What is the future of Middle East publishing?

It was not a good day for newspapers and magazines when even the doyen of UAE advertising Joseph Ghossoub, also World President Elect of the International Advertising Association, had to admit that time was running out for the traditional media.

His presentation to the First Middle East Publishing Conference held in Dubai's Knowledge Village paid homage to his own love of magazines and the printed media. But Mr. Ghossoub conceded that future growth would come from television, Internet and electronic advertising, at the expense of his old friends.

Mr. Ghossoub did not get to his pre-eminent position without being able to spot a trend. Around the world the shift into New Media is very evident, and Internet advertising is the fastest growing section of the media in the US and Europe, although its market share is still somewhat behind its rivals.

Growth is what counts, however. Net advertising was up by more than 25% in these two key global markets last year. And if the figures were available, the same would be true of the Middle East, albeit from a much lower base.

Motivate Publishing founder Ian Fairservice, a 25-year industry veteran and publisher of the industry's first-ever Gulf magazine 'What's On', scoffs at the impact of online media to-date.

In an interview published in the conference digest he dismissed 'the relatively low amount of money' the Internet can attract for its space as a sign that 'this is a medium very much in its infancy.'

Mr. Fairservice instead likes to point to a growing magazine advertising pool in recent years, and to his own share of this particular cake which remains bigger in absolute if not relative terms than ever before.

He is even willing to tackle the thorny issue of media audits, and 'What's On' will publish its first audit in April - something of a landmark event in an industry where the manipulation of circulation figures is a high art.

However, you have to wonder whether Mr. Ghossoub does not represent the future, and Mr. Fairservice the past.

There was also a presentation from AME Info at the conference looking at how publishers could embrace the Internet for profit, and a speech by Zino Vice President Jeff Bruce on digital magazine technology.

AME Info now has an audience of 16 million page views a month, comparable with the audiences of some major Western newspaper websites. And its two million monthly users dwarf the combined un-audited circulations of all 18 Motivate Publishing titles.

At the moment the gap between the advertising industry's perceptions of what website advertising is worth and the reality is still quite large. As that reality dawns on people, and Mr. Ghossoub is surely an industry leader, then the day may come when Internet companies scoff at the revenues of magazines.