The Saudi financial and economic news website Maaal.com is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Mutlaq Al-Buqami, a former business editor at the leading pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat in London, and its sister publication Eqtisadiyah, a dedicated business daily in Saudi Arabia, is the brains behind this project. Al-Buqami also served as the final editor of Shams (Sun), a short-lived Saudi tabloid that ran from 2005 to 2012.

In 2012, the death of print, with many newspapers and publishing houses blaming their closures on poor management rather than a failing industry and it was a combination of both. The demise of print as a medium is inevitable than ever because, because of COVID-19 in 2020.

Long before the pandemic, Al-Buqami, editor in chief of Maaal, predicted that business executives and investors will welcome information about their money and decision-making delivered quickly through computers or phones. With that in mind, he collaborated with his team and partners to launch Maaal.com (means "money" in Arabic). Al-Buqami saw what was coming to the publishing industry because it was his responsibility to analyze markets and patterns.

“Those in charge of conventional media delivery numbers and ads could predict the future and value of digital media at the time. The goal was to create a business title that "keep in track with Saudi Arabia's economic status.” he told Arab News.

According to Al-Buqami, the Maaal team discovered that the sector lacked specialized media, and what was available at that time either concentrated on the stock market only or did not put the economy at the core of their content.

Despite this strong vision, Al-Buqami acknowledged that the first few months after Maaal's launch in December 2012 were challenging. This was largely due to a reluctance to consider a “digital-first” approach. Traditional methods are no longer effective, and the target audience is no longer restricted to a specific geographical region. If a news organization does not build its base on that, it will fail.

We had to restructure the project and apply the criteria of consistency with the digital language and the target readers. By doing so, we were able to transform it from a failing project to stand on its own and break even.

But how does Maaal come up with the word "maaal"? Advertising is the primary source of revenue, according to Al-Buqami, but not the only one. Other sources of income include offering different media services to certain clients. I sincerely hope that the Saudi market will one day embrace paying clearly labeled advertisements similar to those found in major newspapers and global websites.

This isn't something that can be accomplished solely by the media outlet. It involves a mechanism that preserves intellectual property rights. I am hopeful that the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) will assist us and protect media items in the same way that they are protected elsewhere in the world, Al-Buqami adds.

Citations and being quoted in major media outlets are significant KPIs for Al-Buqami. “We were able to gain the confidence of international news agencies, television networks, and other media outlets before we became Saudi Arabia's leading economic news source. Our news is widely circulated in the international press. A story published by Maaal is shared by more than 300 media outlets within hours of its release, from China in the east to America in the west, and across Asia, Europe, and Africa.”

Despite having spent the majority of his career as a business journalist, Al-Buqami believes many problems are impacting Saudi business journalism.

He expresses his concern about online media's general disregard for intellectual property rights and that must be stopped.

Another factor that affects business journalism is the involvement of part-time or non-specialized business journalists who lack a comprehensive understanding of economic issues. To advance, the Ministry of Communications, the General Commission for Audiovisual Media (GCAM), and the SAIP must work together to create an atmosphere that fosters innovation and excellence by first securing intellectual property rights, then establishing institutional standards for the elimination of media outlets that recycle what others print and increase training to develop talents.