan that is shaking up business and commercial life here. Some see entry of the paper as an overdue harbinger of change in Jordan's media establishment -- an establishment that is ossified, subject to unrelenting government oversight and pressure, and incapable of playing an effective role in the country's modernization and reform effort. HALE