A Middle East edition of Forbes magazine is to be launched later this year in partnership with the newly formed Arab Publisher House.
The magazine will be based in Dubai, with the first Arabic language issue slated to hit the shelves in October. Forbes, which is headquartered in New York, said Forbes Middle East would have an initial circulation of 25,000, rising to 30,000 within six months, while an English version is planned for the first quarter of 2011.
The launch of the magazine follows the closure of Forbes’ first Arabic edition, Forbes Arabia, which was first published in 2004 but came to an end in April last year when publisher DIT Group shut down its operations.
The latest deal was struck between Nasser Al Tayyar, president of Arab Publisher House, Miguel Forbes, president of business development for Forbes, and Tom Wolf, Forbes‘ senior advisor, international.
Al Tayyar said: “We believe in the Forbes brand, the most trusted business brand in the world, and Arab Publisher House will invest extensively in positioning the brand in the Middle East. We have a very strong multinational, multilingual team with a passion for editorial excellence, and we will uphold Forbes standards and quality.”
Arab Publisher House is a newly formed joint venture by investors from Saudi Arabia.