Aiming to reduce financial loss and reach easy and quick online access to press, the Egyptian National Press Authority recently said that it has begun preparations to suspend some of the print newspapers and move towards digitisation.
According to the state-run Akhabr Al Youm newspaper, the plan to move toward ‘digitisation’ is targeting national newspapers through a huge project that will be implemented for the first time in cooperation with the ministry of communication.
The targeted newspapers and press institutions may include Al-Ahram, Al-Akhabr, Al-Jumhuriyah, Rose Al-Yusuf, and Dar Al-Maaref.
A statement from the Egyptian National Press Authority stated that the ‘digitisation’ strategy that is currently under preparation is followed by the most well-known global press institutions, which had suffered from financial crises and problems in distribution.
Regarding the details of the process, head of the Egyptian National Press Authority, Karam Gabr, asserted in an interview with Akhabr Al Youm that the main purpose of plan is not to suspend ‘printed’ press as rumoured, but to develop all paper issues, news portals, social media outlets and videos out from ‘printed’ press.
“Digitisation helps national press institutions to seek new resources to expand its distribution base and generate revenues.” he said.
Gabr noted that the execution of the plan will start through a number of training programmes that include three sectors: journalists, administrators, and workers, adding that another 10 training programmes will be presented.
