The changing landscape of broadcast

January started on a rather unusual note, with Al Jazeera America (AJAM) announcing its exit from the US and Sky News Arabia (SNA) simultaneously announcing its digital entry into the country. Al Jazeera has also stated that it intends to re-enter the US market with a strong digital presence in the next few months.

Al Jazeera’s bold entry into the US was remarkable, given the fact that having an affiliate there has had to suffice for most international players. Despite being plagued with legal battles, having to tone down its stories and being given the cold shoulder by distributors, it held its own for three years before finally calling it a day. Whatever the outcome, the fact remains that it dared to enter where most others feared to tread, but the treatment meted out to the Qatari network reiterates what has universally been known – that the US is cagey about the information that filters down to its citizens and doesn’t take kindly to foreign media organisations setting up base on its soil.

Al Jazeera has been the subject of much controversy, not just internationally but closer to home as well, with some of its projects steeped in conflict for various reasons. Still, I have a lot of respect for an organisation that has dared to take on unusual challenges and stayed the course. The Al Jazeera Workplace Transformation project is one such project, which has continued to make huge strides forward, despite having suffered several setbacks.

This month, we bring you one of the projects that form part of this huge jigsaw puzzle. For the first time, we also have on the cover Miljenko Logozar, the man who helped build Al Jazeera Balkans’ technical operations from scratch, led the tech operations at AJAM and, more recently, helped create a transitional newsroom system for Al Jazeera Arabic until it is ready for a larger implementation at the end of the year.