LONDON: London-based daily Arabic online newspaper Elaph has signed an agreement on Wednesday with the Financial Times (FT) to produce the latter’s luxury magazine, How To Spend It (HTSI), in Arabic.
HTSI is an award-winning luxury magazine from FT Weekend that presents themed issues on fashion, interiors, art, travel and lifestyle.
This will mark the first time that HTSI is available in the Arabic language as the FT branches out to a new audience across the Middle East and North Africa.
“This is a big step. They have content in other languages like German and Italian, but this is the first time the FT starts something in Arabic,” Elaph founder and Editor in Chief Othman Al-Omair told Arab News.
HTSI Arabic will be distributed in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt and Morocco. It will also be available in an online edition.
FT CEO John Ridding said in a statement: “As a global brand with global reach, we are always excited to bring the FT’s quality journalism to new regions. This association with Elaph allows us to bring one of our flagship publications to a very substantial audience.”
Jo Ellison, editor of HTSI, said: “This launch aligns with the FT’s wider strategy of growing its brand reach through enhanced reader engagement. The Arabic-speaking world represents an important readership for [HTSI] and the combination of the FT’s HTSI editorial with original content from Elaph represents a bespoke offering for those readers who seek out unique lifestyle features and themes.”
The Arabic-language version aims to bring top content related to these themes, geared toward Arab audiences. The result will be a mix of translated content from HTSI as well as exclusive original content.
“We will cooperate with them to deliver content that is integrated with Arab thoughts,” Al-Omair said.
The Elaph founder added that reporters will also work in countries such as Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt “to cover our interests and theirs.”
HTSI Arabic aims to launch in September 2021 and will be published in London. Its print edition will be produced by Les Imprimeries Le Matin in Morocco, a division of Group Maroc Soir newspaper.
