Al-Ahram Weekly Issue No. 242 12 - 18 October 1995
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

Reacting to the opposition

In March 1981, Mayo (May) was launched amid high aspirations, backed by the personal support of President Sadat. The mouthpiece of the NDP was named after what Sadat termed his May 1971 "Corrective Revolution". It was to become a strong competitor with well-established national newspapers, scoops, inside stories and a guest column by none other than the president himself. Critics, however, say the ruling party's mouthpiece has failed to come up to the expectations of its founders.

Sadat launched Mayo seven months before his assassination in October 1981. He envisaged it as a colossal publication, able to rival anything on the newsstands. His interest in the paper went beyond that expected of a political leader for his party's mouthpiece. He was intent on adding his own touch to distinguish Mayo from other publications - through his weekly column entitled Araft Ha'ola' (I knew those people), and as a newsmaker, providing scoops and exclusives.

"With the president as our star columnist and provider of news, no other paper had a chance," reminisces Abdallah Abdel-Bari, chairman of NDP publications, which includes Mayo.

But when Hosni Mubarak took over, political liberalisation was expanded and other party newspapers begasn to appear, luring readers by heaping criticism on the government. "We did not stand a chance after that because we did not criticise the government; the president was no longer our columnist, and Mayo no longer had exclusive stories," Abdel-Bari recalled. "Now all we do is react to the opposition press, which of course does not give a newspaper any substance." The chairman was quick to add, however, that efforts are being exerted to breathe new life into Mayo.

According to Khalil Sabbat, professor of journalism at Cairo University, Mayo has three major deficiencies: it lacks a full-time editor devoted solely to the aper; has a naive style of writing reminiscent of the much-criticised opposition press; and its contents are lacking in substantial news. "All Mayo does is react to the opposition," Sabbat said, "which does not warrant a newspaper".

Sabbat believes that Mayo's function should not be to praise and defend the NDP, but to discuss issues in a rational, credible manner. Its board chairman acknowledges that currently the newspaper only reacts to criticism of the government or NDP figures. "Our role is reduced to reacting to opposition, because we lack all the factors which distinguished us in the past," Abdel-Bari said.

Only a handful of the 65 Mayo reporters are members of the NDP. Most are unhappy with their working conditions, complaining that they have no offices, and work out of one ill-equipped room in Al-Gomhouriya and another in Al-Ahram newspaper, or from home. The paper's official offices are in a villa in Zamalek, but reporters say that they only go there to pick up their pay. They also object to reporters from Al-Gomhouriya and Al-Massa, which share the same pubisher as Mayo, being assigned most of the work. Abdel-Bari admitted that there is a dependency on Al-Massa reporters, who account for more than half of the working staff.

Although Mayo has been licensed as a daily newspaper since its launch, it nevertheless continues to come out only once a week. The only exception is during election periods when the paper sometimes comes out daily.

According to Abdel-Bari, Mayo was earmarked for a circulation of half a million at its inception, but began with 200,000. "For the next few issues our circulation doubled and tripled until it levelled off at 750,000," Abdel-Bari said. "A number which we hadn't dreamed of." Now, however, official estimates stand at 75,000.

Sabbat suggests that the NDP needs to sit down and discuss its paper's needs, like a fulltime chief editor who does not have other journalistic duties. Finding an editor-in-chief who is willing to put in the time and effort needed to produce a presentable newspaper has always been a problem for Mayo. Since its first edition in 1981, Mayo's editors-in-chief were national newspaper journalists like Al-Akhbar's Ibrahim Se'da (1981-82, 1984-89), Ahmed Sabri Abul-Magd (1982-1984), Al-Ahram's Anis Mansour (1989-92) and currently Samir Ragab, board chairman of Al-Tahrir publishing house which puts out Al-Gomhouriya and Al-Massa, of which he is also the chief editor, along with Mayo. Ragab also prints and distributes Mayo through Al-Tahrir. "It is more practical for the chief editor to run Mayo from where he works," Abdel-Bari commented.

While Sabbat argues that since the NDP "is politically comfortable, with a majority in parliament," it should take time to develop its mouthpiece and "address the public in an intelligent manner", Abdel-Bari says that Mayo's current top priority is to complete its own printing complex in the 6th of October City. The Mayo printing house was to be a gigantic printing and publishing centre, like those of Al-Ahram and Al-Akhbar. The foundations were laid down in the 6th of October City a week before the first issue was published in 1981, but there has been little progress since then.

While waiting for its printing complex to be completed, Mayo was first printed and distributed by Al-Ahram organisation and its advertising was also managed by Al-Ahram, an arrangement which continued until 1992 when its current chief editor Samir Ragab took up his post, and production switched to Al-Tahrir.

ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription

WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg

Al-Ahram Organisation