Smart, factual and independent news from the Arab Gulf states
I left a safe faculty job teaching journalism at Northwestern University’s campus in Qatar and started building a news venture to keep professionals informed about the major changes shaking the Arab Gulf states.
After nearly 15 years living and working in the Gulf region I know that intelligent — and busy — professionals are struggling to keep pace with the transformation of the Gulf States. None of the existing news outlets adequately serve them.
- Regional reporting is too ideological to trust, while international coverage is inconsistent and impossible to access in one place.
- Poor writing and bad design frustrate readers’ attempts to get to the point.
- Social platforms are abuzz with harmful misinformation and rumours that trustworthy journalists rarely tackle.
Liftoff
In December 2020 I launched Connect the Gulf, an email newsletter designed to inform, analyze and explain the most important stories shaping the Gulf region — and to do so in about five minutes, saving readers time.
Connect the Gulf is a compact read that keeps readers informed across the region’s essential topics: politics, diplomacy, security, defence, economics, business, the future of energy, health, society and culture, human rights and more
Landing in inboxes on Wednesday mornings, I have carefully designed a newsletter that features:
- Clear writing — We get to the point, showing why each story matters and utilising a structure that helps readers move quickly through the email.
- Facts — Unbiased, fact-checked reporting readers can trust. Our reporting or news judgement will never be influenced by governments, potential advertisers or investors.
- Audience first — Everyone is busy. We make it worth their time, giving plenty of opportunities to dive deeper.
Since launch, I am impressed at how organically the newsletter audience has grown — and there are signs that personal and professional referrals will be a key driver of audience growth.
A global niche
The Gulf is home to about 54 million people, spread across 13 major cities with populations ranging in size from 1.5 million (Muscat, Oman) to about 7 million (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia).
Each of those 13 cities contains a large, niche audience of modern, busy, professionals who need information they can trust about this region, which includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Yemen.
By the numbers:
- 25–35 million — the Middle East’s estimated English language users, many of whom live in the Gulf, where English is the lingua franca of business and education.
- 3.5 million — university-educated professional expatriates live in the Gulf.
- 200,000+ — Gulf nationals graduated from Western universities in the last decade and have returned to the Gulf to assume key roles.
🇺🇸🇬🇧 There are also pockets of readers in key cities linked to the Gulf like Houston, Washington, London, Beirut, Cairo, Mumbai and Singapore.
Why now?
🛢️ The COVID era of low oil prices and the long-term shift away from fossil fuels is shaking the stability of the Arabian Peninsula. At stake is the region’s longtime geopolitical role — and the fundamentals of an economy built on oil.
- Saudi Arabia hangs on as a linchpin of Western foreign policy. But, its young crown prince is striving to introduce overdue reforms amid the greatest economic challenges in the Kingdom’s history.
- The United Arab Emirates waits in the wings. Flush with a $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the UAE has amassed the region’s mightiest military and consolidated its status as the Arab World’s financial hub.
- Iran remains at odds with Washington’s Arab allies as the Biden administration prepares to reengage with Teheran.
- In Yemen, the world’s worst humanitarian crisis continues, the result of a six year long war between Iranian-aligned Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition.
- Meanwhile, independent-minded Qatar draws on its gas wealth to prepare to host the first World Cup in the Middle East while Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman struggle to balance their books.
Native advertising and sponsorship
Distracting pop-ups and annoying banners dominate digital advertising in the Gulf region — hardly the best way to communicate to smart, professional audiences
- I want to work with advertisers to develop ways to really reach a regional, professional audience with native advertising within our newsletters and opportunities for sponsorship.
Similar approaches have been successful in other parts of the world, most notably by Axios, Morning Brew and the Skimm in the United States.
Next steps
Technology: Build a more versatile newsletter architecture that allows readers to share content from the newsletter seamlessly onto social networks and other platforms, like WhatsApp, which is especially important in the Gulf.
Journalism: Later this year, I plan to begin publishing Connect the Gulf three times per week. I also hope to build up a small team of contributors to help enhance the file with even more standout data visualizations and exclusive enterprise journalism.
Since January, I have been experimenting with Gulf Traveller, a Friday edition of Connect the Gulf that focuses solely on travel.
- The Gulf Traveller audience feedback has been overwhelming with a 60% open rate for a newsletter that lands on a weekend morning. I believe there is scope to spin off Gulf Traveller as its own newsletter vertical to serves globetrotting Gulf residents with a meaningful travel journalism product built for them.
Additionally, there are likely to be opportunities to develop and scale additional standalone newsletters that are linked to Connect the Gulf. Some possibilities include: the future of energy, defense and security, Education and more.
Andrew Mills has taught journalism and media innovation at Northwestern University’s campus in Qatar, which he helped to establish. Originally from Canada, he has worked as a journalist in the Gulf Region and across the Middle East since 2006. He lives in Doha, Qatar with his family. Reach him by email at andrew@connectthegulf.co
