As all of you know by now, we’re building a new kind of media company. The intersection between journalism, democracy, foreign policy, and technology is thrilling — and affords immense opportunity.
I had a fascinating conversation recently with our Editorial Chair Matt Kaminski and former Al Arabiya COO and ex-BBC World Service head Jamie Angus on exactly these things.
Here’s a Q&A I’ve just done with Matt and Jamie, grist for our mill.
Jeffrey Gedmin: Consumers everywhere have a seemingly limitless supply of news and information. The Middle East is no exception. If you’re starting a media company for the region from scratch, what does it look like?
Jaime Angus: Most media in the region is operating from the basis of legacy linear platforms and adding digital content. There are few entirely digital providers — and the opportunity to originate a purely digital report is really exciting and reflects where the future audiences are. Many states in the region have a common demographic feature of rapid growth in the younger age bracket. Audiences are getting news in new ways and “grazing” across a variety of different providers.
Matt Kaminski: Despite all the disruptions in recent decades and the speed at which everything is changing, there are many exciting opportunities today to build new and cool things in media.
It doesn’t matter what kind of media you are thinking about, some things have never really changed.
Be very clear, to yourself and the world, about what you can do better than anyone else. Be clear about the audience you wish to own. And make sure you have the best, most creative and fun people you can find to work with.
There are some new wrinkles, for sure. You should be super flexible and open minded about how you tell stories, break news and help people make sense of the world — and how your audience finds and consumes what you create. Be platform agnostic. You can now do this work more efficiently than ever. Size isn’t what determines impact.
I think MBN is onto something. Quality, impartial journalism that connects the conversations in the Middle East with the world and in particular the U.S. is a clear opening. No one in the region is able or even trying to own that lane.
JG: MBN is U.S.-Congressionally funded with the mandate to align with broad U.S. foreign policy objectives and adhere to the highest standards of professional journalism. How does this compare with state-funded media in our region? How best for MBN to brand and market itself?
JA: Audiences in the Middle East are well used to state media operators and they don’t engender as much mistrust as in other regions. Rather, Arabic audiences often pick and choose across a different selection of sources. There is a high degree of media literacy, and a willingness to seek out a variety of different perspectives. For MBN, this means leaning into the insight of being “the home team,” not pretending to be something you’re not; offering the best-informed analysis of the US perspective on the region, while answering audience curiosity about stories that aren’t being covered well in the region itself.
MK: I think the strategy we have embraced in the past year sets MBN clearly apart from everything that I see in the region. Frankly, whether state or private, the larger media companies there, as we saw during our trip last month, are in hock to the interests of their patrons and simultaneously opaque about what those interests are.
MBN is open about its funding and mission, so there’s no doubt there. It is asking to and should be judged purely by its work. Is the reporting credible and correct? Does it provide news, insights and analysis you can’t find elsewhere? Does it — perhaps most importantly — adhere to the kind of high professional standards that at its best American media is famous for? I don’t see anyone else make that bargain with its audience there.
JG: If we say content is king, say a word about MBN offerings that can stand out.
JA: It’s both story selection and the quality of the digital product itself. On stories, there are things regional providers do poorly or tend to avoid, often in the interests not of their audience, but the people that fund them. And only MBN is really speaking with authority on how America sees the world, which remains something all audiences really care about. Increasingly, in the digital world the product is the content. By this I mean formats and the style of storytelling, and the digital product in which they sit, drive as much loyalty as the content itself. Being able to think about this afresh — from the ground up — is actually a real privilege. Great format ideas cost nothing to generate, but can produce outsized returns.
MK: Three things stand out.
I believe deeply in original reporting. Don’t tell me what you think. Tell me what you found out through shoe leather digging that I don’t know. In our reporting from the region and Washington, we have pushed our journalists to break news — with very encouraging results. MBN is the place you have to engage with to know what is going on.
Two, as you see with some of our commentary shows and magazine offerings, we can host the kinds of open conversations you won’t find elsewhere in the region. Ibrahim Issa’s show always comes to my mind.
