Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper, one of the leading English-language newspapers in the Arab world and Lebanon's oldest, has folded. AP
Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper, one of the leading English-language newspapers in the Arab world and Lebanon's oldest, has folded. AP
Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper, one of the leading English-language newspapers in the Arab world and Lebanon's oldest, has folded. AP
Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper, one of the leading English-language newspapers in the Arab world and Lebanon's oldest, has folded. AP


Lebanon's Daily Star paper should not have ended with a whimper


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  • Arabic

November 10, 2021

The closing this month of the Daily Star, Lebanon’s oldest English-language newspaper, founded in 1952, had a bittersweet feel to it. Bitter, because of the way the publication treated its staff in its final years; sweet, because the Star had built up a noteworthy track record since reopening in 1996, in the midst of Lebanon’s post-war reconstruction, and for a time reflected the optimism in the country’s revival.

I had the good fortune of being the paper’s opinion editor between 2003 and 2016, which allowed me to see how a news institution could attract great talent, only to allow other, more prominent, media outlets to poach them at will. This underlined a perennial problem the publication had to place itself on a stable institutional basis and retain staff, often because of a lack of money.

When the newspaper’s owner, Jamil Mroueh, sold the Star to a group of investors led by Saad Hariri in 2010, there was hope that its financial difficulties would be resolved. The paper left its offices in the trendy, bohemian neighbourhood of Gemmayzeh for the more expensive, less adventurous, downtown area – a telling transfer that perhaps reflected Mr Mroueh’s and Mr Hariri’s contrasting visions for the publication.

For all the shortcomings of such a model, it allowed readers to get a good sense of what was going on in Lebanon

By 2015, the situation had changed for the worse, with little prospect of an amelioration. The advertising market was in what proved to be a lasting downturn, Mr Hariri’s own financial problems had become serious, and most of the former prime minister’s media interests were ailing. Within a few years virtually all the outlets he owned or in which he had a stake – Al Safir, Al Mustaqbal, Al Nahar, Future Television – had either closed or faced severe financial crises that threatened their existence.

People read newspaper headlines at a kiosk in Beirut on October 30. Reuters
People read newspaper headlines at a kiosk in Beirut on October 30. Reuters

For the staff at the Daily Star, this meant years of on-again, off-again salary payments, but apparently no settlement of the backlog from unpaid months. Colleagues had to borrow money to cover basic expenses, while job openings for those wanting to leave were very limited.

This was a remarkably callous and disgraceful way to treat a staff that laboured under conditions of uncertainty so that Mr Hariri could publish a newspaper. Perhaps management assumed that journalists who had suffered so many indignities could always be made to swallow a few more.

In the mid 1990s the mood had been lighter. Mr Mroueh reopened the paper just over a decade after he had reopened it for the first time, in 1983. Post-war Lebanon was going through a rebirth, and that Mr Mroueh twice sought to bounce back when Lebanon’s wars seemed to have ended told us something about the man. At the beginning the newspaper was rough around the edges, but it had a contagious vitality that attracted young people in search of a job.

From my perspective, I was always given the latitude to write what I wanted in my opinion articles, even before joining the staff. Others may have had different experiences, but when I became an editor, I appreciated that Mr Mroueh would mostly resolve disagreements over controversial opinion articles by rewording the text, as opposed to spiking pieces entirely. Later on, even while retaining freedom to choose pieces, I could see that the red lines were narrowing.

Beyond the Star, however, what we are witnessing today is the demise of Lebanon as a media centre for the Middle East. This venerable legacy was unsustainable for a variety of reasons, not least the fact that newspapers no longer command the audiences they once did. As the media landscape has changed with the internet and social media, the old way of doing things has collapsed.

That may not necessarily be bad. Most Lebanese newspapers survived for a long time through a combination of domestic and foreign political money and advertisements. This made for coverage that was often biased, but it also created a pluralistic press in which political disputes played out on the front pages. For all the shortcomings of such a model, it did allow readers, by decoding the political rivalries in print, to get a good sense of what was going on in Lebanon.

When political money dried up in the last decade, few Lebanese papers tried to develop an alternative model applicable to the internet age. The Star did attempt to rely on online subscriptions for readers overseas, but the somewhat rigid format it adopted was limited in its appeal. That was a shame, because a restructuring of the paper’s ownership, an injection of cash and a savvy internet and social media strategy might have saved it.

The Daily Star should not have ended with a whimper. Many journalists who had drifted through the newspaper expressed nostalgia when they heard the news. That was understandable, but what is less so is how a publication that had, since the early '50s, chronicled Lebanon’s political and social life should have been allowed to go so unceremoniously.

