Gulf Times relaunch on Sunday

I agree it's great to have someone who knows what they're talking about joining in. Thank you Paul.

Heck, it's just great that a thread can go this long and remain within the sensible boundaries of discussion rather than degenerating into something else!

Please, please do not TAKE AWAY the wonderful artwork produced by those parents. Ooooops sorry I meant pupils of DMIS. I just love wondering how long it took the parents and then the written stuff they do, it is so funny.

Anyway, getting back to the point in hand. Glad to see somebody who knows what they are talking about joining in.

I am sorry to be boring (not really) but it is one of the worse papers I have ever read. It is copy and paste.

...that makes this newspaper less of its own quality in spite of plenty of 'colors' in the relaunch.

It's just about plain active journalism. Reading it like a newspaper.

I was a writer/journalist of a school newspaper in my high school and college days and they taught me journalism by the book (in spite of another level of activist journalists along our headquarters) and I tell you all that this is not how each article is made.

They always miss one or more of the common 5 questions of a complete news article: Who-What-When-Where-How. And all this answers has to be complete in one paragraph only. The second and the following paragraphs will have to be the details of the news.

Also, if they could make a title of a news article on up to 7-9 words only without the use of the forms of 'be', then I believe this is a good newspaper to read.

"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

Couldn't agree with you more Paul. That's pretty much what we've been saying over in this thread; http://www.qatarliving.com/node/392778

tallg - it's a pity about the use of photos. The sub-editors who select pictures for their pages generally are not interested in anything much beyond filling the holes in the page, so some very good photos are passed over.

Thanks for the appreciation Cynbob. I don't think the majority of the population here want to be unfair but if injustices are allowed to pass without comment then they are liable to be accepted as the norm. Most of the abuses are inflicted on one expat by another - corrupt managers or recruitment agents, for example.

It is true that trying to take a stand in the media here is very stressful and some people have paid heavily for it. The arrival of well-protected media freedom "experts" and journalism lecturers is a bit of a joke, really. Perhaps I should apply for one of their cushy salaries.

In a way, I think the authorities are sincere about their belief in freedom of the Press. However, they would argue that with freedom comes responsibility and it is irresponsible to challenge traditions, religion, the established order or pretty much anything else that affects their interests. They are willing to hear reports about things they can fix without it challenging the underlying system. I heard, for example, that a few years ago the Emir told business leaders to clean up their act over unpaid wages, because our reports were affecting Qatar's image.

I'm afraid I see signs now of a return to the thinking of Sheikh Khalifa's days, which was that everything was perfect and, even if it wasn't, it was in everybody's interests to say nothing.

My favourite bit of censorship from the early 90s (when an official censor read every word in the paper before it was approved - life was easy for journalists then) was over a story that began: "In the harbour at Cannes the yachts of film moguls, millionaires and princes jostle side-by-side". The censor banned "princes" on the grounds that it was insulting to Saudi Arabia and when I challenged it, his ruling was upheld by the sheikh responsible for censorship. No censor ever got in trouble for banning too much.

Anyway, I'm rambling.

lol on the bodily harm NFH... :P

mj, actually we did get it yesterday...at 4 pm. I think that was after my hubby called them and threatened them with bodily harm, lol!

I don't get it, we've gotten it for years by 7 am. Did they forget where I live?

Not here yet today :-(

NFH, they added bit more color to it.. and the Time Out supplement was in a tabloid form.. hope you get your issues soon.. :)

I'd like to get a look at the new product, but the GT hasn't managed to deliver my paper for the last 6 days!!

I, for one, applaud you.

I am just a reader of newspapers. Not a big, commercial person with money or influence. I am just a reader who likes to be informed about what is going on beyond the classified section and ads.

On another thread about journalism, I mentioned that it must be a stressful job when one is proposing articles about human interests that do not fit the "mold" for the type of journalism practiced in this side of the world. I guess 'stressful' is an understatement.

I applaud you for not "cozing up to the government and big countries." I applaud you for "supporting the little people." I believe that NOT being informed about injustices being committed to the majority of the population living here is a crime within itself.

You were doing the right thing. You just paid a hefty price for your courage. You have planted a seed. You have provided a taste of what freedom of the speech/press is like in the western part of the world.

I believe that the work ethic you practiced was not in vain.

More interesting stuff Paul. I'm glad you've decided to participate in this forum :)

And I couldn't agree more that the quality of the photos in the local press is abysmal.

