The Omani press is trained and equipped to respond to rapid developments in media and communications at international level. It is equally conscious of its mission to fulfil the demand for real and relevant news by the Omani public, while providing a forum for the open discussion of citizen concerns. The press in Oman is wholly owned by the private sector, with the exception of the Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising. The work of the Sultanate’s press organisations is regulated, as are the procedures for publishing a newspaper, establishing a publishing house, printing press or advertising company, by means of the Press and Publications Law, which was amended by Royal Decree No 87/2004. Newspapers, magazines and media establishments should be owned by Omani nationals.
The Sultanate publishes a fleet of newspapers, magazines and bulletins, daily, weekly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, half-yearly and yearly, in addition to free magazines, responding to ever more sophisticated demand from a fast-evolving society with fast-evolving concerns. In addition ministries and agencies also publish magazines or publications concerned with their own activities or special interest matters. Oman’s Arabic-language dailies are “Oman”, “Al Watan”, “Al Shabiba”, “Azzaman”, and “Al Ruwaya”. There are also four English language dailies, the “Oman Daily Observer”, “Times of Oman”, “Oman Tribune” and “Muscat Daily”. In addition, several tabloid format weeklies dominated by entertainment, sport and advertising themes are delivered free of charge with their parent newspapers or distributed individually.
Oman Establishment for Press, Publication & Advertising
The Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising (OEPPA) is the Sultanate’s largest news organisation, both in terms of its human and technical resources and of its publication output. It is a constantly developing enterprise and is a pioneering force operating at the very forefront of journalism, as well as in all branches of the print media.This exceptional performance by the OEPPA has been rewarded by higher readership figures across its list of publications, including daily newspapers, monthly and quarterly magazines, despite strong competition from other print publications and, increasingly, electronic and satellite media and 24/7 radio broadcasts. “Nizwa” magazine, the quarterly issued by OEPPA, held its leadership position in the pantheon of Arab cultural publications, with overseas distribution accounting for 88% of all sales. It continues to print and distribute its free supplement on Omani culture with every edition of the magazine.
The Omani Press
(The Sultanate’s Journalism Experience)
Omani journalism experience spans two distinctly separate eras: The first was in East Africa from 1911 to 1964 and the second from the start of the Sultanate’s modern renaissance in 1970.
Omani Journalism in Zanzibar
The Omani people’s relationship with journalism dates back to the time of establishment of the first printing press in Zanzibar, named as the Royal Printing Press, and that happened during the reign of Sultan Barghash Bin Said Bin Sultan (1870-1888). Sources differ as to the origin of this printing press. Some sources indicate that the Royal Press was procured with its full set of accessories from the Jesuit Fathers Printing Press of Beirut, while other sources point to other destinations in India, Britain and Syria, around 1872.
The Omani journalism experience was also linked to the foundation of the first Omani Arabic Association in Zanzibar and East Africa in 1908, during the reign of Sultan Ali Bin Hamoud (1902-1911). The Omani press contributed to the objectives of the Association and lent it media support. That time, newspapers played an ‘acculturating’ role along political, social, economic and intellectual parameters, making the Omani Arabic Association in touch with the contemporary Arabic thought in a variety of countries, including Syria, Egypt, Algeria, Iraq and Lebanon.
Omani Press in motherland Oman
The era began upon the issuance of Al-Watan daily on the 28th of January 1971 by the newspaper’s founder Nasr bin Mohammed Al-Ta’ee. Al-Watan was the first newspaper to be issued in the Sultanate of Oman. As part of preliminary efforts to found Al-Watan daily, a stencil-print press release was circulated as a limited-scale journal produced by Petroleum Development Oman company in 1968. This was of course not up-to-standard with contemporary journalism practice. Yet, this effort inspired the establishment of government-owned Oman daily in 1972. The decades-old success of standard dailies of Oman and Al-Watan inspired to the establishment of Al-Shabiba daily in 1993 and Al-Roya daily in 2010.
