Motivate Publishing signs deal to launch Hello! in the Middle East

Combining news and photo-features on international celebrities who boast cross-border appeal, with a hint of regional flavour, the content of the magazine will follow the established Hello! format that has already proved so successful the world over.

Hello! from Motivate Publishing will be distributed across the Middle East, but predominantly in the UAE and other GCC states.

Ian Fairservice, Managing Partner of Motivate Publishing said, "I am delighted to announce the agreement to publish Hello! in the Middle East.

"This will be one of the most important launches in Motivate's 26-year history and will be a prestigious and exciting addition to our portfolio of magazine titles.

"Our experienced team is looking forward to making Hello! a huge success.

"We have been working very closely with Hello!'s principals in Madrid and London for almost two years to ensure a firm foundation for this launch which will be Motivate Publishing's first weekly. This in itself is exciting but combining that with the Hello! brand and product - one of the most recognised brands in the world today - makes this a formidable challenge and opportunity."

Ian Fairservice stressed that this was in no way a simple franchise agreement, "Hello! does not franchise its magazine and in the publication's almost 50-year history only two previous agreements have been reached for a similar independent edition in other regions. This is a meaningful publishing partnership with Hello!'s principals in Spain, France and the UK to produce a magazine which will offer readers the very best of international coverage from those editions, together with our own regional input of a similar class and genre.

"The acid test for the selection of editorial material in the Middle East of Hello! will be that our partners in other territories would want to include this in their own edition."

Javier Junco of Hola! Madrid, the founders of Hello! magazine, commented: "We are delighted to be working with Motivate Publishing to produce this new edition of Hello! for the Middle East, a region in which we have previously enjoyed a wide readership but which will now be better served than ever by its own dedicated magazine."

Hello! in the Middle East joins a family of publications which includes versions in Spain, UK, France and Russia and will launch across the region at the beginning of April. The Editor will be Scott Birch who has been the Editor of Motivate's What's On, the region's first and still the best-selling monthly magazine, for the past two years.

Overseeing the project will be Motivate's Group Senior Editor, Gina Johnson and Publisher, Ian Fairservice.