"US Halts Arabic Magazine Meant to Boost US Image," by Saul Hudson - Reuters (Washington), 22 Dec 2005
The United States has suspended publishing a lifestyle magazine aimed at improving America's image abroad among young Arabs, in a further sign of troubled U.S. public diplomacy efforts.
The State Department, which sponsors the $4.5 million annual publication and distribution throughout the Arab world of the Arabic-language magazine "Hi," said on Thursday it stopped the presses because it was unclear how widely it was read.
A series of studies in the United States have criticized U.S.-funded Arabic-langauge media, such as Radio Sawa and the satellite TV station Alhurra, for failing to attract a large audience.
U.S. officials made a push to boost America's image among Arabs and Muslims after the September 11, 2001 attacks. But the efforts have been hampered because many Arabs strenuously object to U.S. foreign policies, particularly over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Iraq war.
But Hi, which was launched in 2003 and had a monthly distribution of 55,000 copies in around 18 countries, aimed to overcome that obstacle and reach an audience directly by tapping into a growing phenomenon of young Arabs indulging in escapism through U.S. pop culture.
A December edition of the online version of Hi, which will continue despite the halt to print copies, combines features on cooking, soccer and family life in the Arab world with a focus on life in Texas.
But following recommendations from an independent advisory panel, the State Department said in a statement that it needed to collect data to see who was actually reading a magazine that competes with popular, glossy fashion publications.
"The review is part of a broader effort to develop a 'culture of measurement' and to evaluate regularly the effectiveness of the Department's public-diplomacy programs," the statement said....
"US Suspends Publication of Arab Youth Magazine" - AFP (Washington), 22 Dec 2005
...Distributed at a cost of 4.5 million dollars a year, "Hi" eschewed political content for puff pieces on subjects ranging from Internet dating to rock climbing, yoga and sandboarding.
Its website currently features stories on President George W. Bush's home state of Texas, AIDS, special visual effects and an interview with a chef in a suburban Washington restaurant.
Middle East watchers have not been kind to the magazine since its inception, accusing it of trying to sweep aside substantive concerns over US policy among Arab youth and feed them nothing but cultural fluff.
"Many critics think the magazine is too naive to be anything other than an exercise in brainwashing," the Al-Ahram Weekly wrote shortly after Hi hit the Arab streets.
The US-based journal Middle East Report was equally downbeat in a September 2003 review.
"In its present form, 'Hi' suggests to its target readership that the US administration has no substantive reply to sincere questions about US policy, nor even to adult questions about US society and culture," it said.
"At a time when the US really ought to be engaging in frank dialogue and genuine debate about ideas with people from the Middle East, it is hard to imagine 'Hi' failing more spectacularly."
Hi's Arabic-language Web page is www.himag.com. Its English-language Web page is www.hiinternational.com.
The English-language page includes a 'Forum' which, I guess, is meant to encourage on-line dialogue about the magazine articles between Hi readers and American youth (ringers, I'm sure). The conversation-starters tossed out include "How popular of a field of study is astronomy in your region? Who is the best-know local leader in the field?," "How have visual effect artists changed the movie industry? Do recent cost changes in these effects mean that we'll be seeing a lot of visual effects in movies?," and "What are the pros and cons of several generations living together?"
Also see:
"Suspension of 'Hi' Magazine" - press release, US Department of State (Washington, DC), 22 Dec 2005
The State Department is conducting a review of its Arabic language magazine, "Hi", to assess whether the magazine is meeting its objectives effectively. During the period of this review, the print version of Hi magazine will be suspended. The Hi website (himag.com) will remain active.
Hi Magazine was launched in July 2003 to develop a dialogue with young, Arabic speaking audiences on topics that affect them and their American counterparts. Currently, 55,000 copies are distributed monthly in 18 countries, at a cost of $4.5 million a year.
The purpose of this review will be to develop quantitative data on how broadly Hi Magazine is reaching its intended audience. The review is part of a broader effort to develop a "culture of measurement" and to evaluate regularly the effectiveness of the Department’s public diplomacy programs.
State Department Press Briefing, December 22, 2005, with Spokesman Sean McCormack. (The asterisk and semi-smiley are from the text as posted on the State Department Web site.)
...MR. MCCORMACK: So it's just been in publication for about two and a half years. It was intended to reach a youth audience in North Africa and throughout the Middle East, intended to reach an Arab youth market.
And so what Karen Hughes has decided to do, she wanted to step back, take a look and see if we were actually effective in reaching our intended audience with this particular vehicle, Hi magazine. And this is part of an emphasis that she has placed in her role as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy in measuring what it is that we do and, based on those measurements, seeing if what we're doing is effective. So this is part of that effort to see if this is actually effective and getting our message across to the intended audience.