Arabic Dailies:
Five Arabic daily newspapers are published in the Sultanate of Oman, as follows:
Al-Watan Daily (In 1971)
Al-Watan daily was Oman’s first Arabic newspaper. First published on January 28, 1971, Al-Watan, a product of Oman Press, Publication and Printing Estabishment, has been the first daily to keep pace with the march of Oman’s modern renaissance under the leadership of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos.
Al-Watan appeared in more than one Arabic capital. In the beginning of the 1970s, Al-Watan appeared in Beirut. Its publication in Egypt, Cairo, coincided with the Lebanese Civil War. Then, it appeared in Kuwait in 1974 and later moved to motherland Oman in 1976, when the country witnessed the emergence of printing press houses. In the Sultanate, Al-Watan was published in International Printing Press and at the printing press of Oman daily, till such at time that it managed to set up its private printing press in 1988. Later, Al-Watan moved to its own building.
Oman Daily (1972)
Oman daily was the first Arabic government-owned newspaper. Its first issue appeared on November 18, 1972 to mark the Sultanate’s second National Day. It first appeared as a weekly daily for a temporary period and, by the 18th of November 1975, it became a half-weekly and it appeared on Saturdays and Tuesdays as a journal that monitored major events that occurred in the country.
Oman daily continued to appear twice a week till the promulgation of Royal Decree No. 49/1980 on the establishment of Oman Newspaper House on May 29, 1980, which set the date for Oman to appear on a daily basis (except Fridays). By 1984, Oman became a full daily publication, except in two days every year—on Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al-Ad’ha.
In 1985, the newspaper increased the number of its pages and added supplements for the first time, one on Wilayats activities (on Mondays), another known as the Cultural Supplement (on Thursdays), a third as the Business Supplement (on Saturdays) and a fourth, family affairs supplement, known as Ostraty (on Tuesdays).
On the 25th of June 1997, a Royal Decree (43/97) was issued on the establishment of Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising (OEPPA) as a financially and administratively autonomous institution. This gave a strong push to OEPPA to act as a well-qualified, composite and pioneering media establishment that housed two major government-owned dailies, which are Oman Arabic daily and Oman Daily Observer, the latter being the first-ever English daily to have appeared in the Sultanate since 1981.
OEPPA moved to its new building in 1999 and the premises housed the latest press and printing equipment, including computer networks, and a wide base of reporters, correspondents and freelancers within the Sultanate and abroad.
Al Shabiba Daily (1993)
Al Shabiba first appeared as a daily Arabic newspaper on January 2, 1993 and it became specialized in youth and sports affairs. Actually, it coincided by His Majesty’s designation of 1993 as a Year of Youth. Its grass root publication was a magazine (on June 4, 1990), having the same name, that became a mouthpiece addressing Arab Gulf youth. This magazine continued to appear on a weekly basis for 75 weeks. It stopped appearing on December 18, 1991 and reappeared later as a full-fledged daily that met the expectations of youth by specializing in sports, cultural and technical talents.
Al Roya Daily (2009)
Al-Royal newspaper first appeared on December 23, 2009. It is a business daily published by Al-Roya Press and Publication Establishment. It is a comprehensive daily newspaper published from Saturday to Thursday (Friday being a day-off). It covers all areas of business in the Omani arena, particularly finance and entrepreneurship, besides covering daily interests and matters of concern to Omani citizens.
English Dailies:
Three English dailies are published in the Sultanate. They are the Oman Daily Observer, the Times of Oman and Muscat Daily.
Oman Observer:
The longest-running and most respected English-language daily newspaper in the Sultanate of Oman.Established in November 1981, Oman Observer covers local, national, regional, and international news paying special attention to Oman’s economic development, highlighting the country’s natural, historical and cultural wealth.
Editor-in-Chief: Abdullah bin Salim al Shueili
Head Office
Tel: 24649444,
http://www.omanobserver.om/category/local/
Times of Oman:
Times of Oman is the oldest and the leading English daily newspaper in Oman. The paper consists of a printed daily broadsheet and an online version, which provides its readers with the latest news from Oman, the Middle East, Asia and the world. The newspaper contains 52 pages of politics, sports, finance and culture and has a wide readership in Oman and abroad. Times of Oman was the first newspaper in the Sultanate to have an online e-paper edition. Times of Oman has an overarching goal of providing reliable news along with information and entertainment.
http://timesofoman.com/
Muscat Daily:
Launched on October 10, 2009, Muscat Daily is today the largest selling newspaper in the Sultanate of Oman. Muscatdaily.com is the online version of the 28-page daily broadsheet that is published by Oman’s top publishing house, Apex Press and Publishing, and is meant for those who want to follow the latest news about Oman online.
