The Daily Star, Lebanon’s only English language paper, is planning a move to Dubai Media City as early as January 2005. According to the newspaper’s publisher, Jamil Mroueh, the move is designed to improve both regional coverage and sales. The decision to move was also influenced by the mouth-watering tax advantages and the superior communication infrastructure the Emirate can offer.
“It’s not so much a move to Dubai,” Mroueh said, “as an expansion into the Gulf. The Lebanon [news] desk and its sales department will remain in Beirut. In fact, the reader should not even notice that we have moved, apart from the fact that the regional coverage will much better.”
In recent months, Mroueh has inked deals to print and distribute The Daily Star with The International Herald Tribune in six Gulf States, including Dubai, Kuwait and Qatar and the paper is already distributed in Syria, Jordan and Egypt, indicating that the Daily Star’s dream of becoming the region’s leading English language paper is finally becoming reality.
“In terms of sales,” Mroueh explained, “each of the six Gulf markets alone is bigger than Lebanon, as each has a much bigger expatriate and business community. From there, we will improve our coverage of Saudi Arabia. So, both in terms of coverage and sales it just doesn’t make sense to remain in Beirut.”
Following the merger with the International Herald Tribune, The Daily Star experienced considerable expansion and hoped to cover the Middle East from Beirut. Over the last few months however, up to 30 journalists and other staff have been laid off. This, according to Mroueh, was solely related to “the change of strategy,” and they will be eventually be replaced by locally hired staff in Dubai and the rest of the Gulf.
