People are still interested in news. In the past two weeks, visitors to Al Jazeera's website shot up, and I'm sure their TV viewers have increased too. That's because they're providing the news people are interested in.

Over the past year, newspaper readership in Asia has increased. That's partly because of increasing literacy and changing demographics, but it's also because a lot has been happening, and people want to know about it.

In Qatar, twenty-five thousand people a day now receive The Peninsula's front page by email. I don't know how many people read it, but I know that giving away the news for free has increased interest in the paper, not diminished it.

Before you see doom and gloom in the local newspaper market, first ask yourself: "Is this a problem with US and European newspapers, or is it applicable to family-owned, debt-free newspapers in Qatar?"