Corcaoich, that is true. While I was in charge GT became the first paper in Qatar to report a car accident (! it really was that bad under the old regime), the first to report workers' going on strike, we repeatedly named the companies involved until I was specifically ordered to stop, we were the first to report domestic abuse cases, we campaigned for foreign universities to be invited to Qatar, we were the first to introduce criminal court reports and, of course, we were instrumental in ending the camel jockey scandal. It is very difficult to imagine most of those things being tackled today. Sure, there were plenty of things we were forced to leave alone - often because of comercial pressure, rather than government pressure, the government intervened hardly at all - but at least we were trying to do something and (I thought) laying the groundwork to build on. There is only so much you can do in any situation - and who is even to say that I, with my foreign opinions - was doing the right thing, anyway?

@ The-birdie: They dropped me like a hot brick, giving me five months' gardening leave rather than have me infecting the brave new era with old ideas. So there was no lucrative consultancy, I'm afraid. I now amuse myself doing stuff that is free from moral dilemmas and stress.

The new design seems to have picked a bunch of different ideas from different places, part magazine, part tabloid. They are clearly trying to create a visual illusion of shortening the pages by using strong horizontal lines, while also trying to create frames for strongly vertical - and large - pictures. This is a follow-on from the ideas introduced with The Independent almost 25 years ago; the trouble is that if you are going to have a fantastic display of pix, you need fantastic pix to display, and you won't get that without having, at least, a dedicated picture editor to hunt out the best wire pix every day. I'll lay odds GT won't pay for that. If you look at the old design, I also used horizontal stress to limit the page depth, often by having horizontal story blocks across between five and seven columns top and/or bottom of the page.

Saif - not all change is welcome, only change that is for the better. If that is what this is, well and good. If anything, it looks to me as if more space is being given to corporate press releases (Vodafone, WDoha Hotel, Ahlibank, Qtel) than in the past, because the design demands that "stories" (as distinct from the fillers along the top of the pages) get a massive display.

Mr. Cowan points about how things have changed are apposite. However no one here can escape the problem of self censorship which Mr. Cowan, and others, practiced. albeit with an uneasy conscience perhaps, over the many years I have looked at the local papers. There were some times a few years ago where striking workers were shown in a photograph adjacent to their actual employers premises whose name could clearly be seen on the signboards where I felt the guilty are being named and shamed. Now we are back to the era when "an arabic daily has reported that striking workers etc. etc." suffices as news, Until someone can feel empowered to state his own opinion, no matter how wrong,without fear of retribution, no real freedom of expresion or of the press can be assumed.

I thought I was reading The Daily Mail - Qatar.

"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

Change is always welcome especially when it helps moderate lots of the public relation stuff filling the pages. It needs hell of an effort to spot something of interest to read apart from the classifieds!

I was wondering where Paul left... are you assoicated with Gulf Times...normaly, when they introduce new team, they keep the old lions for temporarily with spicy postions like "Consultant" etc...

I think by the new design, they were tyring to do antoher Khaleej Times ?

also trying to put large fotos,,, another gimmick used to done by Peninsula

I'm still over here, Dora, I'm just not involved in any way with the media any more.

Good luck to you......

Obviously you know how it works over here.....

Agreed tallg. In the English language media there is no reason at all for anyone to stick their necks out and risk getting into trouble for it. I used to do stuff because I thought it was right or necessary and that the little people needed some support but, frankly, I was stupid. If I had spent the time cosying up to the government and big companies and ignoring everything else I'm sure I would still be there.

With the recent "changes" at the newspapers the freedom of press here is only heading in one direction - backwards.

OK Tallg, have a look at today's photo of Ahli bank's spokesman next to the court headline and you might get an idea.

Dora, who is Peter?

mmmm so is Peter still working there then??

Shame, I'd be interested to know. Humour me?

Tallg, - It's not up to me to offer lessons on design to them.

No, Dora, you don't; and you don't read about unpaid workers going on strike, or Qataris appearing in the criminal courts any more, as far as I can see, let alone the campaign against abuse of the camel jockeys that we ran almost a decade back.

No!No! so I don't get to know who won the colouring contest in year iviivv at DMIS now?? Outrage! Its a disgrace!

Hi Paul, thanks for the information regarding the do-it-yourself construction.

As I'm someone without knowledge of newspapers, could you please elaborate on these dangerous fundamental mistakes?

Paul

The old GT was a do-it-yourself construction job because the printing press could not print it in one piece and the management fixed a deadline for the first print run that was too early for us to put sports in a different section from the front page.

Frankly, I'm surprised the comments about the new look are as positive as they are, particularly from people who apparently have some knowledge of newspapers. There are some fundamental mistakes in really basic stuff that are quite dangerous. I'm biased, of course, as it was my old design they threw out of the window (it was about the last thing left from my time there).