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

'Nope'
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SPEC SHEET

Display: 10.9" Liquid Retina IPS, 2360 x 1640, 264ppi, wide colour, True Tone, Apple Pencil support

Chip: Apple M1, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine

Memory: 64/256GB storage; 8GB RAM

Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, Smart HDR

Video: 4K @ 25/25/30/60fps, full HD @ 25/30/60fps, slo-mo @ 120/240fps

Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR, Centre Stage; full HD @ 25/30/60fps

Audio: Stereo speakers

Biometrics: Touch ID

I/O: USB-C, smart connector (for folio/keyboard)

Battery: Up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi; up to 9 hours on cellular

Finish: Space grey, starlight, pink, purple, blue

Price: Wi-Fi – Dh2,499 (64GB) / Dh3,099 (256GB); cellular – Dh3,099 (64GB) / Dh3,699 (256GB)

The biog

Name: Marie Byrne

Nationality: Irish

Favourite film: The Shawshank Redemption

Book: Seagull by Jonathan Livingston

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Faf du Plessis (captain), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock (wicketkeeper), Theunis de Bruyn, AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Heinrich Klaasen (wicketkeeper), Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada.

The President's Cake

Director: Hasan Hadi

Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem 

Rating: 4/5

'Avengers: Infinity War'
Dir: The Russo Brothers
Starring: Chris Evans, Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, Robert Downey Junior, Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Olsen
Four stars

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INDIA SQUAD

Rohit Sharma (captain), Shikhar Dhawan (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Vijay Shankar, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammad Siraj and Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper)

Titanium Escrow profile

Started: December 2016
Founder: Ibrahim Kamalmaz
Based: UAE
Sector: Finance / legal
Size: 3 employees, pre-revenue  
Stage: Early stage
Investors: Founder's friends and Family

What vitamins do we know are beneficial for living in the UAE

Vitamin D: Highly relevant in the UAE due to limited sun exposure; supports bone health, immunity and mood.Vitamin B12: Important for nerve health and energy production, especially for vegetarians, vegans and individuals with absorption issues.Iron: Useful only when deficiency or anaemia is confirmed; helps reduce fatigue and support immunity.Omega-3 (EPA/DHA): Supports heart health and reduces inflammation, especially for those who consume little fish.

Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.

Based: Riyadh

Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany

Founded: September, 2020

Number of employees: 70

Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions

Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds  

Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices

Results

6.30pm: Baniyas (PA) Group 2 Dh195,000 1,400m | Winner: ES Ajeeb, Sam Hitchcock (jockey), Ibrahim Aseel (trainer)

7.05pm: Maiden (TB) Dh165,000 1,400m | Winner: Al Shamkhah, Royston Ffrench, Sandeep Jadhav

7.40pm: Handicap (TB) Dh190,000 1,200m | Winner: Lavaspin, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar

8.15pm: Maiden (TB) Dh165,000 1,200m | Winner: Kawasir, Dane O’Neill, Musabah Al Muhairi

8.50pm: Rated Conditions (TB) Dh240,000 1,600m | Winner: Cosmo Charlie, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson

9.20pm: Handicap (TB) Dh165,000 1,400m | Winner: Bochart, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar

10pm: Handicap (TB) Dh175,000 2,000m | Winner: Quartier Francais, Fernando Jara, Ali Rashid Al Raihe

 

FIXTURES

Monday, January 28
Iran v Japan, Hazza bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)

Tuesday, January 29
UAEv Qatar, Mohamed Bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)

Friday, February 1
Final, Zayed Sports City Stadium (6pm)

THE CLOWN OF GAZA

Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah 

Starring: Alaa Meqdad

Rating: 4/5

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
 
Started: 2021
 
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
 
Based: Tunisia 
 
Sector: Water technology 
 
Number of staff: 22 
 
Investment raised: $4 million 
The specs

Engine: 1.6-litre 4-cyl turbo and dual electric motors

Power: 300hp at 6,000rpm

Torque: 520Nm at 1,500-3,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 8.0L/100km

Price: from Dh199,900

On sale: now

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company Profile

Company name: Fine Diner

Started: March, 2020

Co-founders: Sami Elayan, Saed Elayan and Zaid Azzouka

Based: Dubai

Industry: Technology and food delivery

Initial investment: Dh75,000

Investor: Dtec Startupbootcamp

Future plan: Looking to raise $400,000

Total sales: Over 1,000 deliveries in three months

Updated: November 10, 2021, 4:30 AM