Ever wondered where the MENA region gets is news from online? With the year wrapping up, Forbes Middle East released a report on the traffic numbers and social media figures for the major news portals, news channels and newspapers.
Below are the top lists, for the entire lists you can check Forbes Middle East’s website.
Top 10 News portals in the MENA for 2012
| # | Name | Country | Visits (M) | Uniques (M) | Min. on site | Social Engagement % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Masrawy | Egypt | 209.03 | 47.01 | 9:08 | 23.38 |
| 2 | Sabq | KSA | 376.86 | 53.61 | 5:44 | 15.63 |
| 3 | Hespress | Morocco | 278.99 | 52.22 | 8:41 | 20.50 |
| 4 | Hawaa World | Regional | 142.33 | 30.84 | 8:58 | 16.00 |
| 5 | Ammon News | Jordan | 94.77 | 57.42 | 9:31 | 18.13 |
| 6 | Ana Zahra | Regional | 19.98 | 9.15 | 5:58 | 22.00 |
| 7 | Kooora | Regional | 582.62 | 103.55 | 7:11 | 9.75 |
| 8 | Khaberni | Jordan | 58.55 | 37.80 | 2:51 | 19.88 |
| 9 | Argaam | Regional | 21.27 | 5.58 | 12:32 | 10.50 |
| 10 | Elaph | Regional | 29.11 | 8.79 | 4:23 | 16.50 |
The total list comprises of 27 portals with data collected from Aug. 31, 2011 – Aug. 31, 2012 using Google Analytics, its not mentioned whether this information was voluntarily handed over or if it was collected from their media kits or whether it was proofed by an independent third party, however we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Also, I’m not sure how Forbes ranked these portals the weights given for each data set is very vague. For example Masrawy is first but the list clearly shows that the Sabq and Hespress have higher visits and uniques, the only difference is that Masrawy has higher average time spent on the site as well social media engagement, but Hespress which occupies third place is not very far away from Masrawy in terms of time spent and social media engagement yet it is third behind Sabq which has even lower numbers than Hespress when it comes to those criteria’s. So don’t know what to make of that and will leave it up to you.
I understand this is a free report, but just because its free doesn’t mean it can’t be good, right? I wish they revealed their magic formula for ranking the portals, because right now it doesn’t make any sense and several comments on their website were made regarding this point.
Top 10 Newspaper websites in the MENA for 2012
| # | Name | Country | Visits (M) | Uniques (M) | Min. on site | Social Engagement % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ahram | Egypt | 74.52 | 31.15 | 11:00 | 24.13 |
| 2 | AlYoum ElSabe | Egypt | 842.84 | 145.11 | 6:59 | 24.63 |
| 3 | Gulf News | UAE | 77.11 | 20.34 | 4:32 | 19.13 |
| 4 | Ech-Chorouk El Yaoumi | Algeria | 79.17 | 21.85 | 8:22 | 18.75 |
| 5 | AlRiyadh | KSA | 123.93 | 35.52 | 4:41 | 19.00 |
| 6 | Okaz | KSA | 42.56 | 12.60 | 4:56 | 19.50 |
| 7 | AlRai | Kuwait | 17.03 | 5.18 | 6:54 | 26.00 |
| 8 | Emarat AlYoum | UAE | 26.04 | 7.99 | 11:25 | 19.00 |
| 9 | AlBayan | UAE | 15.45 | 7.49 | 3:48 | 27.13 |
| 10 | As-Safir | Lebanon | 13.93 | 2.98 | 9:21 | 17.38 |
Top 3 Satellite News Channel websites in the MENA for 2012
| # | Name | Country | Visits (M) | Uniques (M) | Min. on site |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AlArabiya | UAE | 306.63 | 69.05 | 6:28 |
| 2 | AlJazeera | Qatar | 277.88 | 55.71 | 10:04 |
| 3 | Russia Today | Russia | 50.11 | 26.40 | 3:20 |
Top 10 Newspapers on Social Networks in the MENA for 2012
| # | Name | Country | Tweets | FB Likes | Google + | Youtube views | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AlBayan | UAE | 67,659 | 77,558 | 12,228 | 500 | 1,992,841 |
| 2 | AlRai | Kuwait | 64,094 | 154,082 | 0 | 0 | 927,427 |
| 3 | AlYoum ElSabe | Egypt | 101,282 | 1,821,467 | 7,907 | 0 | 10,554,460 |
| 4 | Ahram | Egypt | 134,069 | 969,068 | 0 | 187 | 1,363,364 |
| 5 | The Daily Star | Lebanon | 27,544 | 27,801 | 916 | 386 | 3,339,469 |
| 6 | Khaleej Times | UAE | 9,531 | 55,300 | 734 | 610 | 97,843 |
| 7 | Jordan Times | Jordan | 23,290 | 31,125 | 0 | 143 | 1,838 |
| 8 | AlAnba | Kuwait | 17,029 | 60,641 | 0 | 0 | 414,795 |
| 9 | AlQuds | Palestine | 25,203 | *508,757 | 0 | 0 | 3,788,560 |
| 10 | Al-Ittihad | UAE | 88,117 | 21,027 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
*AlQuds facebook likes was corrected by me after checking for their URL, Forbes has reported that they had 460,000 likes , but the correct number on the AlQuds newspaper Facebook page is 508,757.
Which news website do you check normally? Let us know in the comments below. Or get in touch and stay updated with latest news from the region.