And why does The Peninsula website freeze my computer for 5 to 10 seconds every time I access it?

tallg, no, they won't

sometime in a while, they'll try, but will fail

then people will complain for a few years, and they'll try again

by the way, has anyone signed up to the newsletters on the peninsula and gulf times sites? the peninsula sign-up form is an empty applet tag, the gulf times is a big black hole that chews up your email address and then burps.

"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

I wonder if they'll ever bother creating a decent website.

why we buy it, takes me all of 30 seconds to read the bloody thing. As for 'toilet paper' it's up there with Izal in my books.

LOL

"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

I read the second last page on the first part about the Qatari man views on people pushing in traffic from the inside, and that police are issuing 100 tickets annonmously for such violations..

Damm right about time.. These pushers get punished..Load of idiots..

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HE WHO DARES WINS

I guess William Boot is rebooting himself since the release of the new version?

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HE WHO DARES WINS

lol - if you ask him a question perhaps he'll respond.

...I wish to know why the Mr William Boot ( the originator of this thread ) is silent.

wish to get valuable inputs from him

Shame. :(

I heard he's just sticking around for the relaunch, but he hasn't had any editorial input for months. Everything is now done by the Editor-in-Chief.

Are you sure the managing editor of the Gulf Times is gone, his picture is in the paper today?

I'm sad to see both of those managing editors go, and they aren't the only ones, some of the magazines have lost theirs too. :(

The Gulf Times is looking good today. Here are the main points of the redesign.

The paper has shrunk slightly, to a size known as berliner, which is popular in Europe. That might be a choice dictated by the new printing press, but it's a welcome change nonetheless, as it's easier to hold.

The front page has a new masthead. There's a more modern feel to the layout, with only a single story, rather than the six or seven that previously crowded onto the page.

I guess they've switched from Quark to InDesign for the new design, and the H&Js have vastly improved. Previously, the text was very gappy, especially on narrow measures. That's been fixed.

The fonts have changed. Helvetica has gone. It's been replaced by one of those new sans faces. Like Gotham, but not. Anyone know the precise name? The same goes for the serif font. I guess the previous font was Times New Roman, but it's now some transitional face like Apollo or Cheltenham. The capital-Q has a swash, which is a problem if you're going to use it regularly, especially on drop-caps.

Thankfully, the main paper now comes as a complete piece, not a construct-it-yourself two-parter. There's a new business/sports section, and a tabloid feature section, with TV listings. Since The Peninsula ditched its tabloid this weekend, Gulf Times wins by default on features. The lack of detailed TV listings are a pet peeve of mine, and they've not listed some of the most popular channels like BBC Prime.

There's still a jarring mix of coated and uncoated paper stock, and this affects the colour repro. Having said that, the print quality is good throughout, and my copy showed none of the drying problems that seem to plague local printing.

Compared to The Peninsula, there are eight pages more of news. The classified section is well integrated between the business and sport.

Judging a paper on the first issue of a new design will always be problematic. There will be some improvements over the next few weeks, as in-house designers tweak details, but there is also the danger of slippage. The redesign has been bought in from an external consultancy, and it will be interesting to see whether the paper looks as pretty in a couple of weeks once Richard Addis and his team have left Doha.

Yeah that got under my skin... Once i had completed the task of throwing the advertisement things over my shoulder, i then had to build the damn paper.

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I never understood why it was a "construct-it-yourself two-parter".

Ach... It does the job for your morning contemplation of nature.

I just wish they would size it doen a bit, make the whole thing about the dimensions of the new time out. (A3 i think)

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when new appointees will be there, sure we should expect some more mistakes and probably lower standard.

New look is good but I found few mistakes in one article I read about Nada Zeidan :) Looks like it was printed before proof reading.

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CONFUSE ............ if you cannot convince!

While the relaunch is undoubtedly interesting stuff, this is by far and away the most important sentence in the post;

Now, both the Gulf Times and Peninsula editors have been pushed aside by Ministry appointees.

And someone was recently saying that freedom of press had been getting better over the last year!

I have to admit I am impressed with the relaunced newspaper. It has a more european flair to it.

Do you think they will also 'censor' the 'classified'?

For the rest of the news I never bothered with the Gulf Times.

it does not stop , the newspapers become MOI mouthpieces

the coverage, the features page are not upto the standard

I wish someone read ( at least once ) the newspapers from UAE ..... Khaleej Times or Gulf News.... you can see the difference