JT looks to develop online presence amid changing media landscape

AMMAN — Having been one of the first Jordanian dailies to launch a web edition, The Jordan Times is now working to enhance its online outreach and utilise the potential offered by social media outlets, according to staff members.

“We are trying to expand our social media audience, and we are producing visual and video content,” said Chief Editor Samir Barhoum, who was the editor involved with the JT website when it was first launched in the mid-1990s.

Barhoum said the inability of consecutive managements “to invest in our online and social media operations” have impeded the growth of the JT amidst an ever-shifting media landscape.

Similarly, Khaled Emrani, who has been working on the website since 1997, said the management is still “stuck in a print mentality” and has therefore been unable to invest in the potential offered by online media.

Moving forward, he said, more work should be directed at merging social media with the website to attract more readers and make the paper more accessible.

Citing major international papers that have since moved online, Emrani stressed the need for more specialised staff for the website.

Acknowledging that the JT website has come a long way since the days of moving files on floppy discs and sending them to the web host via courier, Barhoum said the JT, which launched its social media channels in 2007, needs to attract specialised personnel and train its current team to be able to expand online.

Instead of simply focusing on cutting costs, attention should be given to the potential of generating revenue from online channels, the chief editor said.

JT currently has 114,000 Twitter followers and 240,018 likes on Facebook.

When it launched its web version, the JT reached out to a new audience beyond Jordan, Barhoum recalled, and the feedback the paper received online has pushed it to give more focus to local news.

“We are viewed as the first source of English-language news on Jordan,” he said.

To continue operating in this media landscape, Barhoum and Emrani agreed, the JT’s online presence must evolve with the times.