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 Following the surprising move of Al Bayan from AMG to DMI
earlier this week, it seems that one group of people at least was deliriously happy – the staff of Al Bayan.
The National
reports that the management and 300 staff cheered when the news was announced.
The paper quoted Al Bayan editor Da’en Shahine as saying: “Before, when we were with AMG, Al Bayan had some administrative problems.”
More bluntly, we hear from an anonymous source about “unrepeatable scandals”, and from an unnamed journalist at the paper: “If it wasn't Ramadan we would have had a big drinking party!”
Shahine was somewhat more diplomatic, telling The National about problems with AMG’s centralised hiring procedures, and generally suggesting that the group’s management of Al Bayan was less than stellar.
The move back to DMI is actually a return to the paper’s original home, from where it was plucked in 2005 as part of a reorganisation of Dubai’s state-owned media scene – a fact which was unknown to us (shows how much we know...).
Grouping the emirate’s papers together looks on paper to have been a sensible idea , but evidently management issues and long-standing grudges about the position of Al Bayan made for an uncomfortable alliance.
The National’s piece
sheds an interesting light on these problems, offering the suggestion that Al Bayan’s management resented its revenues being used to “prop up” AMG’s other papers, the tabloids Emarat Al Youm and Emirates Business 24/7 (the latter previously, of course, the famously awful and loss-making Emirates Today).
So the staff at Al Bayan are happy, and the managements of AMG and DMI are sensibly keeping quiet.
But, if the suggestion that Al Bayan was in large part keeping its AMG paper brethren going is correct, it may be that tough times are ahead for the group’s print titles.
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