Our Saturday copy of Al-Ghad only landed on our breakfast table this Sunday morning. Apparently the paper was a bit late yesterday. Today I understood the reason.

Al-Ghad celebrated its fifth birthday yesterday and they did it with a bang. A whole special supplement was published on the occasion the the main section of the paper was redesigned with a new look (following the redesign of sports, business and lifestlye pages). Hence the delay I suppose.

Al Ghad can be described as Jordan’s most ambitious newspaper, and after five years it seems that its still maintains its momentum. I think that, despite some setbacks and the usual screw ups, it has built and maintained a reputation of being Jordan’s more enlightened daily. I know that some readers will now jump up from their seat and insist that Al Arab Al Youm is the more critical and daring paper, but I think that, in the mainstream, Al Arab Al Youm is irrelevant. The distribution numbers just don’t compare. Al Ghad is, for Jordanian standards, a professionally produced paper that has a proper marketing a distribution machine behind it. This, combined with its more open-minded and somewhat liberal leaning attitude, is what makes this newspaper stand out.

I’ve been a subscriber to Al-Ghad since day one and I’ve been watching its development under various editors in chief. Before the paper came out, the old guard of the Jordanian press and the “common sense” people, where all saying that the Jordanian market cannot handle another daily besides the incumbent, semi official Al-Rai and Ad-Dustour. At that time I used to say that we should look at things differently. Even if the market can only handle two major dailies, it doesn’t mean that the newcomer Al-Ghad can’t be one of them (meaning that the old boys better watch out, especially the aging Ad-Dustour).

And so it happened.. Al Ghad can be considered a strong number 2 in many ways, dislodging Ad-Dustour from that position. I don’t know the exact distribution numbers of Jordan’s papers, and I think it is irrelevant to discuss them. From a brand and mindshare point of view, Al Ghad is definitely up there in the No.2 position in people’s minds.

One of the success factors behind AL-Ghad is that it was started by a non-Journalist. When journalists and intellectuals start media projects in Jordan they usually fail. Why? Because these people don’t care about the basis of survival of any project: Money. They manage to get some initial funding from friends and family and then run out of funding despite the best of efforts to produce a “good” publication. When Mohammad Olayyan started Al-Ghad, he came from an advertising and distribution background, based on his success with the free Al Waseet advertising weekly. He made sure that the business fundamentals are there BUT ALSO got good journalist to create the actual product, including young ambitious people. In other words, Olayyan changed the rules of the game.

The launch of Al-Ghad also coincided with the oil driven boom in the region and the advertising growth fueled by real estate and telecom companies. And despite some cutbacks in the product itself (Al Ghad initially launched a number of ambitious specialized supplements which where later shelved) the newspaper marched on and reached its fifth birthday.

Editorially, the paper had quite a lot of turbulence in its first five years, but it is interesting to note that several English language journalism veterans where involved. First there was the presence of Rana Sabbagh, one of beacons of journalistic professionalism in the country, and an ex Jordan Times editor in chief. She was there in the early days alongside Emad Al Hmoud, a veteran from Al-Rai, who was Al Ghad’s first editor in chief. Then there was the succession of Ayman Al Safadi and George Hawatmeh as editoris in chief, both of which are ex Jordan Times people bringing with them a level of journalistic attitude that rarely exists in Arab dailies.

But it is worth focusing on the Al Ghad in recent months under the editorial direction of Mousa Barhoumeh. The man was not a big name like Safadi or Hawatmeh, but I think, as a reader, that he is taking Al Ghad into a very interesting direction. It seems to me he is focusing on both local relevance and global outlook, with a special attention on being socially progressive (within the limits of what the Jordanian mainstream can stomach, of course).

Local relevance comes through focusing on what people really care about, beyond the usual political and “protocol” news. Al Ghad, for the last 99 days has been displaying the photo of the disappeared kid, Ward, on its front page every day. It prominently features local concerns on the front page. A few days ago its front page featured its own detailed story covering how the port workers protesting in Aqaba were harshly beaten up by the Gendarmerie forces (when Al Rai just had a short item on the matter).

