Abu Dhabi launched a media city called twofourst54 in October; The zone was named after the georgraphic coordinates of the city.
Abu Dhabi launched a media city called twofourst54 in October; The zone was named after the georgraphic coordinates of the city.

Abu Dhabi grabs headlines



If 2001 was the defining year for D­ubai's media industry, thanks to the opening of Dubai Media City, then 2008 belonged to Abu Dhabi.
From the launch of The National newspaper in April to the kick-off of the emirate's first media zone in ­October, at times working the media beat in the capital seemed to be one long stream of well-catered launch parties.
But behind the disorienting sparkle of sequined dresses on the red carpet and the fog of fake smoke wafting from the rock legends' stage was a clear and disciplined business strategy: Abu Dhabi had decided that it wanted to be a global media hub and had the resources to do it quickly.
So, the emirate went about creating the institutions and hiring the people to make it happen with a speed that took more than a few industry veterans' breath away. In less than a year, it has transformed itself into the regional address of many of the world's most respected media and entertainment brands.
To be fair, though, many of the ducks were put in a row before last year technically started. The ­Government laid the framework for the media boom in the summer of 2007, when it re-invented the old Emirates Media as the Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC), a public joint stock company owned by the Government with holdings in television, print, radio, and printing and distribution.
At the same time, it created the legal entity that would emerge a year later as a free zone for media companies. ADMC's first big launch in a year of big launches was The National, the English-language broadsheet led by Martin Newland, the former editor of the London-based Daily Telegraph.
With an initial staff of about 200, a substantial roster of foreign correspondents and a printing press hastily assembled just in time for the first print run, it was a big, ambitious, classic newspaper - ironically, the first of its kind in the region and probably the last of its kind in the world.
Later in the spring, ADMC launched the technologically forward-looking Getmo, a portal for legal music and video downloads created in partnership with the ­Bertelsmann subsidiary, Arvato Middle East Sales. Four months later, Edward ­Borgerding, the former Disney executive who had been hired in March as ADMC's chief executive, announced the formation of ­Imagenation Abu Dhabi, a billion-dollar film fund set up to make as many as 40 feature films in the next five years.
Throughout much of the autumn, at nearly regular intervals, Imagenation ­announced tie-ups with high-profile Hollywood partners: ­Participant Media (An ­Inconvenient Truth); ­National Geographic Films (March of the Penguins); and Hyde Park ­Entertainment (Dreamer, Shop Girl and The Other End of the Line). In the midst of these announcements came the show-stopping news that Abu Dhabi was going to launch a media city of its own, called twofour54, named after the geographic co-ordinates of the capital.
Like Dubai Media City, the list of those signing on was formidable - including CNN, BBC, ­Thomson ­Reuters, Financial Times, ­Harper Collins and Random House - but the aim differed slightly from ­Dubai's.
Yes, there would be a tax-free zone where media companies could set up outside of the country's business ownership laws. But there would also be a training academy and a business incubator designed specifically for Arab journalists and other media professionals, and those businesses that were planning to set up in the zone would be expected to hire the newly trained Arab talent.
The zone's creation was celebrated under three igloo-shaped tents set up in the sand behind one of the capital's flashiest malls. ­Psychedelic projections of branding images swirled on the domelike walls, and Duran Duran reproduced all their hits with remarkable accuracy.
The zone had been sold with the help of a PowerPoint presentation showing the soaring rates of advertising spending expected in the region. Looking back, it was a high point of the sense of possibility for media in the capital - and it happened just as the stock markets had begun to crash. Within a month, the financial crisis had hit the shores of the Gulf, bringing with it reductions in advertising spending.
The property sector, being the worst affected, pulled its ads first, and by mid-­November newspapers and outdoor advertisers - both heavily propped up by property ads - were reporting 30 to 40 per cent declines in advertising. But as Joseph Ghossoub, the chairman and president of the International Advertising Association, told a crowd at the Media and Marketing Show in Dubai in November, the declines were more of a normalisation following an unsustainable boom than anything to really worry about.
"Instead of going extremely fast, we are just going fast," he said. He predicted a 25 per cent drop in property ad spending as well as a shift towards more tactical ads, but ultimately expected the region to weather this storm the way it weathered the Gulf wars and other shocks.
By the last quarter of the year, media companies were making plans for slower growth. ITP, the country's largest publishing company, had been launching magazines rapid-fire through much of the year. But by last month it had closed two business-to-business titles and gently applied the brakes to its plans for growth this year.
"We won't be launching as many magazines I think next year, because economic conditions have changed," said Andrew Neil, the chairman of ITP. "But for any company that has grown as quickly as we have, just like Dubai itself as a city-state, there comes a time when you have to pause, draw breath, consolidate and go on again."
Just how much of a pause the industry will endure is the looming question going into 2009. On Dec 17, both Fitch Ratings and Standard and Poor's downgraded their credit ratings for Dubai Holdings Commercial Operations Group, which owns Dubai Media City.
"The medium-term risks to ­Dubai's economy have, in our view, increased as demand in the all-important real estate sector shows clear signs of abating, raising the possibility of a sharp correction in the real estate market and an associated contraction in development and construction," wrote Standard and Poor's.
However, it does not seem to be halting the growth plans of media and marketing companies in Abu Dhabi, which has so far been less exposed to the economic downturn. The capital got its own weekly magazine, Abu Dhabi Week, in November, and several leading advertising and communications companies are planning expansion in the capital. One of them is The Brand Union, a brand consultancy that will move to Abu Dhabi in March and hopes to more than triple its staff this year - provided it can find affordable ­office space.
Toby Southgate, the managing director of the company's Abu Dhabi office, said even his property client, the Abu Dhabi-based developer ­Sorouh, had not pulled back business in the downturn.
"A business like ­Sorouh is a little bit of a ­microcosm of Abu Dhabi," he said.
"There's a real understated confidence about what they do. A little bit like Abu Dhabi and Dubai, Sorouh has sat back a little, deliberately, and others have stolen the limelight... Their projects are very well thought through. They don't take too many risks, and the risks they do take are incredibly well-educated."
khagey@thenational.ae

