In the United States, estimated total local daily newspaper circulation (print and digital editions combined) in 2022 was almost half what it was in 2014, according to Pew Research Center. In the United Kingdom the average circulation of national newspapers per issue in 2019 was sixty percent of what it was in 2013, according to a parliamentary report.

Reliable circulation figures are notoriously difficult to come by in Egypt, but estimates point to a much steeper decline. In a session at the Arab Media Forum in Dubai in 2022, veteran media executive and then editor-in-chief of Al Masry Al Youm, Abdel Latif Al Manawi, said that the total circulation of daily newspapers in Egypt dropped from 1.5 million per day in 2015 to 0.5 million by 2020. During the same session, Emad El Din Hussein, the editor-in-chief of El Shorouk, put the 2022 figure at around 0.3 million issues.

Egyptian Press Syndicate board member Mohammed El Garhi, a former editor of a TV show focusing on press reviews, said the last time he conducted a tally in 2020—before the full effect of COVID changing people’s habits toward digital—the figure was 0.25 million issues per day. Even if we adopt Hussein’s higher estimate, this would mean that circulation in 2022 was twenty percent of what it was seven years earlier.

The decline in circulation has had a palpable effect on the newspaper industry. In 2021, the evening newspapers of the three leading state-owned press organizations (Al Ahram Al Masa’i owned by Al Ahram, Al Akhbar Al Masa’i owned by Akhbar Al Youm and Al Masa’ owned by Al Gomhoriyya) were discontinued as print editions in an attempt to cut costs, leaving them only as digital offerings. Nevertheless, the following year, the debt of state-owned press organizations stood at a staggering nine billion Egyptian pounds!

Other mergers and cost-cutting measures continue. Al Ahram, which was established in 1875 and was in its heyday one of the most widely read and respected publications in the Arab World, is reported to have stopped hiring any new journalists for the past nine years. Earlier this year, its weekly women’s magazine Nisf El Dunya was turned into a monthly publication and merged with another magazine.

Privately owned newspapers are not faring much better. They have cut the number of pages they print, restricted colored pages, laid off staff, shut down parts of their operations, consolidated and downsized regional offices, and hiked their selling prices. “Sorry Dear Reader… It’s an Inevitable Decision” was the title that El Shorouk chose for its editorial when its price increased from two to three pounds on January 10, 2017. A couple of months earlier the Egyptian pound had lost half its value to the U.S. dollar, and El Shorouk’s editorial explained that printing costs increased eighty percent, while advertising revenue witnessed a “scary decline”. Over the following years, El Shorouk, along with most other Egyptian newspapers, found itself forced to hike its price again and again, reaching 5 pounds per issue by July 2021.

The decline in print circulation might not have been such a threat to the financial health of the Egyptian press industry, had it been able to offset its losses in print by gains in digital offerings. But while visits to the websites of news organizations have increased significantly over the past decade, they have been far from sufficient to compensate for the financial losses caused by the steep decline in print circulation.

Digital Dilemma

Figures for advertising revenues are even more unreliable and difficult to come by than circulation figures, but interviews and conversations with journalists and media executives give some indications of how big the problem is. Mohamed Saad Abd Elhafiz is a veteran journalist who held editorial leadership positions at a number of newspapers and is currently a managing editor at El Shorouk. He says that ten years ago, some of the news organizations of which he has direct knowledge would make an average of three million pounds per month in advertising revenue on both print and digital platforms combined. These same organizations can now merely hope to make 1 million pounds on a very good month, he says. The figures are even more diminished when taken in the context of the wave of inflation that Egypt has witnessed over the same period, reaching 33.9 percent annually last year according to the World Bank.

Several senior journalists and editors, who spoke to me on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that their organizations have been sustaining significant losses for several years. Their books are only balanced by borrowing and accumulating debt each year.

“Egyptian journalism hasn’t been able yet to figure out a successful business model for the digital age,” said Hazem El Sherif, editor-in-chief of Al Mal, Egypt’s leading business-focused publication. While the share of revenue coming from digital sources has increased over the past years, it is a very uncertain environment.

“Folks are still trying to figure out how they’ll get money out of [their] digital [offer]. They’re improvising. You’re building a business model in the full knowledge that it’s not stable and that you will always have to amend it.”

