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Arab News makes global structural changes

Saudi Arabian-based newspaper, Arab News has launched two new bureaus in Europe and Asia as a part of its global, digital expansion plan. The new launch has been followed by the appointment of Baker Atyani to the role of Southeast Asia Bureau Chief, who brings with him experience in journalism, having covered stories on conflict zones in the region and previously worked with Al Arabiya as Bureau Chief – Asia, and most recently as its Senior International Correspondent. In his new role, he will spearhead Arab News’ coverage of Asia across print, online and video with a particular focus on India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Arab News’ digital expansion will also see the promotion of Ben Flanagan to the role of London Bureau Chief. With 16 years of experience working on national newspapers and news portals, Ben most recently held the position of Senior Editor at Arab News. He will now take on his new role to lead the operations of the new bureau in London and cover the UK and Europe from an Arab perspective, with a particular focus on politics, business and investment to serve as a digital hub for the newspaper.

“The new bureaus support the newspaper’s ‘more digital, more global’ strategy,” says Faisal J. Abbas, Editor-in-Chief, Arab News. “It is a great pleasure for us to have these two exceptionally experienced and incredibly capable journalists heading up our crucial Asia and UK operations. This inevitably adds much value to our readers who will be sure to get the best relevant content and stories from across these regions.”

Al Arabiya welcomes Sara Hamdan

Online news station, www.alarabiya.new/English has welcomed Sara Hamdan to the role of weekly Columnist. With over 12 years of experience in journalism, Sara is currently working on a part-time project with Google as well as her blog holidaysinheels.com and previously worked for The New York Times. In her new role, she will be writing one column per week that will be published every Sunday on topics of fashion, food, travel and lifestyle on the Al Arabiya English platform.

Dubai Lynx honours MBC Group Chairman

The Dubai Lynx International Festival of Creativity has honoured MBC Group Chairman, Sheikh Waleed Al-Ibrahim with its Advertising Person of the Year award, to recognise his achievements in advancing the reputation and profile of the communications industry in the MENA region. Sheikh Waleed has been responsible for launching a series of successful TV channels which communicate to different audiences in the MENA region such as MBC1, MBC2, MBC MAX, Wanasah and MBC Drama. He has also recently been instrumental in rolling out HD channels that cover the worlds of movies, sports and entertainment as well as being one of the first Arab businessmen to launch a news channel – Al Arabiya, which has extended into a global network of correspondents and reporters with nearly 30 offices and Bureau Chiefs around the world. He was presented with the Advertising Person of the Year trophy during the Dubai Lynx Awards Ceremony last night, which was attended by 1,800 people from the MENA region’s creative communications industry.

“Over the course of 25 years, Sheikh Waleed Al-Ibrahim has been responsible for multiple, significant contributions to the development of the media and entertainment industry in the MENA region and we are delighted that we could celebrate this during the 10th edition of Dubai Lynx,” says Terry Savage, Chairman, Dubai Lynx.