And lastly, we cover, but we also embrace new tech to make our work stand out. Look at the MBN Great Power Index with Min and her team launched this summer. We used a proprietary data set and built a unique feature that helps our audience understand the U.S.-China rivalry in the Middle East. Stay tuned for a new product we’re going to unveil soon that takes a similarly innovative approach.
JG: MBN has gone digital first. In Arab media linear television is still relevant. Have we jumped ahead of the pack or are we missing something in the Alhurra portfolio?
JA: Of course, linear TV remains important and influential, it’s pointless to pretend otherwise. But younger audiences divide their world into audio (podcasts), video (usually on a social platform) and text. Winning in the video space is less about providing linear TV and more about responding to signals from the audience about the format they want — short explainers, creator personality, and on YouTube longer and more immersive experiences.
MK: People are watching, listening and reading as much as ever — if not more. They’re just doing it less and less on television and primarily on their favorite device. This is the present and will be even more the future. Think TV matters? Try asking a 21-year-old the last time they watched a show on cable that wasn’t a sports event.
JG: We know the trends. Is there still space for the written word and longer form?
JA: Yes, but it has to be distinctive. The 800 word “what happened” story is less in demand. Audiences may want to see text on social — in short “explain to me” formats, or they may want “long reads.” We should be able to do all of these, whatever works for the story. Alhurra may not be the right primary destination for the first update on a breaking story, but aspires to be a home for deeper understanding and context.
MK: There is always space for quality and originality. Nothing will replace reading for people who value those things. That’s why great books and magazines are both doing very well. You find worlds there that AI can’t create.
JG: AI is a fact. What excites you and what keeps you awake at night about AI and journalism?
JA: AI is going to liberate great journalists, not replace them. Used well AI will remove the repetitive task-based aspects of production and free people up to do the things only humans can do. Report in the field, provide original and contrary analysis of current events, exercise human judgement about complex matters. Remember, generative AI only reflects what everyone else already said. But the real need for audiences is precisely to challenge that kind of received thinking.
MK: Every technological revolution in my lifetime has done two things to media. And media has tended to be one of the first industries to truly feel its impact.
The first: It turns consumption habits and business models on their heads. This is always painful and hard to adjust to.
The second — adversity is a spur to creativity. People not only adjust the way they do story telling or reporting, they end up doing those things differently, often better than ever. The same goes for the business sides of media. I think you have seen some amazing journalism done better than ever.
JG: We know the importance of numbers. MBN is developing a new audience growth strategy. But how to think about — and how to measure — influence and impact?
JA: Measure effective engagement. We massively value an interaction that might lead to a signed-in or subscriber relationship, but we might equally value a short engagement with someone who is fired up by our ideas and analysis and shares it with others. Depth of feeling, attribution and impact are the meaningful metrics of what we do.
MK: To adapt an old management saw, you can’t know if you’re succeeding if you can’t count it. But you have to make sure you are counting the right things. Some of this will be pure audience metrics every media company uses, like traffic and impressions. But I think qualitative metrics are more important. How many stories did we break this month? How many times did quality media cite MBN reporting? Are the people in the region we care about most — the ones who have, want or sway power — engaging with our journalism? Anything you do around audience growth and metrics has to stem 100 percent from your strategy.
JG: What does U.S.-funded media say about America’s role in the world? And to those who say commercial media have all this covered?
JA: We should aim for a fair and clear-eyed assessment of what America can and cannot achieve. Audiences understand that the U.S. view may be one the most important in any debate, but not the only one. They want to understand America’s view, but they also want to know what’s landing with U.S. decision-makers and why — a sense of how the region is seen from the U.S. Digital providers — from Semafor to Politico and on — are doing this well on a commercial basis, but they skew necessarily towards industries and regions that produce an outsized commercial impact. A public provider makes such considerations part of the mix with stories that aren’t commercially rewarding, but an essential part of understanding our world.
MK: I spent 30 years in commercial media and was new to public service media. In some ways they are the same: driven to produce great journalism, reach people, move that proverbial needle. But there is one big difference. The mission at MBN is clearer and gratifying. We are trying to inform our region. To produce original, quality international journalism in Arabic for its own sake. That is unique.
