English Newspapers in Qatar
Hello everyone,
Greetings to you all and am glad to join Qatar Living. I have only been in Qatar for the past 6 months and am adjusting to the way of life here. Qatar is experiencing a rapid growth in the economy, especially the energy and real estate industries.
The media has a lot to do with the growth and substantial amount of information that is needed to secure Qatar in the GCC region.
I have seen that the english newspapers in Qatar are still at its infant stages and will eventually be comparble to other newspapers globally. Qatar a small but gas-rich country with most news are wired and bought through news agencies. Lets base it on internal domestic factors in the country. The reason behind why local news is only a tiny fragment in the newspapers is that crime rates are low, there is no celebrity news, no economic downturn, government agencies are self-reliant and sustainable.
The Gulf Times is a well establish publication, with over 30 years or so experience in the field, where The Peninsula is 13 year or so (please do correct me if i am wrong). The Gulf Times have their loyal and routine readers where it is expected that they need it first thing in the morning. As for The Peninsula, they also have their own set of readers with good coverage on the local events.
As for the relevantly new newspaper, Qatar Tribune, in my OPINION, I have found that it is the only newspaper that have seperate sections. The main section features global news, THE NATION section contains local news & events, Business section has global & local business news, and the sports & chill out section features what is says.
Most of all the newspaper have wired news, but the format and layout of Qatar Tribune is unique. They do not fill up their pages with advertisements and have focused sections. It has its own character and it has also been changing its look through its editorial content .
I also have seen their news paper stands in various locations in Doha. Coffee shops, hotel lobbies, and also some big companies in Doha. Not only they have been aggressive in delivering the newspaper on weekends to residentials compounds, I personally think that they are primarily focusing on specific readers. They have different sections for different readers and i also think that have the right analysis and full information on the different socio-demographic groups in Qatar. It is a challenging task to fullfill since Qatar has over 150 nationalities residing in the country.
Well lets see the future of English newspaper in Qatar and wish them all the best.
having worked with a newspaper i disagre with ur view that a paper without ads make for better reading. actually people buy the news paper for the ads in it!!! how will u know about a sale or promotional offers if u dont advertise it in the papers??esp in a country like Qatar where promotional offers via the net havent really cought on. Gulf times carries way too many ads. and thats why people want to buy the paper. and more ads means they are doing well financially. the distrubution revenue doesnt contribute much to the profit. i feel peninsula has better layout styles than the Gulf times but they dont carry as many ads. Editorial content in all papers is mere cut and paste from other newspapaers on the net !!!!
Even QL is more updated than QT :(
Buy QT for day before yesterday's new on today's edition :)
QT is a bag o'shyte that I would not use to line a cat litter tray.
The spelling/syntax/collocation/grammar of the articles I wouldn't accept from an intermediate student....
It is dire.
Last time I read it I seriously wanted my QR2 back... how dare such an amaterurish rag charge me money to read.
You're kidding right?
Not only will neither 3 of the English papers be on par with other global publications anytime soon, or ever, unless free speech is established, but the Qatar Tribune is by far the worst of them.
First of all, Gulf Times and Peninsula both do have local news, international, business and sports and a feature section, same as Qatar Tribune, but they have wisely put the local section first, rather then last (as in the Tribune) most people are more interested in what is happening directly around them, then what is happening on the other side of the world. It's silly to put the nation in the back, and a pain in the butt for me to sort through the paper everyday to find it.
Secondly, the nation usually (if lucky) has about 2 or 3 pages of news,(compared to the Gulf Times/Peninsula's 10 or more) and the stories are of even less interest. It is neither timely or interesting to write about the fish being sold at the Corniche. Whoever wrote that one should go back to Journalism school.
Thirdly, the lack of advertisement is not a sign of a unique approach, rather, that the newspaper is doing poorly and nobody wants to advertise in it. Advertisement's themselves are often excellent sources of information.
I could go on. But suffice it to say, the Qatar Tribune has a long way to go if it wants to compete in this market.
Visit www.qatarhappening.com
David QT stands for David Qatar Tribune.
He is the operations Manager.Now if QT is not selling like GT and Penninsula,what else do you expect him to do?
He says
the newspaper is focussing on specific readers-I would like to know who these readers are
Not filled with advertisements-well when no one is reading your newspaper,its difficult to get advertisement and when you don't get them you can't fill your newspaper with it.
right analysis and full information-the media is censored here so much that nobody has the right information about anything.
LOL
Hey david exclusive way of propaganda for your newspaper
you mean to say Qatar Tribune would be at par with already established newspapers like GT & Peninsula by whatever skills you have adopted.
I doubt it.
Do you work for Qatar Tribune David? If you do, you should at least have the balls to say so if you're going to use QL for such blatant advertising.
This is what happens when there are alot of amatures working at the news paper place. U should visit it sometime, u will see what i mean. I dont like any news papers, its better to come to QL and read everything here.
IF EVERYONE WAS TO TAKE AN EYE FOR AN EYE, THE WHOLE WORLD WOULD'VE BEEN BLIND TODAY - MAHATMA GHANDI
Looks like you r working for QT
hmmmm and your point is
[img_assist|nid=50852|title=hmm|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=|height=0]