Newsweek Pakistan
 Cover of the Nov. 22 & 29, 2010, issue | |
| Editor | Fasih Ahmed |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Iqbal Z. Ahmed |
| Year founded | 2010 |
| First issue | September 5, 2010 |
| Company | AG Publications |
| Country | Pakistan |
| Based in | Lahore |
| Language | English |
| Website | http://www.newsweekpakistan.com |
| ISSN | 2226-7492 |
Newsweek Pakistan is published by AG Publications, a company wholly owned by Associated Group (AG), under license from The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC. The licensing agreement with AG Publications follows similar publishing alliances for Newsweek editions. Newsweek's Asia Pacific edition, published in Hong Kong, has been available in Pakistan for over 50 years. Newsweek Pakistan replaced the Asia Pacific edition, and carries reportage, analysis and opinion on Pakistan in addition to the content featured in the international edition. The Pakistan edition draws upon both its own editorial staff and Newsweek’s international network of correspondents.
Fasih Ahmed, who has reported for the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek, is the editor of Newsweek Pakistan. Ahmed won a New York Press Club award in 2008 for Newsweek’s coverage of the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Newsweek Pakistan debuted on August 31, 2010.
First issue
The cover of Newsweek Pakistan's first issue, captioned "The World's Bravest Nation: Pakistan," showed a boy displaced by the 2010 summer floods in Pakistan, the worst natural disaster in the history of the country. The magazine donated net proceeds from the sale of this debut issue to the U.N.'s World Food Program.
The debut issue featured an exclusive interview with Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan,[1] and also included an article on Pakistan by Ron Moreau, author of the October 2007 Newsweek cover story, "The Most Dangerous Nation in the World is not Iraq. It's Pakistan."[2]
History
AG launched its first media enterprise, Newsweek Pakistan, in August 2010.
The country’s No. 1 weekly newsmagazine is produced by AG Publications under license from The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company, LLC, and is edited by Fasih Ahmed, who has written for The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek International, and who was the inaugural Daniel Pearl fellow. The debut issue featured Ahmed’s cover essay, “The World’s Bravest Nation,” which was also published online by Newsweek.
“Pakistan can only profit from a deeper understanding of its endearingly complicated self‚ from fresh‚ clear voices that cut through the din with patient competence,” Ahmed wrote in his first editor’s note. “Newsweek Pakistan will present the facts‚ and its arguments‚ vociferously‚ without caring for or pandering to the heedless herd. When we fail or falter‚ and we will‚ we shall be the first to set right our course.”
Some of the most important voices in Pakistan, and abroad, have written for Newsweek Pakistan. Among them: former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, highly regarded judicial activist and author Aitzaz Ahsan, ambassadors Sherry Rehman and Husain Haqqani, nuclear scientist A. Q. Khan, and former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark.
AG’s media companies include AG Publications, which produces Newsweek Pakistan; AG Castillo Media Limited, a London-incorporated joint venture with Brazil’s Castelo de Pedra which produced Newsweek for newsstands across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; AG TV, which is setting up Dais, an Urdu-language news channel affiliated with CNN; and AG Radio, which has licenses to set up FM stations in Abbottabad, Jamshoro, Karachi, and Murree. These three companies are wholly owned subsidiaries of AG Omnimedia.
Newsweek Pakistan was set up to inform debates and discussions about news and events in Pakistan—at home as well as abroad. Newsweek Pakistan works with its international partners to cover all the news that matters most. It is the country’s No. 1 newsmagazine, valued by opinion makers for its world-class reporting and analysis.
In order to retain editorial independence, Newsweek Pakistan does not accept government advertising and takes special care to highlight for its readers any actual or perceived conflicts of interest between its news coverage and its corporate interests. Newsweek Pakistan operates on the principle of fear- and favor-free journalism.
On Facebook and Twitter, Newsweek Pakistan provides real-time updates and alerts to over quarter million of its social media subscribers.
The newsmagazine has also hosted and sponsored events and seminars. On April 2, 2010, at Lahore, Newsweek Pakistan hosted an exclusive breakfast for Dr. Abdullah Gül, President of the Republic of Turkey with the Chief Minister of Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif.
Newsweek Pakistan has been widely praised for its editorial excellence:
Asif Ali Zardari, Former President of Pakistan: Newsweek Pakistan has demonstrated a commitment to establishing itself as a credible and authoritative source of news and views. I am confident that it will continue to make strides in quest of excellence and leave its mark in the competitive world of print media. The media profession demands from its practitioners constant vigilance and introspection and a conscious effort to meet the requirements of fairness, objectivity, and balance. Newsweek Pakistan has demonstrated a remarkable keenness to uphold high ethical standards of journalism. I wish it greater glory.
Nawaz Sharif, Prime minister of Pakistan: Newsweek Pakistan completing one year of publication in Pakistan is a heartening and unique milestone. The launching of an international news journal from Pakistan is a welcome step and will help local media learn from it. It also shows that Pakistani journalists enjoy the trust of their global colleagues. After 9/11, Pakistan has gained added importance. In this context, there is a need to sensitize the world about the intricate realities of a country worst hit by the war on terror. I hope Newsweek Pakistan continues with its objective, compelling, and incisive coverage.
Pervez Musharraf, former president of Pakistan: I have always had a firm belief in a vigorous, free media for Pakistan. Congratulations, therefore, to Newsweek Pakistan for completing one year of very successful news coverage. The magazine has served the cause of Pakistan very well through its fair, apolitical and unbiased projection of views. The tumultuous period that Pakistan is going through demands bold articulation of critical issues, and the exposing especially of terrorism and religious extremism in our society. I believe Newsweek Pakistan is bound to do well because there is never a boring or dull moment in our region. I wish it all success.
Imran Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman: My best wishes to Newsweek Pakistan’s team on the magazine’s first anniversary. They have created a niche for themselves in the country in a short span of time, and have done a good job in putting across the Pakistani perspective along with the international one. This is a positive step toward building a better understanding of Pakistan and promoting peace, human rights, and equitable international relations. I wish Newsweek Pakistan further success and am confident they will continue being objective and honest in their reporting.
“Our credo is to draw attention with reason, rationale and rigor to the challenges and opportunities facing one of the world’s most important countries,” says AG Chairman Iqbal Z. Ahmed. “Our media enterprises are necessary public services that will enrich the discourse.”
The newsmagazine’s advisory board comprises Qazi Shaukat Fareed, who has worked with the U.N. for over 20 years; Dr. Parvez Hassan, lawyer and environmentalist; Dr. Ayesha Jalal, professor of history at Tufts University; and David Walters, former governor of Oklahoma.
AG plans to bring the same quality of integrity and journalistic excellence that Newsweek Pakistan is widely regarded for to its upcoming Urdu-language news channel, Dais, CNN's only broadcast affiliate in the country.
References
2. "Where the Jihad Lives Now," by Ron Moreau. Newsweek; October 20, 2007. 3. 4.