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Lack of Transparency Mars Mergers

While world economy is reeling from the impact of the global financial crisis, experts at the two-day forum currently underway at Atlantis Hotel opined that the picture was not so bleak in the Arab media world.

“The impact was felt hard in the first quarter of this year when advertisements dipped,” said CEO of Saudi Research and Marketing Group, Riyadh, Azzam Al Dakhil, while addressing the session titled ‘Global economic developments: Direct impact on the media and future
implication’.

Moderated by Al Arabiya presenter Cyba Audi, the panel comprised marketing manager of MBC group, Mazen Hayek, editor-in-chief of Gulf News, Abdul Hamid Ahmad, CEO of Saudi Research and Marketing Group, Azzam Al Dakhil and general manager of Pan-Arab Research Centre,
Sami Raffoul.

Abdul Hamid Ahmad said the crisis among the Arab press did not begin with the credit crunch but instead existed for several years before, due to the rise in print and logistics costs that impacted bottomlines.

“Mergers can lower cost overheads and streamline logistics and distribution,” said the panellists leading to a debate on the viability of the option.

“It is impossible to deduce what impact mergers might have as no reliable data is available,” said Al Dakhil, adding that considering mergers was a convenient excuse. “The crucial issue is to compete at the level of content,” he said.

“Middle East markets must begin to invest in their own content and stop importing from abroad,” said Mazen Hayek of MBC triggering another debate on transparency.

The panellists agreed that if there were no reliable statistics to show a return on investment in content, there would never be a motivation for spending on locally-produced programming.

“Arab media has grown complacent and that “many are like bedridden patients dependent on artificial feeding,” said Al Dakhil.

“There were 40 specialised magazines in Dubai but many have stopped recently due to lack of ads,” said Hamid, adding that media companies have to be careful in choosing specialised content.

“By 2020, nearly 200,000 jobs need to be created for Arabs below 25 years of age,” said Cyba Audi. “The use of Internet is increasing in the region and the need is to focus on improved media content,” she said.

Al Dakhil also said that print media should shift focus and serve the needs of the Google generation. “We need for both specialised content and innovative delivery of news such as mobile phone services,” he added.

“We have to start investing in electronic media gradually,” said Abdul Hamid quoting a recent study held by the London School of Journalism on fall of revenues for the print media since the arrival of e-media.

“Globally there has been an increase in book readership, we have to choose a business model to make print media compete,” he added.

The panellists agreed that the Arab media faced huge challenges in the future. “We have to focus on shifting the format of delivering news,” said Hamid.


asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com

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