US embassy cable - 04AMMAN6576

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 006576 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO, PGOV, KMPI, PHUM, KMDR, JO 
SUBJECT: NEW JORDAN DAILY SHAKES UP MEDIA MARKET 
 
1. Summary:  A new Jordanian daily newspaper ("Al Ghad" - 
"tomorrow") hit the stands August 1, billing itself as an 
independent (financially and editorially) alternative to 
Jordan's staid and risk-averse media establishment.  Its 
owner, a marketing tycoon with connections to the Royal 
Family, promises a slick, probing and professional product 
that aims to end the dominance of the government-owned (and 
famously dull) daily, Al-Rai.  The paper has hired away some 
of Jordan's best young journalists and editors and is paying 
salaries well above the average.  Editorial bent appears 
liberal (pragmatic, pro-modernization, free trade), though 
the opinion page includes regular columns representing 
differing viewpoints, including Islamists, and the paper 
already features loaded terms in its reporting on 
Israel/Palestine and Iraq.  Innovations such as home delivery 
and opinion polling aim to change the newspaper reading 
culture in Jordan, according to the publisher, and its 
arrival comes amidst a broader media and advertising boom in 
Jordan.  Though still in its early days, the paper is seen by 
some as an opportunity to shake Jordan's media establishment 
out of its docile and ineffective role in society.  End 
Summary. 
 
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Journalism With a "Business Model"? 
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2.  "Al Ghad" (tomorrow) made its long-awaited appearance on 
Jordanian news stands (and on doorsteps) Sunday, August 1 
with a three-section, multi-color layout.  The paper is owned 
by Mohammad Alayyan, a young, British-educated marketing 
tycoon whose other major projects (a weekly all-advertisement 
newspaper and a scratch-and-win lottery game) have been 
hugely successful.  Alayyan is connected to the Royal Family 
through marriage, and comes from a business family that owns, 
among other things, the Kia automobile dealership in Jordan 
and dairy factories.  Al Ghad is Jordan's fourth Arabic daily 
newspaper.  Alayyan aims to unseat the dominance of 
government-owned (and highly profitable) Al-Rai and has hired 
away some of Jordan's best young editors, reporters, 
columnists and cartoonists to make that happen.  Al Ghad will 
be the second independently-financed daily, after "Al Arab Al 
Yawm" (which, though independent, was taken over from its 
original owners by Al-Ahli bank, owned by the Muasher family, 
with close government ties).  Al Ra'i is 66 percent 
government-owned, while Al-Dustoor is 33 percent 
government-owned, through shares held by the Social Security 
Administration. 
 
3.  The launch of the paper has been anticipated for nearly a 
year.  Alayyan ran into bureaucratic and logistical delays in 
setting up the venture, which he told IO was conceived after 
the success of "Al Waseet," Alayyan's free, all-advertising 
paper that went from 24 to 48 to 96 pages (and from six to 
eight columns) in the course of five years.  Alayyan is 
fundamentally a marketing man, and believes Jordan's 
advertising market is ripe for a new, aggressive daily 
newspaper as part of a broader explosion in new media in 
Jordan, particularly radio and magazines.  Alayyan imported a 
USD 2.5 million digital printing press from the U.S. that he 
says is the most modern in the Levant and Egypt (though 
perhaps not the Gulf) with the capacity to print numerous 
products, including books and textbooks, which Alayyan sees 
as another area for future growth.  The paper has plugged in 
to Al Waseet's detailed delivery network to begin home 
delivery, an innovation in Jordan, where most people purchase 
their papers at traffic lights or receive them at their 
workplace.  The paper will offer other innovations, like 
opinion polling and product promotions/give aways, that aim 
to build enthusiasm.  Alayyan said he is aiming more at an 
elite than mass audience; Jordanians with purchasing power 
and youth are the principal targets. 
 
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Pay them, and they will come 
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4.  The paper's chief editor is Imad al-Hmoud, a former 
Deputy Editor of Al-Rai (and former International Visitor). 
The editorial staff includes Jordanians with experience 
working for Reuters, BBC and other international news 
outlets.  The paper has hired away some of Jordan's best 
young reporters with entry-level salaries that are on average 
double what the other dailies pay.  According to Alayyan, 
total staff is currently 170 (whereas Al-Rai maintains a 
staff of more than 600).  The paper has hired Jordan's 
preeminent editorial cartoonist (Imad Hajjaj) and brought in 
a web designer from Lebanon to produce an attractive internet 
version (www.alghad.jo).  The paper appeared following a 
major, multi-week advertising buy on billboards and 
television throughout the country that targeted -- by name -- 
Jordan's other major dailies and weeklies and angered many in 
Jordan's journalistic community.  When asked about that in a 
meeting before the paper's launch, Alayyan told Charge and IO 
that he didn't "spend this much money to be the third out of 
four." 
 
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Liberals, Martyrs and Occupiers 
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5.  Editorially, the paper promises to present "all 
viewpoints."  Unlike other Jordanian papers, it will not 
publish a daily editorial, but rather reserves its two 
opinion pages for by-lined contributors (including some who 
are part of the editorial staff).  Regular contributors 
include an Islamist and persons known as "reformers" or 
liberals.  One Embassy contact, a US-educated political 
science professor, told IO that in a letter he received from 
al-Hmoud inviting him to submit regular columns to the paper, 
al-Hmoud said the paper seeks to present a "liberal" 
viewpoint.  The paper is not above loaded terms and 
editorializing, however, with Palestinians killed in clashes 
with Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza referred to as 
"martyrs" and bylines from "Occupied Palestine."  U.S. forces 
in Iraq are referred to both in the neutral "American forces" 
and the loaded "occupying forces" in wire stories reprinted 
by the paper.  Al-Hmoud told IO in a conversation prior to 
the paper's launch that the intent is to focus on local 
issues and to uncover stories not treated by other papers in 
order to gain credibility and readership. 
 
6.  Whether the paper is able to succeed in not only gaining 
market share but nudging Al-Rai from its long-held perch at 
the top of Jordan's media market remains to be seen. 
However, the money invested in Al Ghad has made it the first 
credible challenger in a long time.  Similarly, whether it is 
able to maintain editorial "independence" in a notoriously 
controlled media environment (and perhaps in spite of the 
publisher's own family connections), is also unclear.  The 
paper's foundation as a "marketing platform" built on a solid 
business model is new in Jordan and consistent with broader 
societal trends taking shape in the country.  Alayyan is 
representative of the younger generation in Jordan that is 
shaking up business and commercial life here.  Some see entry 
of the paper as an overdue harbinger of change in Jordan's 
media establishment -- an establishment that is ossified, 
subject to unrelenting government oversight and pressure, and 
incapable of playing an effective role in the country's 
modernization and reform effort. 
HALE