Qatar Newspapers - Still going strong?

The End of An Era

In the USA newspapers are starting to hit the dust.

The Philidelphia Enquirer, the third oldest newspaper in America, has sought bankruptcy protection.

The company will be joining the Journal Register, a group which owns 20 local newspapers, which had filed for bankrupty protection at the weekend.

With news available at the click of a button, and many online surfers finding that news through aggregate news compilers such as Google News rather than through identification with a brand, the writing had been on the wall even before the beginning of the credit crunch.

A Different story?

On the face of it Qatar's English Language newspapers appear to be doing well.

Not only are the Gulf Times and the Peninsula battling things out, with the Peninsula trying hard to gain ground, but a new newspaper, The Tribune, has entered the fray.

Not bad for a country whose native language is not even English.

The Future

Whether things will stay the same depends much on the development of the internet.

Already a website, Qatar Living, sells more cars than any newspaper here - and one one employer told me that she has had far more response advertising for a personal assistant on Qatar Living than she did in a newspaper.

Yet with the online advertising spend in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) a fraction of what it is in the Western world, newspapers may be protected by a lack of awareness among local businesses as to the potential of the internet.

With online advertising spend set to double in 2009, there is every reason for newspaper to get their act together and start creating an effective online business.

A Paper Business

Local newspapers have been slow to move online.

The Qatar Tribune only recently opened its website after operating for more than two years.

And those newspapers that are online lack many of the features of other popular news sites such as video and video - and provide no easy way of sharing news stories.

So far they have been lucky that there has been a no serious competitor to take them on.

When one does come along, local papers could find themselves hitting the dust after a much shorter history than the Philidelphia Enquirer.

Also see: The Death of Interruption Marketing

Find newspapers on Qatcom.com