Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04AMMAN6576
2004-08-05 14:46:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Amman
Cable title:  

NEW JORDAN DAILY SHAKES UP MEDIA MARKET

Tags:  KPAO PGOV KMPI PHUM KMDR JO 
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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

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