Al Waseet is a new innovative media concept, which originally emerged in the state of Kuwait in 1992, and now operates in eighteen branches in Arab countries with an annual turnover of more than 65 million dollars. On 28 August, 1999, Al Waseet Amman was published, with 24 pages of advertising and a free-of-charge, door-to-door distribution of 200,000 copies.
"We created the classified newspaper category in Jordan, starting with a 24-page newspaper with 800 classifieds. Today, we publish no less than 96 pages a week, with 2500 classifieds and hundreds of commercial advertisements. Such is the success of Al Waseet that it has spawned 26 competitors, of whom only 2 remain today. Needless to say, we are miles ahead of them in advertising sales and circulation," said Ala'a Al Qassim, general manager of Al Waseet.
Today, Al Waseet's readership in Jordan exceeds any local newspaper or magazine, thanks to the hundreds of thousands of copies printed and distributed weekly. The Amman edition has peaked at 136 pages, surpassing all of the newspapers in the country. This success in Jordan is attributed to a wealth of expertise in handling functions like marketing, distribution, design and financial control.
"Al Waseet was the seed for a group of media companies, which now include magazines (Al Faridah for Specialised Publications) and radio (Al Kawn). Like Al Waseet, these magazines and radio stations lead the market in their categories," added Al Qassim.
"Last year, Al Ghad, one of Jordan's leading dailies was also launched and has become very successful in such a short span of time, due to the utilisation of innovative marketing and circulation strategies. Coming soon is Jordan's first private TV station, which has been licensed and is now in the final stages of preparation for launch." he said.
As a natural evolution of Al Waseet's success, and aiming to create a web presence that provides a new virtual marketplace in today's competitive environment, eWaseet.com was launched. www.ewaseet.com is currently present in nine Arab countries, and has taken on the leadership position as the number one source of Classifieds and Auction listings in the Middle East.
With the continued success of Al Waseet and eWaseet, classifieds, commercial ads, auctions and online needs of the Jordanian community will exceed expectations.
Looking to the future, and with the growing variety of media vehicles in Jordan, especially radio and TV. Al Qassim said "we believe that press media will remain the leader in advertising spend. At the moment, it accounts for around 80 percent, and Al Waseet will continue to get a considerable share of that percentage. Competition from other media is healthy, but we don't expect it to negatively impact Al Waseet, as we work harder to please our customers and continue to show the value of print media advertising."
© ArabAd 2005