The website is going to remain up. We think that this is, at this point, a cost-effective endeavor. It doesn't cost a lot to keep the website updated. We have a number of -- I think the number of visitors to the website is substantially higher than the circulation of the magazine. The circulation of the magazine is about 55,000 copies per month, I believe.
So she's going to take a look at it and she'll make a decision of what to do with Hi magazine based on our assessment of it.
QUESTION: Is it -- right now or is it suspended indefinitely or is there a projected restart date?
MR. MCCORMACK: I don't think there's a -- there's not a projected restart date at this point.
QUESTION: Was there feedback from the embassies in the field as to whether they thought it was effective or not?
MR. MCCORMACK: I'll check to see if there's any feedback -- feedback from the field on that.
QUESTION: Do you have any figure of the sales?
MR. MCCORMACK: There was -- it was both distributed gratis copies, free copies, as well as sold. I think the total monthly distribution, and that includes both sales and free distribution, was about 55,000. That's the average monthly distribution.
QUESTION: Okay. So --
MR. MCCORMACK: Of the copies of the magazine. But the website has gotten a far larger number of hits....
QUESTION: And why was it necessary to suspend it while you're doing the study, as opposed to doing the study and keep it going? I mean, you know.
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, you know, like I said, it costs -- you do the math. It cost $4.5 million dollars annually. I don't know what that averages out to per month, but you save money while you're actually not publishing it. And she's going to take a look at what the right thing to do with it is. Is it the right thing to retool it, to refocus it or make some other decision? But at that point -- I think at this point, you know, she's taking a look at it. She's not looking at it prejudiced one way or the other with what next steps to take.
QUESTION: Are you aware of the criticisms that it sort of was mostly puff pieces and didn't address at all political concerns of Arab youth and -- or do you have any response to that?
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, part of what she wants to do is see if we are actually being effective in getting our message across to the intended audience. So part of this assessment is to take a look at different feedback, feedback from the embassies, feedback from others -- take into account these kinds of critiques of the magazine and see what the next steps are.
QUESTION: Do you have any measurements of the other U.S.-sponsored media, Al Hurra and Radio Sawa?
MR. MCCORMACK: I don't have anything here for you, Saul.
QUESTION: Okay. But are we to assume that whatever measurements that are available have suggested that it's worth carrying on broadcasting those?
MR. MCCORMACK: They're currently under broadcast, both of them. If she decides that she wants to take a look at those, I'm sure she's going to. I think she's right now starting with Hi magazine as the first project she's going to take a hard look at and see whether or not it's effective in its intended purpose.
QUESTION: Are they standing down staff if they're still going to be doing the website?
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, the actual magazine is -- it's funded by the State Department but it is -- the magazine content and design are created by The Magazine Group, so it has editorial oversight and funding from the State Department. So I'm not sure what, if any, personnel impact for State Department employees there is at this point.
QUESTION: Just one last thing from me. Do you have any figures on the website traffic at all?
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, the -- what I've been told is that there are 3 million hits. Now --
QUESTION: Per day or --
MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, it's per day*.
QUESTION: Three million hits per day?
MR. MCCORMACK: Per day. Adam?
MR. ERELI: Yep.
MR. MCCORMACK: Yep, 3 million per day(. Now, here's one thing -- we will endeavor to find out the answer to this question for you, I don't have it yet -- are those unique viewers or are those page views. So at this point, I don't know the answer to that and we're going to find out the answer for you....
It seems to me that if the Hi Web site were really getting 3 million hits per day, it would be a no-brainer as to keeping the Web site going.
The only comparison figures I found on Arabic media Web traffic, in a quick Google search, are from a 2001 op-ed by Mamoun Fandy ("To Reach Arabs, Try Changing the Channel," the Washington Post, 2 Dec 2001). He said that the Web site of the most widely read of three major pan-Arab newspapers, Asharq Al-Awsat, got an average of 1.5 million hits per day. I know that four years might count as a long time ago in terms of how rapidly Internet use has grown among Arabic-speakers; still, I have some trouble believing that the Web site for a monthly magazine would be drawing exponentially more readers than that of a major daily news source.
Added 23 Dec 2005:
"Sincerity Heals," by Ahmed Shoukry (in London) - letter to the editor of the Middle East Times (Cyprus), 23 Dec 2005
-- The US administration axed its 'Hi' magazine targeting Arab youth, because it was unsuccessful. ('US stops publication of Arab youth mag' Dec. 23) That's my take on it.
But that's not how the US State Department puts it. They say they are pulling the publication while they are (and I quote from your website): "conducting a review ... to assess whether the magazine is meeting its objectives effectively."
Now, you don't pull a publication to make a review. You pull it because it's already failed and you know it.
And that's the essence of America's image problem in the Middle East. People just can't trust what US leaders say.
