29-Jul-2010Al Mada Establishment for Media Culture and Arts is embarking on an ambitious plan to capture a large share of the Iraqi media industry. This has been evident from the company’s recent investments in its newspaper division and plans to expand into television.
Ghada Al Amili, General Manager, Al Mada Newspaper, elaborated on the latest development in its newspaper business.
“In early 2009, Al Mada Establishment for Media, Culture & Arts decided to upgrade its entire design printing software with the most advance solutions available in order to keep up with the ongoing developments in modern printing technology. We started off by using the new publishing software Adobe Indesign CS4 to design and publish our daily newspaper and the magazines and publications issued by the foundation. We have also started using Adobe Illustrator CS4 to achieve high accuracy in creating logos and drawings and for designing and produce the publications.”
Al Mada currently uses Adobe Photoshop CS4 for editing graphic images- especially after the additional features applied to the software such as 3D Layers- as well as the ability to fully control the shapes created with 3D Max 2010. “We have also started using Adobe Incopy to improve text editing and to facilitate the process of art production,” Ghada said.
“In 2009, we started operating a
GOSS roll printer partially; the machine prints 24 pages of the newspaper, as well as its supplements. In the near future, we plan to employ the machine to its full potential to print another 20 pages, and we might integrate both parts and link the pages at the same time. We also hope to buy Offset printers in the future, to handle the printing of the magazines and commercial brands.”
The company recently installed a US-manufactured
Vutek 5330 large format printer, mainly for flex applications. “The
Vutek has features such as ‘
Vutek smoothing’ for distortion free output when printing images with heavy color saturation; printing on a wide variety of substrates, including vinyl, pressure-sensitive, paper, mesh and textiles; low friction kit that allows for difficult materials to be run more easily; printing up to 16.4 feet (5 meters) in width; up to 330 dpi resolution produces images that are sharp, crisp and consistent; and printing up to 2,230 square feet (207 square meters) per hour,” Ghada said.
Al Mada has been taking further steps to promote its services through events and roadshows. “We regularly organize events and activities such as Al Mada Educational Week; Al Mada Mornings; Nuhawer Workshops; Al Mada events in Al Mutanabi, and international and local book fairs. Recently, we launched the Arbil International Book Fair and Sulaimaniya International Book Fair, amongst other exhibitions across Iraq.”
Commenting on the company’s expansion plans, Ghada said, “We are currently working on setting up TV production studios. Also in the pipeline is a new satellite channel—Al Mada Satellite.”
Al Mada Establishment for Media Culture and Arts operates multiple media organizations such as Al Mada Newspaper; Dar Al Mada for Publishing & Distribution in Al Damascus; Al Mada Cultural and Arts House in Al Mutanabi; Al Mada Company for Publication Distribution; Al Mada Centre for Public Opinion Surveys; Al Mada Institute for Training & Development; Zamwa Marketing & Advertising; and a TV Production Company.
Supplements published with Al Mada Newspaper include Al Mada magazine; Al Nahj magazine; Narjes magazine; Hewar Sport magazine; Tattoo monthly newspaper; and The Free Book Project.
