Al Yaum (newspaper)

History and ownership

Al Yaum was first published in Dammam in 1965.{{cite web|title=Arab Media Review|publisher=Anti-Defamation League |access-date=30 May 2012}} The owner and publisher of the paper is Dar Al Yaum Organization for Printing and Publishing.{{cite web|title=Dar Al Youm for Press, Printing and Publication

Hamid Ghuyarfi was the editor-in-chief of Al Yaum until 1981 when he was dismissed due to his criticism against the Saudi government.{{cite book|author=Said Aburish|title=The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall of the House of Saud: With an Updated Preface

The daily was the first in the Middle East and the second in the world to get an IFRA ISO certificate, the first in the Middle East to receive the IFRA Asia Award for best in print, and the first in the Middle East to become a WAN-IFRA Star Club member and a Color Quality Club member.

Content and format

Being a native paper of the Eastern Province Al Yaum critically covered negative living conditions of local people in the region before the Qatif uprising in 1979.{{cite journal|author=Toby Craig Jones|title=Rebellion on the Saudi Periphery: Modernity, Marginalization, and the Shiʿa Uprising of 1979|issue=2|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|date=May 2006|volume=38

The paper mostly covers news in relation to Dammam and nearby regions. The paper is published in broadsheet format with 28 colour and black and white pages.

Distribution and circulation

Although the paper focuses on the local news and mainly serves the Eastern province, it is distributed across the Persian Gulf region.

The paper sold 6,000 copies in 1975.{{cite thesis|author=Bilal Ahmad Kutty|title=Saudi Arabia under King Faisal|degree=PhD|year=1997

Bans and arrests

Although the daily is described as pro-government it has experienced suspensions and arrests of its correspondents. In 1982, one of its reporters was detained for two years. In May of the same year the paper was suspended by the Saudi government due to the fact that its literary supplement became popular among the progressive and leftist young writers who were close to the Communist Party in Saudi Arabia and the Socialist Action Party in the Arabian Peninsula (Hizb alʿamal al-ishtiraki fi al-jazira al-ʿarabiyya).{{cite journal|author=Toby Matthiesen|title=The Cold War and the Communist Party of Saudi Arabia, 1975–1991|journal=Journal of Cold War Studies

References

References

1. (2008). "Saudi Arabia. Media Market Description". World Association of Newspapers.
2. Andrew Leber. (2020). "Seek Fact From Texts: Saudi Media on China Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic". Asian Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies.
3. Sam Morris. (17 January 2012). "New Nomination List for 2012 Media Awards". The Next Century Foundation.
4. "Al Yaum Newspaper Saudi Arabia". Knowledge View.
5. Naomi Sakr. (2003). "Good Governance in the Middle East Oil Monarchies". Routledge Courzon.
6. (6 May 2013). "Al Yaum in Saudi Arabia books KBA Continent extension". WAN IFRA.
7. "Al-Yaum in Saudi Arabia books KBA Continent extension". Koenig and Bauer Group.