12/08/08 Reporter Anne Semmes Considers Leaving Hearst Newspapers To Work For Abu Dhabi Newspaper

As many as 270 editors and reporters produce the new English-language daily newspaper, The National, in Abu Dhabi

(Anne W. Semmes/ for the Greenwich Citizen)

The National: An Upsizing Newspaper Story

in Abu Dhabi

By Anne W. Semmes

Imagine a world where newspapers are growing instead of shrinking, where a deep pocket assures that a daily paper will be there this year and the next, and the next. This is the story of Abu Dhabi's eight-month-old newspaper, The National, its first English-language daily.

A visit to the editorial offices of this broadsheet with big color pictures and endless sections found its managing editor, Laura Koot, to be an attractive 32-year-old pioneering journalist from Toronto.

"We're growing very quickly," she said, from her glass enclosure overlooking a newsroom of some 270 editors and reporters. "We've had a terrific response to our new Saturday (Nov. 15) issue." It featured seven sections. "We're sold at newsstands and .......

....A Who's Who column would not work at The National, she said, "Emerati culture is not as open as in the West. They protect their privacy."

And there wasn't a lot of environmental reporting, she said, as there were "not a lot of environmental initiatives."

Koot had recently attended a newspaper conference in the U.S. where the talk was of asf's - alternative story forms. Newspaper reporting had been reduced to boxed briefs with "an intro and bullet points, for people with no attention span." But with her broadsheets, she had so much space she didn't need lines to separate photos from copy.

A recent boon for Koot and The National would be future access to archival footage of those early days of the "Father of the Nation," Sheikh Zayed, with the new plan to digitize 80,000 hours of archival footage owned by Abu Dhabi TV, the local Arabic television channel, which is housed along with The National and El Etihad, the city's 40-year-old Arab daily in the parent headquarters of the Abu Dhabi Media Group.

Postscript: When I was announced as a visitor keen to see The National newsroom, I was mistakenly taken for a prospective job-seeker. The idea has set me pondering.

Full Story: Greenwich Citizen

PLEASE SEE RELATED ARTICLE
ABOUT THE GREENWICH CITIZEN'S

SISTER NEWSPAPER THE

GREENWICH TIME:

12/07/08 Greenwich Roundup Exclusive: Local Daily Newspaper Will Lay Off More Staffers And Will Hike Prices

=================================================

Please send your comments to GreenwichRoundup@gmail.com