Middle East Lures Dow Jones, Vogue, Reuters as Economies Evolve

Dow Jones is expanding one office and opening two more in the Middle East as it increases news operations, sales functions and information services in the region. 

The company has outgrown its office in Dubai and will expand there and open one office each in Doha and Riyadh. It’s also added Middle Eastern executives to its c-suite membership programs, like CEO Council and CMO Network, and it’s seeing growing membership of leaders to its new WSJ Leadership Institute, an executive learning program. WSJ Tech Live, an annual event held in Laguna Beach, Calif., will also now be held each year for the next five in Qatar as of this year, according to an agreement with the government.

The Middle East has lured more than just Dow Jones. In January, Condé Nast held a celebration of the launch of four flagship brands—Vogue Arabia, GQ Middle East, Architectural Digest Middle East and Condé Nast Traveller Middle East—in a series of exclusive events in Dubai. This month, CNN said it is expanding to Qatar as part of a plan to “deepen its global and regional content creation capabilities.” Days after that announcement, Reuters said it would hold Reuters NEXT Gulf, its annual live leadership summit, in Abu Dhabi in October for the first time. And finally, Shoptalk, a retail event series, said earlier this year it would launch Shoptalk Luxe in Abu Dhabi.

“One of the reasons we’re seeing such an influx, not just from us but from others, is that the economies in the Gulf states are evolving pretty quickly,” Josh Stinchcomb, global chief revenue officer at Dow Jones for media and marketing, told AMO. “I can safely say that our expectations are that this region, across all of our products and services, will be the fastest growing region in terms of revenue, probably over the next three to five years.” 

He expects the current headcount in the region to double in the next 18 months.

So what’s happened that Middle Eastern economies are moving so quickly?

“They’re really looking to diversify the economy, and have been over the last 10 years,” said Jim Swallow, commercial director at Sovereign PPG Corporate Services, who has been in the region for 15 years helping companies set up shop. Swallow was speaking of Abu Dabhi specifically in this case but said it was true of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well. “They’re achieving that slowly.”

The region’s big focus on oil and gas has expanded to sectors like tech and healthcare, and it’s attracting a thriving community of expatriates, like Swallow and his family.

Diversifying the economy includes making it much, much easier to do business. Years ago, setting up a company in Abu Dhabi, for example, required that a local partner own 51% of it, particularly for events companies, which were heavily regulated, Swallow said. That obligation has been waived.

“Over time, they’ve liberated the company formation process to make it a lot easier,” Swallow told AMO. “Hand on heart, they’ve really been very progressive. They’ve embraced the capitalist, meritocratic system to allow businesses to come and thrive and to be competitive.” 

Douglas Emslie, deputy chairman of Jacobs Media, a UK-based b2b media and events company, told AMO last year that, “I’ve been going there for 17 years and it’s dramatically different today to it was then. You’re going to see undoubtedly — whether it’s a good thing or bad thing — there’s going to be a casino in the UAE … you’re going to undoubtedly see Saudi approve alcohol. It’s just a question of time.”

A couple of other things going for the region include the presence of UK courts in Dubai to resolve disputes and the use of blockchain in government processes, reducing costs and speeding up efficiency, as well as adding transparency, Swallow said. 

Dow Jones hopes to expand coverage in and of the region both for information services and surfacing local news for global leaders, Stinchcomb said. The company is already seeing an uptick in demand for its enterprise subscriptions and particularly for risk and compliance products.

“Anyone that’s involved in international trade or [has] complex supply chains needs some of these risk tools,” Stinchcomb said. 

Subscriber numbers from the Middle East, however, are low for now. 

“The dynamic today is, from a news perspective, more about coverage of the region for our audiences in primarily the U.S., and to some degree, Europe,” Stinchcomb said. How that might change and what coverage might look like ahead is under consideration, including the possibility of local language services.

Rival Bloomberg already has an active presence in the region, but Stinchcomb thinks there is still plenty of opportunity “to plant the flag.” 

“I don’t think there’s a dominant either sort of foreign based publisher who’s really established themselves as covering the region, for the region,” Stinchcomb said. “Some of the local entities are good, but I think there’s still opportunity for us to to bring business, finance news to the [Gulf Cooperation Council].”