Saudi Gazette report

LONDON — The first issue of How To Spend It Arabic magazine was launched in the presence of several dignitaries in a colorful event held at Dartmouth House here on Tuesday. The magazine is the Arabic-language edition of The Financial Times’ luxury monthly magazine How To Spend It.

Othman Al-Omeir, publisher and editor-in-chief of Elaph and publisher of How To Spend It Arabic, welcomed the audience, saying, “I am happy to welcome you all this evening, and I am proud of this audience. I would like to thank The Financial Times and How To Spend It for their support of our new partnership, and we are very much enthusiastic to work with you all.”

“I believe that this special journalistic enterprise will succeed because it is different from any other publication as it combines two languages. I am very much proud of the efforts made by the teams of The Financial Times, How To Spend It and Elaph, to make this special project come into being,” Al-Omeir added.

Alec Russel, editor of FT Weekend, hailed the project, describing How To Spend It as the best magazine dealing with luxury. “Expanding into an additional language is exciting,” he said, while shedding light on the magazine’s success and the horizons of addressing new readers.

Jo Ellison, editor of How To Spend It, said quick economic development in the Gulf markets “makes us reconsider our concepts about luxury markets and consumer markets, especially as the Gulf States have become key tourist destinations.”

“When we started talking about the Arabic-language edition, I was excited by the capabilities and by the idea of working in some sort of dialogue with a different editorial team producing authentic content. It is an international project par excellence as the editorial team works between London, Beirut, Dubai, Cairo, Casablanca and other cities,” she added.

In a special video shown at the event about the preparations and efforts made to produce the new publication, Samar Abdul Malik, editor of How To Spend It Arabic, said, “this publication sheds light on the world of luxury, on everything related to luxurious lifestyle, in both the Middle East and North Africa and the rest of the world.”

“This publication offers the reader unique content, created with high professionalism, and combines the unique style of the extraordinary English-language How To Spend It and domestic stories that we will produce. Since its first issue, which we are celebrating today, it will lead the landscape of Arab luxury journalism,” she added.

Nicholas Claxton, chief operating officer at Elaph, said the agreement between Elaph and The Financial Times to issue How To Spend It Arabic does not only provide for translating English content for the Arab reader “but also for Elaph’s production of original content for our readers to get acquainted with the happenings in the Middle East and North Africa and for producing the publication in print and online on a monthly basis.”

“Elaph sees its new partnership with The Financial Times’s How To Spend It a regional journalistic game-changer editorially and commercially. The Middle East witnesses today one of the fastest growth rates in the world in both the number of millionaires and digital content,” he added.

Claxton said the first issue of How To Spend It Arabic would be available on Oct. 1 in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar and later in Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Morocco. He also announced that the website, howtospenditarabic.com, started operating on Tuesday.

The new publication, which comes into being under an agreement signed by Elaph and The Financial Times in June 2021, is a visionary project in the world of modern luxury journalism and provides readers in the Middle East and North Africa, for the first time, with an Arabic-language edition of How To Spend It.

The edition includes content translated from the original magazine and content, articles and interviews prepared by Elaph’s network of professional correspondents around the Arab world, the Middle East and North Africa.

It addresses an elitist Arab audience interested in following up contemporary luxuries and opens the door for them about novelties in luxurious lifestyle. The content of How To Spend It Arabic is unique in the Arab world, being specialized in contemporary luxuries, and is line with Elaph’s conviction that specialized Arab media must be boosted and given a chance to establish themselves.

How to Spend It Arabic is issued in the beginning of each month in London. It is printed by Les Imprimeries du Matin, which is part of Maroc Soir, a Moroccan media group. Advertisement, marketing for the Arabic-language edition is headed by Rosy Kashouh of IREP.