I spent last week in Dubai attending the Arab Media Forum and visiting with a number of local media and telecoms companies. Development of a large media – particularly TV and movie - industry seems to feature on the strategic plans of almost all Arab states, so I was interested in getting an impression of how they compare as well as a sense for how the Arabic media industry in general is evolving. A long (form) journey To date, Arabic media’s greatest success is to create at least one global news brand – Al Jazeera – which has been instrumental in expressing the Arab voice in the region and worldwide. The overwhelming sense I got in the this visit (and in previous ones) was that the desired next step was to have the same clarity of voice in long form content as they do in short form. This is particularly for engagement of the Arabic diaspora worldwide, who are currently poorly catered for. To achieve this, my view is that regional producers need to improve the overall quality of ...
Thoughts on strategy in a Digital Economy