The articles, columns, interviews, features, videos and podcasts on Arabian Business require a significant investment to create and, as a result, have an intrinsic value in their own right – and one that shouldn’t be measured purely in terms of the advertising that may or may not surround them.

 

In fact, the more we discussed the imposition of the paywall in the current media landscape, the more it made sense to us. On the one hand, we’ve seen the decline of print circulations and revenues – ITP’s for most of the last 30 years – and the fracturing of traditional advertising methods. On the other, we’ve witnessed the emergence of new platforms, new brands and new content creators, all disrupting the way companies such as ours operate. Taken together, these factors have forced us to evolve and in the last two or three years, we have worked hard to incorporate this new thinking into our own offering, and now influencer management, original video content and virtual conferencing and events are important elements in our portfolio. ITP is a now a genuine digital-first media house.

 

The paywall is merely another manifestation of this philosophy. We are pivoting towards a sustainable revenue model that is driven by the consumer – the reader – rather than the advertiser, and on Arabian Business that will be underpinned by quality editorial produced in a variety of engaging, innovative formats that our readers will be prepared to pay for. The traffic our site attracts will now be a testament to our team’s efforts not what fuels it.