Saudi Research and Marketing Group Launches "SRMG News Service"

LONDON, October 20, 2011 -

Online Syndication Has Never Been Easier!

Saudi Research and Publishing Company (SRPC), a Saudi Research Group (SRMG) subsidiary, announced the digital “SRMG News Service” for its leading publications Asharq Al-Awsat, Al Eqtisadiyah, Arab News and Al Majala allowing news consumers to seamlessly pick their favorite items in text, audio, photo and video formats from a wide array of organized services and sources available online via single and easy-to-use interface. In line with SRMG vision to provide quality media and to enrich the knowledge of the humanitarian communities in the Saudi Arabia, the Arabian Gulf, the Arab Region and the entire world, clients will be able through this unique news service to access the full depth of SRMG’s English and Arabic language content, both current and archived stories, images and video covering the most important news from Saudi Arabia, the Middle East and beyond.

SRMG strength lies in its ability to produce content over different media platforms, to date counting 15 publications available in print versions and introduced online and through iPhone and iPad native apps. The group is amongst the largest publishing businesses in the Middle East and is vertically integrated over publishing, advertising, printing and distribution, specialized and multimedia businesses enabling it to capture the synergies down the value chain. Syndicating content was the natural progression of the media operations at SRMG aiming to give additional value to the readers and information consumers around the globe through one of the most advanced web-based platforms.

“SRMG is set to do everything possible to serve Arab readers by developing highly efficient digital media platforms providing quality content through a fast expanding information outlet. It is well known that the online syndication practice is fairly new in the Arab world, which makes SRMG the first Arab group to provide such news services to its readers using interactive and easy communication technology to cater to various segments of society”, Dr. Azzam Al Dakhil, CEO of SRMG, commented.

The online state-of-the-art portal, which caters to individuals, corporations, research institutes, universities, media companies, consultancy agencies, institutions and government bodies allows online surfers and shoppers to check content, store their favorite items in personal portfolios for instant or future purchase plans. The portal contains well-organized database which indexes every term in text and captions, it also provides a comprehensive thesauri system which increases the search mechanisms for users. Each item is searchable thanks to the advanced tagging capabilities that allow relevant search results for specific items and their similar ones. Chosen items can be e-purchased either under a comprehensive subscription plan or pay a single fee per item. Both registered users and subscribers can easily download their purchased items online for their designated destination across the Web, FTP or API.

Being a pioneer in the digital content services is no news for SRMG. Its ambitious initiatives were communicated internally back in February 2011 during a senior executives forum where Prince Faisal bin Salman, chairman of the Saudi Research & Marketing Group, emphasized at the group’s plans to invest thoroughly in digital media technology. “Those who are working in the media should be prepared to acclimatize with the realities of the new digital age. Or they will be left in the oblivion”, he said.

Providing content on the latest media and digital platforms mirrors the group’s visionary strategy to offer its different audiences rich content with no geographical, time, format or technology boundaries-and most importantly ahead of anyone else! From now on, everyone can have access to information with minimal effort and maximum value through the syndication portal that acts exactly like an online shopping outlet with advanced marketing e-newsletter tool that notifies the subscribers with the new items available in store.

‘SRMG News Service’ portal is powered by KnowledgeView, a UK-based company that developed ‘Syndigital’, a Web-based software for digital syndication. Syndigital technology was used for many years for the Times of London and other global media. It enables media owners to easily manage and market their published content for a much wider audience. Thus not only newspapers, but Web and mobile sites, TV, enterprise, government, and even individuals, can be the recipient of syndicated content for republishing or for use in market research.

Syndigital takes advantage of the Publish live technology to manage and search for millions of rich-media news items aggregated from multiple publishing platforms, using such technology tools as JAVA, XML and GWT, supporting English, French and Arabic.

The publications now available on syndication.srpc.com are the following:

Asharq Al-Awsat is the worlds premier pan-Arab daily newspaper, since its launch, Asharq Al-Awsat has established itself as the decisive publication on pan- Arab affairs, offering its readers in-depth analysis and exclusive editorials, as well as the most comprehensive coverage of the entire Arab World.

Arab News The First English Daily Newspaper in Saudi Arabia, Arab News is published simultaneously from Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran. For more than a quarter of a century Arab News has been breaking cultural barriers and unifying Arabs and non-Arabs alike in responding to their need for information. Arab News has evolved successfully into the well respected, leading paper it is today.

Al Eqtisadiyah is the foremost business daily in the Middle East. Published from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia it covers business, finance and investment news from the region.

Al Majalla (International News Magazine) Al Majalla has long been the leading Arabic magazine for political, economic and world affairs. Now the on-line magazine Majalla.com explores and presents in greater depth those issues at the forefront of Middle Eastern politics today.

Contact: hoda@knowledgeview.co.uk +96171498899

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