The National (Abu Dhabi)
Logo of The National
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| Type | Daily |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | Abu Dhabi Media |
| Editor-in-chief | Rashed Murooshid |
| Deputy editor | Bill Spindle |
| Managing editors | Laura Koot |
| Staff writers | more than 150 |
| Founded | 16 April 2008 |
| Political alignment | Pro-government |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Abu Dhabi |
| Circulation | Unaudited |
| Sister newspapers | Aletihad |
| Website | www |
The National is a government-owned English-language daily newspaper published in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The National was first published on 17 April 2008. Mohammed Al Otaiba is the editor-in-chief of The National. The editor-in-chief between 8 June 2009 and 2 October 2013 was Hassan Fattah. Prior to this, and from the launch of the newspaper Martin Newland was editor-in-chief. Abu Dhabi Media, the government-owned media company, runs the newspaper along with a stable of other publications, including Aletihad, Zahrat Al Khaleej, Majed, and National Geographic Al Arabiya (in partnership with National Geographic). With its pledge to emulate Western newspaper standards and to "help society evolve," The National claims to be an anomaly in the Middle East, where most media are tightly controlled by the government - however there have been several high level resignations across the editorial team regarding spiked stories and the newspaper's impotency when covering stories on Abu Dhabi. On the other hand, the major goal in establishing the paper was to have respect from the international community on the part of the government.
The National built its staff levels up to 150 recruiting from newspapers around the world, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Daily Telegraph of Britain. Martin Newland was editor of the Daily Telegraph from 2003 to 2005, and he took with him many former Telegraph employees, most notably Colin Randall (former Telegraph executive news editor), Sue Ryan (former managing editor) and senior photographer Stephen Lock (who covered domestic and foreign news and the international fashion circuit during 20 years on the Daily Telegraph). While there have been changes in the editorial team over the last few years, mainly due to expat churn and limited restructuring, the staff levels went down to 150. The cuts are a reflection of the paper's inability to generate enough income through advertising and subscriptions. Earlier in 2012 they parted company with their sales director and the sales executives from across the publishing titles were merged into one team. Despite high levels of marketing across the country the paper struggled to break 10,000 subscriptions after launch and it is believed that current subscription levels are around 7,500 but as the title is not audited there is no reliable information to back this up.
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