After 7Days, where next for the Dubai media sector?

At one level the UK tabloid giant Daily Mail's purchase of the firm providing management consultancy and technical services for the local Dubai free newspaper group 7Days is an endorsement of the growing maturity of the sector. So too was MEED publisher Emap's acquisition of AME Info earlier in July this year, the first substantial buy by a UK media group in Dubai.

Yet consolidation has not stopped in the private sector. The Dubai Government has assumed control of the Khaleej Times, the main rival to Gulf News in which the government also holds a stake.

Step back a few years to the creation of the Dubai Media City in 2000 and these moves can be seen in some perspective. That was the year that Dubai liberalized its media sector and threw the door open to virtually all comers in a previously closed sector.

Media explosion

The media mushroomed in the city. Magazines, television stations and newspapers proliferated. Even the government joined in the excitement revamping Dubai TV and launching its own tabloid Emirates Today.

That this liberalization of the media sector coincided with a major oil boom greatly assisted its participants. For a while it seemed that almost any media enterprise would thrive and succeed in Dubai. But over the past couple of years the number of launches has cooled and some companies have quietly closed their doors.

What seems to be happening now is that international companies are picking up the better concerns in the sectors with the strongest growth opportunities, free newspapers and online. Meanwhile, the government is trying to shake-up institutions like the Khaleej Times whose eccentric editorial policies are a local joke.

This is therefore the start of a consolidation process after a remarkable boom period in the Dubai media. However, quality has often suffered in the name of quantity of media, and the commitment by top UK media groups and a determination by the Dubai Government to raise standards are to be applauded.

Media implosion

The next phase is probably for a commercial squeeze to really sort out the winners and losers in the Dubai media, and 2006 has so far seen falling advertising revenues. Only the strong will survive a downturn and then thrive as Dubai continues to grow as a city.

The winners will be the brightest stars to emerge from the Dubai Media City and the longstanding local institutions that have grown with the oil boom. But there will also be casualties among media with high cost bases and low readerships, and that probably means the magazine sector whose proliferation of titles has spread readership numbers thinner and thinner.

Even the government may decide to focus its efforts in particular directions rather than trying to compete with the private sector across the board where its editorial independence is always in doubt.

However, in the process Dubai has created a unique media sector and assisted the growth of a free press in the Middle East. And, other countries might care to note, benefited hugely from all the free publicity and marketing.