Muscat Daily changed the newspaper industry in a country where the existing papers did not cover political or crime news as well as sensitive regional news. Our belief in the importance of local news has paid off as we rocketed from the fourth English daily newspaper in the country at the time of launch to the No. 1 position in less than a year – possibly a world first for any market.
Omani journals (magazines, pamphlets, circulars)
The Omani journalism experience witnessed the discontinuation of some pioneering Omani journals that spearheaded the press march. These included the magazines of Al Aqeeda, Al Ghadeer, Al Siraj and Al Wahei. The first issue of Al Aqeeda appeared on October 23, 1970 and it was political and intellectual monthly published by Said Samhan Al Katheeri. It was first published in private printing presses within the Sultanate and abroad before it established its own printing press in 1976. The magazine stopped being published in the 1990s.
The monthly magazine Al Ghadeer was published by Al Mudhairib Club to provide cultural, literary, technical, social and sports news. Its first issue appeared on November 18, 1977. It was a mouthpiece for the Club’s youth. It ceased to appear after its 77th issue in June 1984.
As for Al Wahei, it was a monthly magazine published by the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs between Novemb3r 1975 and January 1979. Its first issues were published in Al Ru’aidi Printing Press in Beirut, then at Sawt Al Khaleej Printing Press in Kuwait, before being published in Oman in 1976, with its 8th issue emerging from International Printers in Ruwi.
Al Siraj, a literary magazine, was first published on November 15, 1975 by Salim bin Mohammed Al Ghailani at his “Al Siraj Printing, Publishing and Distribution House”. Its first issue was published at Sawt Al Khaleej in Kuwait and its 7th issue came out in 1977, but it stopped and reappared in January 1992 and ceased to appear finally in 1998.
By 2003, a new trend, that of free-of-charge magazines, emerged in the press domain in Oman, with a variety of weeklies being distributed to Arabic and English readers.
The Press Club & Omani Journalist Association
The Press Club was set up in 1998 under Royal Decree No. 88/98 with the prime aim of sponsoring the welfare and rights of journalists and media personnel, representing them in institutions and conferences abroad and organising events that seek to promote the performance of journalism and media action. The Press Club also strove to spread awareness among its members.
In 2007, another Royal decree, No. 106/2007, cancelled the Press Club and returned its fund and assets to the Ministry of Information. Then, in 2004, Omani Journalist Association was established as a private society aimed to foster the aspirations of journalists and encourage them to master journalism, both through training and through action and cooperation with counterpart organisations in other countries.
Free journals
When, in 2003, a wave of free-of-charge publications hit the market, a cluster of journals spearheaded competition among press establishments, including English weekly magazine The Week, published by Apex Publishing in 2003 (specialized in local, business, tourism, health affaris and nature) and Arabic medium Futoon, published by OEPPA in 2005 (operated under the theme “Truth for A Better Future”. Later three more free weeklies appeared: They were Al-Osboo (Arabic), published by Apex Publishing in 2006, Al Mala’ib (Arabic), a specialised sports journal covering the Arab world, published in 2009 and was published by Oman Press and Publishing Establishment. Later, Al-Yom Al Saabei (the 7th day) was first published by Muscat Press, Publishing and Distribution House on March 18, 2006. In addition, two English weeklies were published and distributed free-of-charge: They were Hi, produced by Muscat Press, Publishing and Distribution House and Y, published by Sabco Press and Publishing Establishment.
Other free journals include Koora, a sports pamphlet published in 2010 by Sabco and a variety of free advertising journals, like Al Waseet, Zidnee, Eilanak and Al Bawaba, that were published in 2008 by different establishments.