Khaleej Times reinvents itself for a brave new mobile world

Some will be surprised when they look at the print edition of their Khaleej Times today with their first cup of coffee.

Khaleej Times, with its rich 43-year history, engages in a year-long transformation to make your reading experience easier and more engaging.

You have trusted this newspaper to bring you the news with credibility and efficiency. History alone does not sustain an institution, but it fosters it, reinforces it, and, in the case of a newspaper, it gives it stability, authority and credibility.

Khaleej Times in your hands today reinforces that tradition of authenticity and credibility, while introducing new journalistic strategies that adapt to the digital era of communications.

I am honoured to be involved with this transformation, not only as a consultant to help the team achieve its vision of becoming multiplatform media house, but also as a teacher training the team to approach stories aware of the platform in which such content will be consumed.

This transformation for Khaleej Times comes at an interesting and challenging time, not only because of the Covid-19 pandemic that assails the globe, but also because it is an unparalleled moment in our appetite for news in a 24/7 cycle where information flows constantly.

Only those media outlets that accommodate that cycle can serve their audiences well. Khaleej Times rises to the challenge with this transformation.

An unrivalled revolution

So much has happened in the past 10 years to change the way we consume information. We live in a multimedia world. The days of a person reading the newspaper in the morning and then not getting any more news until the next day are finished.

Today, the average person is bombarded by news and information 24/7. On average, we turn to our mobile phone 114 times a day. Seven out of every 10 digital minutes are spent on mobile. Nine out of every 10 mobile minutes are spent in an app, according to researcher David Murphy (Mobile Trends).

In 2021, in the US, average time spent on mobile devices daily is 3 hours 54 minutes, while time spent watching TV is 3 hours 22 minutes. (www.emarketer.com). The numbers may be similar in the UAE. We lean forward to read those headlines, and often lean back to read the stories beyond the headlines.

In a multiplatform world, we consume information on a variety of platforms. An average news consumer may journey through three of those platforms in the course of a day, perhaps starting a story in the print edition of the newspaper, only to continue reading on the phone but finishing at the larger screen of a desktop computer. It is in the midst of this amazing revolution in the way we consume news that Khaleej Times has undertaken this ultimate transformation.

Key centrepieces of our work, which we certainly hope you will notice, include:

1. The brand: You will see that we have created and incorporated a crest that will help identify content from Khaleej Times across platforms, and, particularly, in social media.

2. Multiplatform approach: The new Khaleej Times offers information when you want it, how you want it.

The editorial team is aware that one size does not fit all, so how stories are presented in print editions should not be the same as how they are presented for mobile consumption.