The paper has also been daring in tackling honor killings, the abhorrent practice of “virginity tests” that many women have to undergo, and also recently published two full pages tacking book censorship in Jordan.

Yet at the same time Al Ghad still manages to be globally and regionally aware. During the recent Iranian elections and their aftermath, Al Ghad had full multi page coverage of what was happening. The paper also publishes a good daily page of translations from the Israeli press, offering readers a window on what the heck is being discussed among our “neighbors in the west”. I also enjoy reading a lot of good columnists in Al Ghad, like the brilliant Egyptian Amr Hamzawi, the critical Lebanese Hazem Saghieh, the Islamist leaning head of Al Jazeera in Amman, Yasser Abu Hilaleh, the philosophical and socially critical Ibrahim Gharaibeh and the insightful Dr. Ahmad Jameel Azm.

The cherry on top of Al Ghad is, of course, the continued presence of Jordan’s most prominent cartoonist Emad Hajjaj, whose work is always the most read item in the paper.

So, after five years of delivering a pretty good product that is well distributed and well marketed, has Al Ghad pushed the old boys to shake off their complacency?

Ad-Dustour is totally off my personal radar screen, but from what I hear there is nothing interesting happening there. I expect that they simply will continue their steady walk down the path of irrelevance. Knowing that all these major papers actually make more money from the commercial printing activities than from their newspaper publishing business, means that: A. Their press products will just linger around in the market by inertia and B. that they can afford a long process of decline.

But what about the big number 1: Al-Rai. The newspaper that is the “default” choice, the biggest attracter of ads and the profitable money machine (despite being probably burdened by an inflated staff). How are they responding and evolving?

Al-Rai was founded in the early 1970’s by the government (in the aftermath of tumultuous events of 1960s and the 1970 war) to raise the level of the Jordanian’s state media discourse. The Jordanian State at that time needed a respectable press mouthpiece that would help carry the it’s message after a period of dangerous instability. So through the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s Al-Rai consolidated its power through state support, an almost ubiquitous presence of official’s and government employee’s desks and, not to forget, a chorus of influential columnists.

But being the “default” and “official” choice makes an organization traditional and complacent.

Al-Rai today, despite some half hearted attempts at a “youth” supplement or a “lifestyle” section, is almost unreadable. The layout is chaotic and archaic. The sections are not sections, just more and more pages of advertising mixed with sports and death announcements and other stuff in one big ugly salad.

Despite a big announcement, after the bombings of 2005, that Al-Rai will start a serious supplement dedicated to “enlightenment” and fighting the forces of backwardness, nothing really materialized.

Then, in the past few months, we started seeing huge billboards with bold statements about a new product from Al-Rai. “This cub is from that lion”. “Respect the big master” and so on, announced the billboards that advertised what? Yet another weekly free advertising paper with ZERO innovation.

The slogan chosen for Al-Rai Al I3lanieh (Al Rai Advertising) was “wasleh”, which means “it reaches everywhere”. But the word is also used to describe some “connected to higher places”, which either intentionally or unintentionally plays on Al-Rai supposed position of power. Give me a break!

It is funny and tragic that the biggest newspaper publishing company in Jordan can only managed to bring out a mediocre advertising rag that adds absolutely nothing to the market.

So five years into the Al-Ghad’s history, it pretty much stands alone as an innovator in the market and it should be congratulated for that. The old boys with their entrenched positions and deep pockets will be there for a long time to come. But a young market like ours still has room for more innovation. Jordanian news websites have made a lot of noise but have yet to find a viable business model and gain respectability (beyond their reputation of political mud slinging and extortionist practices). Al-Ghad has created its own position by leaping into the market almost out of no where. But in a country that moves at BOTH fast and slow paces, Al Ghad’s arrival has not really changed the complacent landscape of the press. But who knows what the next five years will bring.

Read these related posts on 360east:

• No related posts