The New and Next MBN

Dear Colleagues,

Transformation continues. My tip of hat to all of you for your hard work, determination — and imagination. MBN has become a place of service, purpose, and relentless adaptation. I’m proud to be a part of this.

Each and every week we undertake new measures aimed at improving efficiency, oversight, and accountability. We must be good stewards of resources. We owe this to the Congress and American taxpayer. It’s also a fact: We’ve come a long way in a short time. Let’s keep pushing ahead.

At next Wednesday’s town hall meeting — 11 am before the weekly potluck lunch — I’ll report on recent offsite working groups with managers and editorial leads. We’re clarifying reporting lines, refining organizational charts.

On the content side, MBN continues to generate exciting news.  The peace deal for Gaza announced by President Trump this week may reveal itself as a transformative moment for the Middle East. We’re looking at how the conflict has reshaped tensions between Israel and Iran, at the human toll of the war, and its wider impact on Israel’s relations with neighbors.

Egyptian writer and scholar Ezzedine Fishere looks at an overlooked casualty of the Hamas war with Israel: the Israeli-Egyptian relationship. Ezzedine’s piece today is a preview of what’s to come for us. Next week, we’re debuting a new platform: MBN Magazine will be a home for some of the most interesting voices from and on the Middle East. Ezzedine is one.

Cairo has stakes involving the Egyptian border with Gaza and the Rafah crossing. The participation of Egypt, Israel, Turkey, and Qatar in recent negotiations points to new Middle East realities. We’re tracking, contextualizing, analyzing, and explaining. That’s our mission and we owe it to our audience.

MBN Purpose

We’re passionate about purpose. MBN is America’s only Arabic language voice in North Africa and the Middle East. We’re busy benchmarking fierce competition that includes Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, Sky News Arabia, France 24, and Deutsche Welle.

We’ve been monitoring the faint praise and restrained response to President Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan from Chinese outlets, Iranian influencers, and RT Arabic. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov notes that “at least the plan was not outright rejected by all sides.” Competition pushes us. Adversaries undermine us.

What we do is an indispensable part of America’s soft power arsenal. Public diplomacy and strategic communications are a must. But our secret sauce? Real journalism — for, by, and about the region with authenticity and credibility. When we nail it, MBN’s work is matchless. Our role is indispensable.

At last week’s board meeting, there were kudos for your energy and forward momentum. Congrats. We can all be grateful to chairman Ryan Crocker and the MBN board for their steadfast support and wise counsel.

MBN News

It’s another strong newsletter today. I was taken by the Yemen story. After 35 years as a nominally unified state, Yemen should be broken up — and even renamed — Yemeni Vice President Aidarus al-Zoubaidi tells our Ezat Ba Awaidhan. The Yemeni vice president predicts that the Iranian-backed Houthis would collapse after a “complex and lengthy” process ending with two independent states.

We are pushing forward. Spread the news. Our Friday newsletter, The MBN Briefing, brings the best of our journalism for the Middle East from our flagship Arabic-language Alhurra platform.

We’re developing English language products. We want clearer windows on our work for our funder and MBN stakeholders. We keep hearing from our audience about the importance of English in our region for business, finance, trade, and technology. Let’s keep leaning into change.

Ask friends to tell us what they think about the Friday newsletter: MBNBriefing@mbn-news.com. Keep telling me how we as a team can enhance communication, deepen collaboration, and move to the next level.

Keep up the good work. You impress and inspire, week after week. Bravo.

Respect, Jeff