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Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) is readying for a launch of a new English-language daily newspaper, having hired Martin Newland, the former editor of London’s Daily Telegraph, as editor of the as-yet-unnamed publication. It would be the first UAE paper to launch since Emirates Today, backed by the Dubai government, debuted in October 2005.

Newland came to the UAE in early August to start work on the project. “I am assessing the chances of launching a national newspaper out of Abu Dhabi. … I’m here to help the ADMC launch a new newspaper,” he tells Communicate. Newland will not be drawn on the paper’s name or format, but says he hopes to be clearer on its target market and other details by late September.

A senior official at ADMC who asked not to be named also confirms the company is planning to launch a daily paper in English. It is not clear whether the company has a license for the paper, nor even whether ADMC would have the same trouble other UAE papers have faced in getting one, given the company has close connections to the Ministry of Information and Culture.

ADMC was established in 1999 as Emirates Media Incorporated, an independent body attached to the Ministry, but is currently being reorganized as a new company. EMI also publishes Al Ittihad, an Arabic-language daily, broadcasts Abu Dhabi TV, and has several magazines and radio stations.

A number of UAE publishers have tried and failed to obtain new licenses for new daily newspapers recently. It is believed that magazine publisher ITP’s proposed Arabian Business Standard was shelved when it failed to obtain a license, and the backer of weekly Xpress, published by Al Nisr Media (a sister company to the firm that publishes leading English-language daily Gulf News) has not yet delivered on its promise to print daily.

Zubair Siddiqui, group media director at Dubai media agency Universal Media, says that while Dubai’s market is cluttered, Abu Dhabi is ripe for its own newspaper. “If it is an Abu Dhabi-based newspaper, then there is a lot of market to be captured from a readership as well as an advertising perspective,” says Siddiqui. Abu Dhabi is poised for rapid growth “because the government is slowly opening up [and] new developments are happening,” he says.

No English language papers are currently edited and published out of Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s capital. So far, all have prefered to maintain headquarters in Dubai.

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