Al Anwar

Al Anwar (Arabic: الانوار‎) (English translation: The Lights) is an Arabic daily newspaper published in Lebanon.^[1] It is one of the leading papers in the country.^[2][3]

History and profile

Al Anwar was launched by publishing house Dar Assayad in 1959.^[4][5][6] The publishing house also owns nine daily, weekly and monthly publications, including Assayad magazine.^[7][8] The founder of the daily was Said Freiha who was an advocate of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.^[7][9]

At its initial phase, Al Anwar had just eight pages.^[7] The daily launched its website in 1996.^[10] It is published in broadsheet format.^[11]

Orientation

Al Anwar claims that it reinforces the long-term stability and prosperity of Lebanon.^[12] It is described by BBC as an independent and centrist daily.^[13] It is further argued that the paper avoids aggressive reporting.^[14] However, during and after the Nasser era the paper had a pro-Egyptian stance.^[15] In the mid-1990s the paper was considered to have an Arab nationalist trend.^[16] In 2009, IREX, an international research board, regarded it as one of the advocates of the March 14 alliance.^[3]

Staff and content

The editor-in-chief of Al Anwar is Rafiq Khoury and its managing editor is Fouad Daaboul.^[12] Palestinian journalist and writer Ghassan Kanafani served in the editorial board of the paper from 1967 to 1969.^[17]

The daily covers both Lebanese and Arabic affairs.^[18] The last page of the daily includes sports and social news.^[12] Information technologies and news on cars are given in separate sections on Wednesdays and Mondays, respectively.^[12]

Following the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, the daily published three articles from 16 to 18 February 2005 the first two of which were written by editor-in-chief, Khoury.^[19] The last one was a commentary titled "The mentality of the paupers and a regime in coma" and was written by Rauf Shahuri.^[19] All articles condemned the assassination.^[19] In August 2013 the paper criticized the possible US-led intervention against Syria and stated the intervention would be like "Hollywood's action and horror movies".^[20]

Circulation and audience

In addition to its native readers in Lebanon, Al Anwar is read by officials, intellectuals and activists outside Lebanon.^[21] It is distributed in other Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the UAE.^[22]

In the 1980s Al Anwar had wide circulation in East Beirut.^[23] Its popularity in East Beirut continued until the 2000s.^[24] The circulation of the paper was 20,000 copies in 2003 and it was the fourth best selling Lebanese newspaper.^[11]

In a 2006 study carried out by Ipsos, it was found that Al Anwar had lower circulation in capital Beirut than other regions.^[25] In the capital the paper was the sixth among seven dailies, having daily circulation at 10.7%.^[25] However, it was the second daily with 12.6% in the Biqa region after Sada al-Balad which had 12.7% of the daily circulation.^[25] In Mount Lebanon Al Anwar was the fifth daily, having 38.4% of the daily circulation, whereas in southern Lebanon it was the third with 15.2% of the daily circulation.^[25]

Based on the data provided by the DAS research group the daily reported its average net daily sales in 2012 as 49.043 copies.^[22] The daily had a circulation of 6,003 copies in Europe in 2012.^[22] The same year the website of Al Anwar had 1.1 million hits and 63,010 visitors per month.^[22]

Awards

Al Anwar has been awarded by different bodies, including the UNESCO Prize for Social Reporting and Columbia University’s James Wechsler Award for best international reporting.^[12]

See also

List of newspapers in Lebanon

References