Amdist a larger print journalism crisis, Rose Al Yusuf – the oldest Egyptian magazine founded in 1925 –ceased publication in mid-June.
The magazine’s downfall began when employees staged a strike this past May, holding the editorial staff responsible for the financial losses incurred by the institution that publishes it – previously a stronghold for leftists before turning over the past few years to fighting the Islamists in power – and demanding its change.
Amdist a larger print journalism crisis, Rose Al Yusuf – the oldest Egyptian magazine founded in 1925 –ceased publication in mid-June.
The magazine’s downfall began when employees staged a strike this past May, holding the editorial staff responsible for the financial losses incurred by the institution that publishes it – previously a stronghold for leftists before turning over the past few years to fighting the Islamists in power – and demanding its change.
Columnist and military analyst at Rose Al Yusuf, Fatma Sayed Ahmad, blamed Brotherhood infiltration, accusing the workers of being regime agents because they, for the first time, turned off the machines and stopped all operations completely. Sayed claimed that some journalists were surprised to hear protestors and strikers loudly demanding a management staff from outside the magazine, while some workers specifically asked for journalist Qutb al-Arabi, a Brotherhood member, to be the institution’s chairman.
Rose Al Yusruf’s closing comes at the peak of a larger crisis in the state-owned newspaper industry. With debts of L.E. 10 billion ( US $1,424,000,000), according to the press freedom observatory of the New World for Development and Human Rights Foundation, Egyptian newspapers, which were nationalized by Abdul Nasser in 1960 in the name of the Egyptian people, are facing an ambiguous fate after being overwhelmed by debts and declining reading rates.
Workers between two eras
The Rose Al Yusuf institution, which publishes a daily newspaper and a weekly magazine with the same name, in addition to a weekly social magazine entitled Sabah El Kher, has accumulated debts of L.E. 300 million (US $42,700,000). In recent years, it was associated with Mubarak’s son bequest issue through the editorial policy of its Editor-in-chief Abdullah Kamal, who was a member in the dissolved National Party’s Policy Committee.
A worker, says Ahmad, literally said: “I do not care who runs it or how he runs it, I only care about receiving my salary.” She suggests that during the era of Rose Al Yusuf founder Fatma Al Yusuf, workers used to spend their own money to ensure that publication continued during financial crises, but things are different now. She believes that the current leadership of the institution is a main reason behind the crisis because of its failure to inject a steadfastness spirit into the editors and workers.
The other victims
On June 18th, Sabah El Kher magazine ceased publication and a little later the daily newspaper followed suit. A few days later, Rose Al Yusuf, the magazine which was a witness of Egypt’s political transformations throughout its long history also ceased publication.
Shawqi Issam, a spokesman for the institution’s journalists who joined the magazine when it was first launched years ago says what is going on is a compulsory Ikhwanization of the institution and a settling of old scores given that Rose Al Yusuf publications have yet to go on board the Ikhwanization train.
He underlines that certain Brotherhood leaders in the Shura Council, such as Fathi Shihab Eddine, said the council would not pay money to support an institution attacking the Brotherhood. Shihab Eddine however refused to communicate with us despite many attempts.
Rose Al Yusuf magazine prints 12,000 copies every week, but its circulation remains a secret given that government departments are the main subscribers. With a narrow advertising market and fierce competition from private newspapers and visual media, it seems that Rose Al Yusuf which employs 1,500 workers and journalists has become a tremendous burden.
The sale of state-owned institutions is very difficult given their complicated legal status and also because they are affiliated with Egyptian Shura Council, which requires fundamental legal amendments.
However, accusing a low-circulation newspaper of antagonizing the Brotherhood contradicts the fact that the circulation of private newspapers hostile to them, such as El Watan and Al Masri Al Youm, is on the rise.
Incomplete acknowledgment of failure
The bad condition of Hawaa Magazine – published by Dar El Hilal, the largest loss-making state-owned institution with debts of L.E. 350 million (US $4,900,000) – shows that the economic factor dictating the management of these assets under such a corrupt background has unjustly made these institutions’ mission at the mercy of government financial assistance.
Associate editor of Hawaa Magazine Majida Mahmoud underlines that the crisis is caused by two factors: an internal factor manifested in the failure of current executives of southern institutions (a term referring to the largest loss-making state-owned newspapers in Egypt in contrast to the rich and profitable northern newspapers such as Al Ahram, Al Akhbar and Al Gomhuria) to provide good management capable of utilizing the potentials and assets of these institutions and enable them to compete strongly with privately-owned newspapers on the stands.
The second factor is an external one manifested in the Brotherhood’s insistence to punish state-owned newspapers, which used to criticize them before the revolution and which have been outspokenly against attempts to Ikhwanize them ever since the presidential elections.
Mahmoud believes that the solution lies in creating a national press council to enable the editors of these institutions to be the ones who have the best interest in making those newspapers survive and attract readers once again regardless of the person occupying the presidential palace.
Only assets can solve the crisis
Before Rose Al Yusuf, Hawaa ceased publication twice in less than a year due to worker protests; the first time was in August 2012 while the second was in February 2013. In the second time, Al-Musawar magazine, Dar El Hilal’s most famous product, ceased publication for the first time since 1924. Remarkably, the media attention towards ceasing publication is only linked to workers’ blocking of roads.
Is what is going on in all these state-owned institutions the result of accumulated financial crises? Or is the issue more serious than that?
Syndicate of Journalists council member Khaled Balshi gives preference to the second assumption, underling that these institutions have enough real estate assets to pay most of their debts if a serious debt rescheduling program is launched to revive the aforesaid publications, but no one wants to build because demolition seems an easier option.
Balshi suggests that the syndicate’s role will only be effective when all journalists join forces because it has no jurisdictions over state-owned institutions and only the Shura Council, whose legitimacy is already under question according to the latest constitutional court ruling, has this jurisdiction.
The crisis is bigger than the Ikhwanization allegations
The High Press Council formed by the Brotherhood-dominated Shura Council is still watching the situation from a distance. Its secretary-general Mohammed Najm says the crisis is financial, refuting the accusations of deliberately shutting down state-owned press institutions and stressing that his council is doing everything it could to enable the troubled newspapers to pay the basic salaries of their workers and that it provided Rose Al Yusuf with nearly L.E. 2 million (US $285,000) with a financial assistance.
Najm points out that radical solutions are still far off because they first require restructuring these institutions and paying their debts. He denies that his council plays a role in the Ikhwanization rumors circulated by journalists and workers.