Small changes that tech giants such as Facebook and Google often introduce to their policies and algorithms have a significant impact on the revenue that websites are able to generate.

Another challenge is that social media has forced the gates wide open for competition. “When it comes to digital, I am competing with non-journalists who have a very different business model,” said El Sherif. Every user on social media is a potential source for news and entertainment, and individual content creators in recent years have stacked up audience numbers that many Egyptian news organizations can only eye with envy.

The increase in traffic to news websites in the early years of the digital transformation failed to compensate financially for the losses of print. But perhaps more disturbingly, even these gains in traffic seem to have been reversed in more recent years. Abd Elhafiz says that traffic to a number of news websites that he has direct knowledge of has declined by thirty percent in the past few years.

This is partly a result of the challenge that social media is posing to journalism globally. In Egypt, the challenge is compounded by another factor. “A main reason for this crisis is the lack of freedoms that would allow for the production of journalistic content that is credible and attractive,” said Abd Elhafiz.

General Conference of the Press Syndicate

One day in late July I paid a visit to the Egyptian Press Syndicate, to meet with Khaled El Balshi, its head, and El Garhi. It had recently been announced that a General Conference of the Press Syndicate would be held in October, and I wanted to talk to them about it.

While it sounds like mundane union jargon, a general conference of the press syndicate is actually a significant event. In its eighty-three years of existence, the Syndicate has only held five general conferences, usually at critical junctures in the history of Egyptian journalism and/or its relationship with the authorities. The 3rd Conference, for example, was held in 1995 amid a year-long struggle against the infamous Press Law 93, which gave authorities a wider range of options to punish journalists through arrests and fines. Eventually the law was dropped, and the episode took on iconic symbolism in journalists’ collective memory.

Nine years later, the 4th Conference was held at a time when Egypt’s political scene was just beginning to witness some vibrancy after the dormant 1980s and 1990s. The opposition to former President Hosni Mubarak was starting to push boundaries, and his regime was showing signs of yielding somewhat to increasing pressure from the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to introduce ‘reforms’ as part of the US administration’s neo-conservative vision for the ‘Greater Middle East’. For the first time in two decades, journalists had just elected as their syndicate head a figure who was not the government’s choice, and the conference raised the bar of journalists’ demands for press freedom and reforms.

El Balshi and El Garhi—along with several other current members of the syndicate’s board—were also journalists who frequently opposed government restrictions on the press. Their election last year came as a surprise to many, as it followed several years of dominance by pro-government figures. Since then, the syndicate has been more aggressive in lobbying on behalf of its members. The call for the 6th General Conference is part of this effort; however, the intention of the organizers is to use it as an opportunity not just to discuss syndicate matters, but to also address the state of Egyptian journalism more generally, at a time when it is showing worrying signs of distress.

“Statements Journalism”

“The financial health of the [journalism] profession is related to its freedom and its ability to reflect people’s real conditions. … You are selling something that people don’t want to buy,” said El Balshi. “People will not buy a newspaper that tells them everything is fine and prices have not gone up, when they can directly feel the pinch of inflation in their everyday lives,” he added.

Not everyone agrees that restrictions on press freedoms are the main source of the financial troubles of news organizations. Mohammed Gad, an economics reporter, acknowledges that restrictions on the press are a major concern, but he argues that the main problem is that the content offered by much of the Egyptian press, even in non-political coverage, is simply of low journalistic quality that fails to attract readers. “The fact of the matter is that Egyptian news organizations have mostly failed to develop their content and a business model that is suitable for the digital age,” he said.

Regardless of the extent to which they can be held responsible for the industry’s financial dilemma, the fact remains that government restrictions come up again and again in conversations with Egyptian journalists as one of their major concerns. According to the Egyptian Press Syndicate, twenty-three journalists were in detention by the end of July 2024. Most news organizations are either directly or indirectly owned by the state, and private organizations are under pressure to tow the government’s line. Some websites that maintain an independent editorial line are blocked and their journalists find it difficult to do any free reporting.

The result is a culture of docility that dominates much of the Egyptian press where the job of editors and reporters has become little more than copying and publishing official press statements to avoid any potential trouble.

