"Executives of Al Jazeera America (AJAM) held a meeting to tell their
employees that the company is terminating all news and digital operations in
the U.S., resulting in the loss of hundreds of jobs. The announcement marks
a stunning and rapid collapse of what, from the start, has been a towering
failure."
Glenn Greenwald. (photo: AP)
Al Jazeera America Terminates All TV and Digital Operations
By Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept
14 January 16
Executives of Al Jazeera America (AJAM) held a meeting at 2 p.m. Eastern
Time to tell their employees that the company is terminating all news and
digital operations in the U.S. as of April 2016, resulting in the loss of
hundreds of jobs. The announcement marks a stunning and rapid collapse of
what, from the start, has been a towering failure.
AJAM began when Al Jazeera purchased Current TV in late 2012 from founder Al
Gore for $500 million, and the channel launched six months later. From the
start, the project was beset with massive failures, from bitter internal
strife and employee discrimination lawsuits to minuscule ratings and
distribution failures. AJAM and Gore ended up in a protracted, embittered
lawsuit with one another. Ratings were so low as to be almost
unquantifiable; even by 2015, the network was averaging a tiny 30,000
viewers in prime-time and at some points had literally a zero rating in the
key 25-54 demographic.
From the start, employees complained vociferously that network executives
were paralyzed by fear, believing they had to avoid all hints of bias and
opinion in order to steer clear of what these executives regarded as the
lethal stench of the Al Jazeera brand for American audiences. This turned
much of the network into a diluted, extra-fearful version of CNN, which
itself has suffered from remarkably low ratings for years. AJAM journalists
typically blame one AJAM executive in particular, Ehab Al Shihabi, its
executive director of international operations. Al Shihabi, whose background
is in business and not journalism, was widely regarded as the prime author
of the network's identity problems and obsession with voiceless content.
A 2013 column in the Toronto Star by former Al Jazeera English chief Tony
Burman warned that "the Al Jazeera America project has the odor of potential
disaster." Burman cited a New York Times article that began: "While it has a
foreign name, the forthcoming Al Jazeera cable channel in the United States
wants to be American through and through." A NYT article from May on the
"turmoil" plaguing the network pronounced that "the station has been a
nonfactor in news." Rather than fill a market gap for strong-voiced
journalism with a focus on domestic counter-terrorism policy and the Middle
East, AJAM opted for the much safer - and ultimately futile - strategy of
trying to be an inoffensive, generic cable news network.
AJAM has been losing staggering sums of money from the start. That has
become increasingly untenable as the network's owner and funder, the
government of Qatar, is now economically struggling due to low oil prices.
The decision was made recently to terminate AJAM, which allows the network
to terminate all of its cumbersome distribution contracts with cable
companies, and re-launch its successful Al Jazeera English inside the U.S.
While AJAM has struggled with its television programming, its online
reporting and digital opinion sites have been successful, finding relatively
large audiences among American news consumers. Nonetheless, all of AJAM is
terminating, and both the TV and digital employees are expected to lose
their jobs.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Glenn Greenwald. (photo: AP)
https://theintercept.com/2016/01/13/al-jazeera-america-terminates-all-tv-and
-digital-operations/https://theintercept.com/2016/01/13/al-jazeera-america-t
erminates-all-tv-and-digital-operations/
Al Jazeera America Terminates All TV and Digital Operations
By Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept
14 January 16
xecutives of Al Jazeera America (AJAM) held a meeting at 2 p.m. Eastern
Time to tell their employees that the company is terminating all news and
digital operations in the U.S. as of April 2016, resulting in the loss of
hundreds of jobs. The announcement marks a stunning and rapid collapse of
what, from the start, has been a towering failure.
AJAM began when Al Jazeera purchased Current TV in late 2012 from founder Al
Gore for $500 million, and the channel launched six months later. From the
start, the project was beset with massive failures, from bitter internal
strife and employee discrimination lawsuits to minuscule ratings and
distribution failures. AJAM and Gore ended up in a protracted, embittered
lawsuit with one another. Ratings were so low as to be almost
unquantifiable; even by 2015, the network was averaging a tiny 30,000
viewers in prime-time and at some points had literally a zero rating in the
key 25-54 demographic.
From the start, employees complained vociferously that network executives
were paralyzed by fear, believing they had to avoid all hints of bias and
opinion in order to steer clear of what these executives regarded as the
lethal stench of the Al Jazeera brand for American audiences. This turned
much of the network into a diluted, extra-fearful version of CNN, which
itself has suffered from remarkably low ratings for years. AJAM journalists
typically blame one AJAM executive in particular, Ehab Al Shihabi, its
executive director of international operations. Al Shihabi, whose background
is in business and not journalism, was widely regarded as the prime author
of the network's identity problems and obsession with voiceless content.
A 2013 column in the Toronto Star by former Al Jazeera English chief Tony
Burman warned that "the Al Jazeera America project has the odor of potential
disaster." Burman cited a New York Times article that began: "While it has a
foreign name, the forthcoming Al Jazeera cable channel in the United States
wants to be American through and through." A NYT article from May on the
"turmoil" plaguing the network pronounced that "the station has been a
nonfactor in news." Rather than fill a market gap for strong-voiced
journalism with a focus on domestic counter-terrorism policy and the Middle
East, AJAM opted for the much safer - and ultimately futile - strategy of
trying to be an inoffensive, generic cable news network.
AJAM has been losing staggering sums of money from the start. That has
become increasingly untenable as the network's owner and funder, the
government of Qatar, is now economically struggling due to low oil prices.
The decision was made recently to terminate AJAM, which allows the network
to terminate all of its cumbersome distribution contracts with cable
companies, and re-launch its successful Al Jazeera English inside the U.S.
While AJAM has struggled with its television programming, its online
reporting and digital opinion sites have been successful, finding relatively
large audiences among American news consumers. Nonetheless, all of AJAM is
terminating, and both the TV and digital employees are expected to lose
their jobs.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