THE SPECS

      

 

Engine: 1.5-litre

 

Transmission: 6-speed automatic

 

Power: 110 horsepower 

 

Torque: 147Nm 

 

Price: From Dh59,700 

 

On sale: now  

 
THE LIGHT

Director: Tom Tykwer

Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger

Rating: 3/5

How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

How to avoid crypto fraud
  • Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
  • Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
  • Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
  • Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
  • Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
  • Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
  • Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
Anti-semitic attacks
The annual report by the Community Security Trust, which advises the Jewish community on security , warned on Thursday that anti-Semitic incidents in Britain had reached a record high.

It found there had been 2,255 anti-Semitic incidents reported in 2021, a rise of 34 per cent from the previous year.

The report detailed the convictions of a number of people for anti-Semitic crimes, including one man who was jailed for setting up a neo-Nazi group which had encouraged “the eradication of Jewish people” and another who had posted anti-Semitic homemade videos on social media. 

A new relationship with the old country

Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates

The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:

ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.

ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.

ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.

ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.

DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.

Signed

Geoffrey Arthur  Sheikh Zayed

How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE

When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.

Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
 
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
UAE jiu-jitsu squad

Men: Hamad Nawad and Khalid Al Balushi (56kg), Omar Al Fadhli and Saeed Al Mazroui (62kg), Taleb Al Kirbi and Humaid Al Kaabi (69kg), Mohammed Al Qubaisi and Saud Al Hammadi (70kg), Khalfan Belhol and Mohammad Haitham Radhi (85kg), Faisal Al Ketbi and Zayed Al Kaabi (94kg)

Women: Wadima Al Yafei and Mahra Al Hanaei (49kg), Bashayer Al Matrooshi and Hessa Al Shamsi (62kg)

Electric scooters: some rules to remember
  • Riders must be 14-years-old or over
  • Wear a protective helmet
  • Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
  • Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
  • Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
  • Do not drive outside designated lanes
Know your Camel lingo

The bairaq is a competition for the best herd of 50 camels, named for the banner its winner takes home

Namoos - a word of congratulations reserved for falconry competitions, camel races and camel pageants. It best translates as 'the pride of victory' - and for competitors, it is priceless

Asayel camels - sleek, short-haired hound-like racers

Majahim - chocolate-brown camels that can grow to weigh two tonnes. They were only valued for milk until camel pageantry took off in the 1990s

Millions Street - the thoroughfare where camels are led and where white 4x4s throng throughout the festival

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