Dubai: Gulf News is ranked number one among the English-language online newspapers in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region and in the UAE.
The compiled list is based on the newspapers' presence online, their content and the number of followers they generate.
Gulf News ranks seventh overall on the Forbes Middle East list of Top 50 Newspapers Online for 2010 in the Mena region.
The newspaper launched its website in 1996. It started the process of convergence in its newsroom to allow multi-platform publishing in 2008. Today, the website focuses heavily on multimedia and breaking news online.
Editor-in-Chief of Gulf News Abdul Hamid Ahmad expressed his pride in his team's accomplishment, but described the current ranking as an incentive to work harder in the future.
"It's very clear that we're the top English newspaper online and that's our achievement," he said.
"But this is not enough. This is an incentive to move forward and do more."
"It's a challenge for us to strive even higher on the list," said Brian Buchanan, portal editor at Gulf News.
He said that people are starting to recognise that Gulf News is strong in breaking news and is an important place to go to for detailed information when the good and bad happens.
Making the top of the list was Al Youm Al Sabea from Egypt. Other UAE-based newspapers on the list were Khaleej Times, Emarat Al Youm and Al Ittihad. The list was announced last night at the launch of Forbes Middle East, Arabic version of the US-based Forbes magazine.
Dr Nasser Al Tayyar, President of Arab Publisher House, and Robert Forbes, Vice-President of Forbes, presented an award to the top 10 newspapers online in the Mena region. This ranking was the first of its kind for the region. Forbes Middle East said it compiled the list according to the Forbes methodology of scientific research.
