Dubai: It’s not easy to build readers’ trust.
But gulfnews.com has certainly earned it — hitting nearly 30 million page views a month this year — and this is due to the weight it gives to serving readers in everything it does.
Which is why it remains as the most-read English language news website in the UAE.
Gulfnews.com turned 20 on Thursday, September 1.
Over the last two decades, the site has constantly evolved from its online debut in 1996 as a static website into the dynamic, innovative and reliable news portal that it is today.
Innovation has always been the core of gulfnews.com, which is one of the biggest reasons why it has continued to become a market leader in online news publishing.
From the Editor-in-Chief
Commenting on the anniversary, Abdul Hamid Ahmad, Editor-in-Chief & Executive Director Publications of Gulf News, said: “Twenty years ago, journalists and media businesses in the region thought that launching a website was just a prestigious thing for print newspapers.”
“So the websites at that time — gulfnews.com being one of them — simply reflected what the print edition had to offer. No more. But over the years, with the revolution in information technology and expanding reach of the media, we woke up to the reality that news websites should have their own life away from the print edition,” he said.
Today, Ahmad (left) pointed point, the gulfnews.com portal offers up-to-date information on the go, on every platform — with breaking news and live coverages, news reports and features around the clock in a 24x7 operation.
“By turning our vision from a print-oriented to a digital-oriented mindset, Gulf News saw huge changes and progress made under its digital-first policy. With a team of dedicated editors exclusively for our digital operations, we are able to serve people who want constant and up to date news and updates.”
Noting that Gulf News had managed to successfully fuse in both print and digital media the best of what journalism has to offer in this part of the world, Ahmad said: “We are proud that we have become the first and most reliable source of news in the region.”
Message from the Managing Editor
“It has been a great journey for Gulf News and I am confident our readers enjoyed it as much as we did,” Mohammed Almezel, Managing Editor (below), said.
“As we celebrate the success of gulfnews.com, we would like to acknowledge and thank all our readers who continue to be our guiding light in this great journey,” Almezel noted.
Online dominance
In the mid 90s, gulfnews.com was one of the first few news websites of its time, quickly rising to dominate the online news segment in the mid-2000s with breaking news, special online reports and a host of multimedia offerings.
It continues to innovate until now, becoming a multi-platform news portal for readers—whether on desktop or mobile.
By the numbers
In terms of page views and unique readers, gulfnews.com has made a big leap since its inception.
In the last 31 days alone, gulfnews.com recorded total average page views of 29.04 million compared to 22.03 million in the same period last year, with 5.8 million unique visitors in the last 31 days compared to 3.24 million in the same period last year.
But it’s not just the numbers that say it all.
“Our company doesn’t believe the news until it is published on gulfnews.com.”
That’s a constant refrain we hear from readers, particularly when there is an important announcement that affects UAE residents.
It’s the biggest compliment, of course, particularly when one’s daily business is to get the news out. Correctly. Quickly.
When people say they don’t believe the news until they read it on gulfnews.com first, that’s when we know why the website remains relevant, why it continues to attract more readers, and why it remains number one.
Milestones
September 1, 1996
Gulfnews.com was one of the first news organization in 1996 in the Middle East to go online, just a few months after Etisalat (the only telecom carrier in the UAE at that time) launched the portal.
