Al-Ahram
Al-Ahram (Arabic: الأهرام; lit. 'The Pyramids'), founded on 5 August 1876, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after al-Waqa'i`al-Masriya (The Egyptian Events, founded 1828).[2] It is majority owned by the Egyptian government, and is considered a newspaper of record for Egypt.[3]
This article is about the newspaper. For other uses, see Al-Ahram (disambiguation).Type
Daily newspaper
Beshara Takla
Saleem Takla
Al-Ahram Publishing House
Mohamed Abdelhady Allam
5 August 1876
Uncertain (2011–present)
National Democratic Party (1978–2011)
Egypt
1,000,000 daily
1,200,000 Fridays[1]
Given the many varieties of Arabic language, Al-Ahram is widely considered an influential source of writing style in Arabic. In 1950, the Middle East Institute described Al-Ahram as being to the Arabic-reading public within its area of distribution, "What The Times is to Englishmen and The New York Times to Americans";[4] however, it has often been accused of heavy influence and censorship by the Egyptian government.
In addition to the main edition published in Egypt, the paper publishes two other Arabic-language editions, one geared to the Arab world and the other aimed at an international audience, as well as editions in English and French.
Profile and editions[edit]
Al-Ahram daily is the flagship of what is now the Al-Ahram publishing house, the largest in Egypt.[18] Al-Ahram's headquarters is in Boulaq, Cairo. Its content was controlled by the Egyptian Ministry of Information.
The pan-Arab Arabic-language edition of the paper, called Al Ahram Al Arabiya, is destined for readers in the Arab World and the Egyptian expatriates in Arab countries. It is published daily in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE and distributed in Egypt and Arab states of the Persian Gulf. Arabic weekly, Al Ahram Al Arabi, which was launched in 1997 is another publication of the publishing house.[19]
An international Arabic-language edition called Al Ahram al Duwali has been published daily in London since 1984. It is printed in both London and Paris and is distributed throughout Europe, USA, Canada and Egypt.
Two foreign-language weekly versions are also produced: the English Al-Ahram Weekly (founded in 1991) and the French Al-Ahram Hebdo.
Al-Ahram produces a continually updated news website in the English language at english.ahram.org.e.g.,[20] called Ahram Online. It also has an Arabic news website which was the 20th mostly visited website for 2010 in the MENA region.[21] It was named as the most popular news portal in the Arab world in the period from 31 August 2011 to 31 August 2012 by Forbes Middle East.[22][23]