JEDDAH, 28 August 2004 — The Saudi Research & Marketing Group (SRMG) and Emirates Media, two leading media organizations in the Arab world, have signed an agreement to strengthen their cooperation and coordination and promote their activities in the industry.
Sheikh Abdullah ibn Zayed Al-Nahayan, UAE information minister and chairman of Emirates Media’s board of directors, and Prince Faisal ibn Salman, chairman of SRMG’s board of directors, signed the agreement at a function in London on Friday.
Prince Faisal said the agreement would open new vistas of cooperation between the two companies.
“It is essential to forge strategic alliances in the competitive media industry,” he said, adding that the two firms would work for projecting correct information and achieving comprehensive coverage of world events.
“There is no competition between our two organizations,” the SRMG chairman said. “Apart from news coverage the print media offers in-depth analyses and its role is supplementary to television,” he explained.
Prince Faisal emphasized that electronic media would get prominence in the alliance’s joint projects. “The new alliance will serve as an umbrella for the joint projects planned by the two groups,” he added.
He also pointed out that executive directors in both the firms were weighing a number of joint ventures.
On his part, Sheikh Abdullah said the accord would help the two firms to exchange information, expertise and technology.
“The accord came as a result of the determination of the two sides to forge an alliance to achieve their mutual interests,” an official statement said quoting the agreement’s introduction.
The agreement allows the two organizations to establish companies under the alliance, exchange services and benefits and extend preferential treatment to each other, it added.
SRMG and Emirates Media currently own leading Arab companies in the print and electronic media as well as in related activities such as printing, publishing, distribution, promotion, marketing and advertising.
The statement emphasized the importance of the accord as most Arab media organizations work under the shadow of intense competition, adding that they needed to establish strategic alliances to achieve competitive efficiency and benefits.
Such alliances, the statement said, would help the companies achieve their strategic goals of cutting operational cost, increase sales and expand their Arab and international market share. “SRMG and Emirates Media also agreed to expand their alliance by adding new parties with mutual approval.”
In their first decision after establishing the alliance, Sheikh Abdullah and Prince Faisal set up a board of directors to achieve its objectives and set out its strategies and policies.
The new board will be chaired by Dr. Azzam Al-Dakhil, managing director of Saudi Research & Publishing Company, and Ahmed Ali Al-Baloushi, general manager of Emirates Media and includes Arif Hamad Al-Awani, director of printing and distribution at the UAE company and Dr. Fahd Al-Saeed, director general of Saudi Distribution Company.
It will have two reserve members: Muhammad Ali Abdullah, director of publications at Emirates Media and Hassan Yousuf Al-Saadawi, director of Al-Khaleejiah Advertising Company in Saudi Arabia.
The signing ceremony was attended by Al-Dakhil, Al-Baloushi, Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid, managing director of Al-Arabiya satellite channel, Muhammad Al-Awam, acting editor in chief of Asharq Al-Awsat, and Muhammad Al-Harithy, editor in chief of Arrajol and acting editor in chief of Sayidaty.
