DUBAI: Semafor today announced an expansion of its Gulf edition, moving to a daily publishing schedule on weekdays and growing its newsroom and commercial team, ramping up growth efforts amid the Iran conflict.
The move builds on an expansion plan first announced in January 2026, following Semafor’s first year of profitability, in which it generated $2 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, on revenue of $40 million. It also closed $30 million in new financing, which it said would be used to grow its editorial operations and live events business.
“When we launched our global editorial expansion in January 2026, we knew the Gulf would be a key pillar of that effort,” said Justin B. Smith, co-founder and CEO of Semafor.
“Now, we’re accelerating our planned investment through a slate of new hires, editorial offerings, and expanded newsroom and business operations that will cement Semafor as the leading global independent news organization in the region,” he told Arab News.
The editorial team has grown from eight journalists in January to 11 now, with plans to add a journalist in Washington, D.C. and an editor in London. Smith said Semafor is also opening new reporter positions in Qatar and “doubling down” on hiring in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Semafor has made two new hires to bolster its events division: Andy Rogers and Joanna Johnson, both based in Dubai.
Rogers joins from Bloomberg Media as executive director for marketing and business development. He will focus on forging new partnerships and innovating new digital and events products.
Johnson, who previously headed the events team at the Abu Dhabi Investment Office, will serve as senior events director and operations lead for the Middle East, overseeing the growth and launch of Semafor’s signature events in the Gulf and other international markets.
The additional hires are intended to support a shift to a five-day publishing schedule, up from three days a week. Smith said the transition would happen “in weeks, not months,” which is a “big deal” given that North America is currently the only region where Semafor publishes five days a week.
The move comes amid growing demand from readers globally, as the Iran conflict has intensified interest in Gulf economics, energy and geopolitics.
Live journalism gatherings continue to be a priority for the brand. It plans to continue its Next Three Billion franchise in Abu Dhabi, the first edition of which was held during Abu Dhabi Finance Week in December 2025. Other local and regional events are in the pipeline but will move forward once “the security situation is more significantly resolved,” Smith said.
While other organizations have slowed hiring and growth efforts, with some laying off staff during the conflict, Semafor is “doing the exact opposite — we’re doubling down,” he said.
Underlying that decision is Smith’s conviction that the Gulf is the epicenter of the new world economy — a belief he says is driving Semafor’s continued investment and expansion in the region, even as the conflict persists. The energy crisis, he said, is evidence of the region’s role on the global stage.
“We believe this will be resolved over time, and the Gulf will come out of this stronger and more resilient than ever,” he added.
Smith said that by the time the current round of hiring is complete, Semafor will have one of the largest newsgathering operations of any global news brand in the Gulf. He estimates it will rank third in scale, behind Bloomberg and Reuters but ahead of legacy outlets including the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.
That scale, he said, is central to Semafor’s goal of becoming the “business and economic news platform of record” for the Gulf, meaning that anyone with a stake in the region’s economy, whether based in or outside it, would turn to Semafor first for scoops, analysis and commentary.
Achieving that requires a deliberate effort to avoid what he called the Western centricity of legacy media. Semafor does this in two ways: by hiring journalists from or deeply embedded in the region, and through editorial formats designed to surface multiple geographic and philosophical perspectives within a single story.
The problem with Western centricity, he said, is that legacy media tells stories through their own lens — “there’s a perspective from London and New York, but that’s all that traditional legacy media offers” — without surfacing views from other parts of the world.
Smith also pointed to a disconnect he sees between the Gulf’s growing importance as a global business story and the editorial investments legacy media are making in the region.
“It’s a much bigger story than it has ever been, and it’s getting bigger and bigger, and yet the editorial focus of legacy news media has not matched the growth of the story,” he said. “That’s the disconnect that Semafor is really benefiting from.”
