Launching Arabic news site, Al Taghyeer, on World Press Freedom Day with Newscoop
Salem aleikum Newscoop 4.2
In February 2013 Sourcefabric was approached by a group of Sudanese journalists regarding the possibility to create an all-arabic news site with Newscoop - and have it launch by May 3rd on World Press Freedom Day! As work on our first arabic language project, Yemen's Women Power, was well underway, we agreed to take on the challenge. Soon after, we started with the concept and design work of what would eventually become Al Taghyeer.
Journalistic standards meet contemporary readability
We decided to keep Al Taghyeer's layout in accordance with the stylistic and journalistic standards in North Africa by putting the emphasis on a text-heavy design. However, we maintained a structural clarity, that hopefully enhances the overall readability and gives Al Taghyeer a contemporary edge over their peers and competitors.
Training in Cairo
Next up was a week of training the editorial team in Cairo. Although this was the first time they worked with an online CMS, the Sudanese journalists quickly took to Newscoop and immediately understood the many options our tools were offering them. Also, it turned out, writing, editing and publishing articles with Arabic characters was just as easy and straight forward with Newscoop as it is with western letters. In fact, the journalists would regularly switch between Arabic and Western characters while writing articles. Newscoop provides that possibility too.
Going live on World Press Freedom Day
As promised, Al Taghyeer went online on May 3rd and immediately made an impression as a free and independent voice in the political landscape of Sudan and the whole North African region. The small team in Khartoum is publishing a dozen articles daily and get's op-ed contributions from some of the country's most important intellectuals.
With the backend as well as the user manual now fully available in Arabic language, Newscoop 4.2 is finally an ideal online CMS choice for newspapers, journalists and editors in the Arabic speaking world.
- Find out more about Newscoop 4.2, that was released this week!