WSJ to seek more Mideast partnerships after tie-up with Abu Dhabi-based Al-Ittihad

LONDON: The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) will seek more partnerships in the Middle East after linking up Abu Dhabi Media-owned publication Al-Ittihad.
It comes as newspapers worldwide come under increased pressure to find new subscribers.
“Partnerships are a proven way for publishers to unlock new growth and revenue opportunities as they respond to the challenges of the new media landscape. With Dow Jones speeding toward its goal of 3 million subscribers globally, our international partnerships are an important driver of subscriber growth in key markets,” said Nick Pimm, commercial partnerships director at Dow Jones.
“The Middle East is an important market for the Journal and we will continue to seek best-in-class partnerships there. In addition to our collaboration with Abu Dhabi Media Group, we recently announced our partnership with Emirates Skywards, the award-winning frequent flyer program of Emirates airline. This allows Emirates Skywards members to redeem their Miles for an annual digital subscription to WSJ.”
Under the WSJ-Al-Ittihad commercial partnership announced last week, anyone who subscribes to Al-Ittihad after Jan. 19 will receive a one-year subscription to the digital edition of WSJ.
The partnership will also grant Abu Dhabi Media access to content to share in English and Arabic across its digital platforms.
The deal is a sign of a changing media landscape. “There is unrelenting pressure on news media to make more money from their content and, for this reason, we will certainly see even more media partnerships in future, trading content for content, and content for subscriber access,” Carrington Malin, a media and branding expert at Dubai-based digital communications agency Spot On, told Arab News.
“Of course, the access that Al-Ittihad offers to a wider UAE readership is great for the WSJ brand, but deals like this mean slightly different things in the digital world; WSJ will be counting on international partnerships like this to help push their own digital platform in front of more new eyeballs and to grow digital subscriptions globally,” he said.
The news of the WSJ-Al-Ittihad partnership echoes a similar 2016 tie-in between the the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper and The People’s Daily, an official Chinese newspaper. The Chinese outlet has used up to 40 Daily Mail articles a week, according to The Guardian.