Some developments witnessed over the two decades are more consequential and dangerous than the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union’s transformation into a museum relic. Indeed, the world has witnessed an explosion of knowledge, and successive revolutionary breakthroughs in science and technology have led us to an era of digital metamorphosis and artificial intelligence.
The media has always operated over fault lines. Its role is to convey the news and inform readers about the developments taking place in the world. It must help them understand a changing world. The relationship between newspapers, their platforms, and the reader is a difficult one. It can only be sustained if the newspaper garners its readers’ trust and meets their needs and expectations. The future is the best of dates.
Vibrant media outlets do not sit on the bank of the river. They dive right in. They swim in the waters of constant renewal. That is why the survival of journalism hinges on keeping anxiety alive. Complacency and excessive contentment kill the spirit of the profession. This is a profession of constantly sailing towards new horizons that is founded on prowling for stories and leaping at them. With the total support of Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG) CEO Joumana Al-Rashed and her distinguished team, this is what Asharq Al-Awsat has decided to do.
Asharq Al-Awsat was born to be the international newspaper of the Arabs. It informs its Arab readers about the storms, inventions, and waves of change underway across the world, providing its distant audience with content that helps them understand the region to which we belong. Journalists and readers looked out at and watched the world and the region (despite its conflicts and schisms) changing through the window of Asharq Al-Awsat. Armed with its professionalism, objectivity, and its decision to be a voice of moderation and acceptance of the other, Asharq Al-Awsat has kept its readers in the know. From that same window, readers also followed the river of discoveries, inventions, and ideas seen across the globe every day.
In a world of rapidly accelerating technological change, vibrant institutions cannot sit on the sidelines. They have no choice but to engage with the world, strive for better, contemporize their mentalities, and update their methods. A young and thriving 45-year-old newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat is doing just that. A golden contract par excellence. It has created a space in which vigorous youths and experienced veterans can come together and combine the spirit of the times with our rich heritage.
In all of its platforms, Asharq Al-Awsat brings together journalists, writers, and authors from across the Arab world, creating a melting pot of diverse experiences in which excellence and innovation are the order of the day every day. Media outlets, like football teams, need attackers, defenders, goalkeepers, and coaches, as well as constant fine-tuning and self-development, to create an orchestra that is ultimately tested by its readers.
Asharq Al-Awsat has always been committed to rising to new challenges and meeting its responsibilities toward its readers. Its recognition of the wealth of its political, economic, cultural, sports, scientific, and technological content obliges it to go further and engage the youth.
Here Asharq Al-Awsat is, launching a new digital version of itself as it seeks to simultaneously reinvigorate its spirit and update its methods. As always, it is looking to its readers and will accept their verdict. Asharq Al-Awsat, which takes pride in itself and its readers, journalists, and authors, sees the challenges of the times as opportunities. Thus, it has chosen to push the windows into the future wide open.
