Gulf News goes Berliner

On June 1, Gulf News became the first newspaper in the Arab world to go Berliner, when it launched a brand new smaller page size, which is more compact, easier for readers to handle, and more visually attractive so that the reading experience is enhanced.

This “Berliner” format has been adopted by many of the leading newspapers in the world, and this improvement continues decades of Gulf News’ leadership and innovation in the media. “Such innovation is an integral part of Gulf News’ commitment to excellence in journalism and offering its readers the best coverage of the UAE and the region,” said Abdul Hamid Ahmad, Publishing Director and Editor in Chief of the newspaper.

“New sections are coming out over the next week in reader-friendly packages that include content which I personally believe offers great value for our readers’ money — for those who subscribe to the paper or by it from newsstands,” said Abdul Hamid Ahmad.

In addition, the weekly package has been expanded. Gulf News has always offered news, comment, business, sports and entertainment, but the new Gulf News will now include sections catering to readers’ different lifestyle concerns, like health, education, personal finance, technology and motoring.

At the same time as offering the readers a new size and expanded package, Gulf News has launched a fresh design, focused on being functional and aesthetically pleasing, with the intention of allowing readers to quickly find and assimilate the content that they want.

“This huge initiative involved equally huge investments in state-of-the-art technology to create the most modern and vibrant news package of the region for both our readers and advertisers,” said Duleep George, Executive Director Marketing & Sales, Al Nisr Publishing LLC, the publishers of Gulf News.

“The change is twofold: The reader gets a paper that is easier to handle and navigate, and more content driven. The advertiser gets a more effective medium that offers greater impact and more visibility for his product or service,” George added.

This dramatic change in Gulf News follows the ranking of Gulf News as “the most read newspaper in the UAE” by an independent report at the Arab Media Forum. “It was one of those moments where you feel on top of the world. The new launch is another of those moments,” said Mohammad Almezel, Managing Editor of Gulf News, who added that the new Gulf News is an integrated package with pages that are interactive, easy to navigate and visually attractive.

“This new format Gulf News has a fascinating design. We’ve made sure that you get more of the quality content you become accustomed to. It’s a great and compelling read, presented in the best package ever assembled by a newspaper,” Almezel commented.

These developments to the newspaper required a substantial investment in a new printing press, which was specially designed to produce the new Berliner size.

The new KBA Cortina waterless, double-width, press, is capable of printing 80,000 copies per hour, and it is accompanied by matched by a new Ferag mail room where the different sections are collated, and inserted into the package, before being poly-bagged. This press is the first KBA waterless press in the Middle East and all the 18 other sites are in Europe.

The main feature of the Cortina press is its waterless technology. Conventional presses use water to wash the ink away from the non- image area of the plate. The Cortina does this through the special plate it prints with. Since there is no water, it makes the colour reproduction much more accurate and brighter, since there is no “fan out” across the web, giving much better colour registration.