DUBAI, 6 March 2006 — The world’s leading media organizations — the World Association of Newspapers and the International Federation of Periodical Publishes — are joined by leading regional and international newspaper and magazine executives at the second Dubai Middle East Publishing Conference that opened in Dubai yesterday.

More than 60 media and publishing organizations from 52 countries are representing at the conference — including the BBC, National Geographic, Bloomberg News, Saudi Research & Publishing Co. (SRPC) of Saudi Arabia, Emphasis Media from Singapore, Rene AG of Switzerland, and VNU from the Netherlands.

The need for independent verification of circulation figures is a prime topic at the Middle East publishing conference, where industry experts from around the world are gathered to conduct an in-depth analysis of newspaper and magazine markets, and present global best practices to help the development of Middle East publishing.

The two-day event is organized by WAN and FIPP with the Dubai Consultancy, Research and Media Center and other groups under the theme of “Re-Inventing the Middle East Publishing Market.”

“The ‘re-inventing’ aspect applies as much to international media as to Middle East Publishers, in that all face similar challenges such as managing the impact of online competition,” said Donald D. Kummerfeld, president and CEO of the International Federation of the Periodical Press.

“This will be a central theme of the conference, along with exploration of the other key issues that affect our industry and how we must adapt to cope.”

“The conference would provide media executives in the region with many new and profitable ideas to improve their services to readers and advertisers”, said WAN Chief Executive Timothy Balding.

“Middle East publishing continues to flourish, and the rise of the Internet and allied developments are providing new challenges and opportunities” he added.

Marc Sands, marketing director of the UK’s Guardian newspaper; Chander Rai, chief executive of Living Media International, USA; Fabrizio D’Angelo, director of international magazine development at Italy’s Modadori publishing house, Eamonn Byrne, business director of WAN; and Bertrand Pecquerie, Paris-based director of the World Editors Forum participated the conference yesterday.

Publisher Ben Smalley comments that editorial and production standards in the regional media industry have generally improved considerably over the past few years, but stresses that independent circulation auditing must become the rule rather than the exception if Middle East publishing is ever to be considered a mature market.

“Hopefully it will not be too long before we can list more verified circulation figures in the Middle East Media Guide and provide users of the book with accurate data for all newspapers and magazines, rather than having to mostly rely upon the claims of publishers which we have no realistic means of checking,” he said.

Meanwhile, Middle East media continued to grow at a frenetic pace during 2005 with more than 70 new magazines, 14 television channels, nine radio stations and several newspapers launching during the course of the year.

The new 2006 edition of the Middle East Media Guide now lists more than 700 magazines, 170 newspapers, 140 TV stations and 145 radio stations across 14 countries.