Some projects succeed, others fail. It's clear this one has not succeeded. No problem with that. What makes it bad is the disingenuous talk that accompanies the failure.
Politicians play with words like the rest of us need to breathe. They give it to each other and they take it. But out in the real world we hate insincerity.
So to you who represent the USA, don't play with words. Just tell it honestly and in time people will forgive you. It'll go much farther to bridge cultures than sleek publications.
Added 28 Dec 2005:
"Don't Waste the Dollars," by Daniel Pipes - The Jerusalem Post, 27 Dec 2005
It comes as a relief to learn that Karen Hughes, who runs the public diplomacy shop at the US State Department, has suspended the pathetic effort to reach out to Arab and other foreign audiences via a taxpayer-funded magazine named Hi International (best remembered for a notorious June 2005 article, "Sharp-dressed Men," that told how "real men moisturize").
It's startling to realize that $4.5 million a year produced a mere 55,000 monthly copies of Hi and (according to alexa.com) a Web site that ranks about 900,000th from the top, suggesting it gets about a 100 hits per day. The magazine has been an embarrassment and a waste of money. (When did the war on terror become the war on wrinkles?)
But even had Hi been better conceived and executed, it - and to a lesser degree, such US government efforts as Radio Sawa and Al-Hurra Television - is misconceived. Like generals fighting the last war, diplomats recall the successes of Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe in providing precious information to Soviet bloc peoples and thereby helping to bring about the demise of the Soviet Union and its satellites. Doing what they know worked once, they largely adopted the same informational model for Hi, Sawa, and Al-Hurra.
But Muslims generally and Islamists specifically do not lack for reliable information; much less do they (as did Soviet-bloc populations) prefer Western sources of information to their own. To the contrary, many indications suggest that Muslims favor tuning in to or reading media prepared by their coreligionists, trusting these more than what comes from non-Muslims.
The clearest proof comes from Muslims living in Western countries (including Israel) who are fluent in one or more Western languages. Enjoying access to a huge array of television stations and Internet sites, they generally get their news not from these but seek out Muslim sources....
[C]onsider the background to the March 1, 1994, assault by a Lebanese immigrant, Rashid Baz, against a Jewish boy, Ari Halberstam, on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. As Uriel Heilman recounts in the Middle East Quarterly, Baz shot and murdered Halberstam four days after Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli, killed 29 Muslims in a mosque in Hebron. The Goldstein massacre had prompted riots throughout the Middle East and incensed Muslims in the United States, who "interpreted the events unfolding in the Middle East very differently from most of America."
Although the Israeli government unstintingly condemned Goldstein's act, the Arabic press "almost without exception" portrayed the massacre as a responsibility of the Israeli people and government. It broadcast the Palestinian representative telling the United Nations that "The government of Israel is accountable for what has taken place . . . and one can say it even participated in the act."
Islamist sources declared that "anybody or anything remotely linked with Israel" was a legitimate target for revenge.
Baz lived and breathed this interpretation: American media was irrelevant to him. Although living in the world press capital, he inhabited a mental environment shaped by near and distant Arabic-language editors. With an anger "fueled by reports from Arabic sources that painted the killer Goldstein as an agent of Israeli will, rather than as a deranged gunman acting alone," he equipped himself with a small arsenal of weapons, searched out a target related to Israel, found it in a van full of Hassidic boys, and embarked on his murderous rampage.
There are a couple of ways of looking the media preferences that Pipes describes that have nothing to do with the religion or culture or the people involved.
One is that people tend to judge the reliability of a piece of news by whether or not they trust the source it comes from. 'Trust' can mean different things to different people. It might mean having confidence in the competence of the news source to gather, analyze, and present news, or it might mean having confidence that the news source is on the 'right' side of a battle. Americans who believe that major U.S. newspapers are run by a bunch of godless pinkos turn to newsletters and short-wave radio and blogs for news.
Another point to consider is that news presentation has a cultural component. News is 'done' differently in different societies, and we all have some preference to receive news in a way that is familiar to us. Although I read French well enough to understand a newspaper without any trouble, I've always found myself relying on the International Herald Tribune for news when I travel in France. I just get annoyed trying to weed out facts from assumptions and insinuations as they are presented by French journalists. When I just want some idea of what's going on, it's easier to turn to an American newspaper that presents news in a way I'm familiar with.
I cannot for the life of me imagine how a magazine contrasting Arab lifestyle with that of those living in Texas can possibly work. It strikes me as another attempt to puff up something that those destined to read it really could do without.
Perhaps publishers of such works ought to consider how it would be when such publications went the other way around. Would an English-language magazine contrasting the Arab way of life with that in Texas sell in the US?
Pi.
Posted by: Pi. | 25 December 2005 at 11:11 AM