The Media Leaders eSummit Middle East 2022 was held as virtual conference from 15-17 March, 2022. Arab publishers took to the event to discuss the impact of COVID-19 and the unprecedented challenges it has posed to the industry.
The third edition of the three-day web conference, organized by World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), was packed with invaluable information, strategic insight, and an opportunity to build contacts among senior news media executives, strategic advisers, and visionaries.
Under the theme ‘embracing disruption,’ the programme addressed the future of news and how Artificial Intelligence (AI) might alter the future of journalism. The panel discussed and studied the latest developments related to the media industry, what the future will look like in a few years from now, and the post-print business model.
Majed Al Suwaidi, Managing Director, Dubai Media City (DMC), Dubai Studio City (DSC), and Dubai Production City (DPC), welcomed the attendees. Mechthild Schimpf, Director Middle East, WAN-IFRA, thanked the participants and sponsors, while Mohamed K Alayyan, Chairman & Publisher of Jordan’s Al-Ghad and Jordan News, welcomed the panel on behalf of the region.
Leading media figures and key business heads spoke on a variety of topics, which were discussed in real-time, including on how media business will look like in five years from now and what would the business model be after print, can robot journalism strengthen local journalism, sharing data for advanced user insights and personalization, building the future of journalism, how knowing the audience helps in creating products to meet real needs, reader trends, listening to what customers are saying and using data insights to drive reader revenue, searching for new audiences and subscribers, the strategic role of IT in the digital transformation of publishers, boosting long-term revenue through subscription models, bringing innovation into newsrooms, and the future of digital transformation in the Middle East.
Speaking at a session, Ahmed Al Hammadi, CEO of Press Sector at Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI) said that the COVID-19 pandemic created a great number of challenges for the media industry around the world. With the virus spreading exponentially and protocols on physical contact made stringent, the printing and delivery of newspapers was literally brought to a standstill. DMI’s Arabic daily Al Bayan switched to its online version for several months before issuing its newspapers in print with the receding of the pandemic. According to him the shift to the digital version was a pioneering experience at the local and regional levels, especially in the light of acceleration in digital media at the global level.
“There are also issues related to copyright, revenue, content, and the choice of readers and subscribers, which we also have to deal with efficiently and professionally,” adds Al Hammadi.
Al-Ghad’s Alayyan stated that the world has turned into a global village, where everything is available for people to compare, not only with the local but also the international market, and this is a great challenge.
On the vexed question of which digital business model to adopt as a solution for the slump in ad spending, media participants at the summit endorsed subscriptions and pay walls for their content rather than having free access. “Europe and the US were the first to adopt the subscription business model, with their own open markets and lack of state funding or subsidies for media,” says Hamoud Almahmoud, Director – Chief Content Officer at Majarra, a UAE-based online content provider which was one of the early adopters of subscriptions in the MENA region. “With advertisement revenues shrinking, such a model is an absolute necessity,” he adds.
