Why We Chose the Name Majalla There are many stories behind Majalla, which will be published on Saturday, February 1980 16, that we will share when the time is right. But today, in this article, I will tell you how we came to choose the name Majalla (Magazine), the sister publication of the Arabic international daily, Asharq Alawsat. As always, whenever we decide to launch a new publication, everybody collaborates to come up with a list of suggested names. At the beginning of last year (1979), we chose the name Majallet Asharaq Alawsat (Middle East Magazine) through a secret ballot. And although some of us had objections over the length of the name since it is composed of three words, we were convinced that this name had several benefits. Most importantly, it is wellknown and Arab readers would recognize it wherever they are in the world. This would increase the magazine’s popularity and help us to sell advertising space. In July last year, when we approached our friend Mohammad Saeed Taib, CEO of Tahama, with our decision to launch a weekly political magazine named Majallet Asharaq Alawsat, he stood up and refused to sit back down until we gave him our word to change the name, adding that Tahama, which was in charge of advertisements in Asharq Alawsat newspaper, does not approve the launch of another publication with a similar name and from the same publishing house. Abdul Kareem Abu Al Nasr, editor-in-chief of Majalla magazine, was the only person to have the list of suggested names, so he presented them while proposing a compromise which would keep us happy without causing upsetting our friend Mohammad Saeed Taib. It was a magical solution and we agreed to it without hesitation. Abdul Karim suggested that we get rid of the first and last words so the name becomes Asharq, while keeping the slogan, Arab international magazine. We then wrote an article introducing the new magazine. Last September, Abdul Kareem and I were looking into some private matters regarding Asharq magazine when the phone rang. It was Mohammed Marouf Al-Shaibani, assistant general manager in charge of the Riyadh office, warning against naming the magazine Asharq as another weekly magazine had been published in the eastern part of the Kingdom under the same name. He explained that if we were to publish our magazine it would lead to dangerous confusion regarding distribution and subscription in Saudi Arabia and he ended the call by telling us that he had sent us a full report on the matter with a copy of the Asharq magazine attached. I asked Abdul Kareem, “what should we do now?” He replied with amazement, “we will publish a magazine, of course, otherwise what am I doing here!” I then suggested, how about we add «Al» to «Majalla» to make «Al-Majalla».
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by Hisham Hafez