One senior journalist at a private news organization describes a typical conversation with the editors over the past few years: “‘No, don’t publish this story yet, let’s wait for the official statement. . .’ or ‘let’s wait to see what the evening talk shows will say about it. . .’ or ‘let’s wait until state-affiliated news organizations publish it first. . .’ Sometimes we would have already published a story or an article on our website and we would be asked to take it down.”

Because this approach has been going on for some time, a new generation of journalists now know no form of journalism except copying official press releases: “statements journalism”. Many of the older generation have lost their appetite for real journalism and are just carrying out the bare minimum of their jobs to earn a salary at the end of the month. Others have moved to safer beats such as lifestyle and culture, while some have chosen to pursue their passion for journalism in fringe news organizations that are less heavily censored.

Yet, he argues, there is still room to push boundaries. He says he often gets into arguments about coverage with his superiors, who actually encourage this dissent because they believe it necessary to improve the quality of their journalism. More generally, however, he believes that the last two or three years have witnessed some relaxation of press restrictions.

Al Balshi agrees that there were some encouraging signs over the past two years. Some of the issues that are discussed in the media nowadays were perhaps avoided a few years ago. “Over the past year, nine journalists were released from detention, and we considered this to be a good indicator about how the authorities are dealing with this issue,” he added. However, he says that the rate of progress slowed down, and the surprise arrest of two journalists this summer is a “dangerous sign”.

Rather than speculating about government intentions and political calculations, El Balshi says his priority is to reform the legal framework in which journalists work, to safeguard their freedom and ability to carry out their jobs. To this end, one of the three committees of the General Conference is the Committee on Laws and Freedoms. It is headed by Mohammed Bassal, a veteran legal reporter who has worked on several proposals for legal and structural reforms.

Bassal argues that a free press that is able to hold power to account is necessary for a healthy society. “Press freedom is not just important for journalists, it is a critical issue for the public sphere,” he said.

He outlined a comprehensive list of what his committee seeks to achieve: specific amendments to the penal code and laws regulating and pertaining to the media, updating the Journalism Code of Honor, measures to ensure a safe working environment for female journalists, proposing a Freedom of Information Act, as well as other objectives.

Bassal offers specific and seemingly well-researched proposals, but are legal reforms a priority for most of the Syndicate members who will be present at the conference? He said he believes that more and more journalists are becoming concerned about their safety and their ability to carry out even mundane parts of their jobs, that they would be eager to engage in this matter. However, he conceded that the more pressing issue for most journalists at the Conference would probably be their income.

Poor Journalists, Poor Journalism

“The number one priority for most journalists is their living conditions… most journalists now are poor,” says Waheed Abdel Mageed, who has been chosen as the Secretary General of the Conference. He says that the organizing committee is preparing a survey to collect data about journalists’ income, but he expects that the basic salary of a majority of journalists is less than the official minimum wage of 6000 pounds per month (Egyptian law grants some exceptions to businesses that demonstrate inability to pay the minimum wage).

His estimates are in line with what other journalists have told me. Mohammed El Hawari was a leading member of the editorial team at Al Masry Al Youm, and in 2020-2021 he worked on a proposal to develop the organization’s business model. During this process, he surveyed journalists’ salaries in other organizations to use as benchmarks. He found that the average salary for a journalist with ten years of experience was around 3000 pounds, and that some organizations paid their journalists as little as 900 pounds.

At the Press Syndicate, the number of journalists applying for financial aid has multiplied several times in recent years.

Salary increases have lagged far behind inflation which was caused by recurring rounds of currency devaluation ($1 was worth around eight pounds in 2016 and is now around 49 pounds). Mohamed Saad Abd Elhafiz said that in USD terms his salary now as a managing editor is almost half what it was 17 years ago when he started his career.

A story in Al Manassa last year profiled a young journalist working for a news website in the evening and taking up another job in the morning as a foreman at a cement factory to make ends meet. It is quite common for many Egyptian journalists to work for two or three news organizations at the same time to improve their income.

Journalists’ harsh working conditions have combined with their news organizations’ dire financial position to produce some pretty low-quality forms of journalism.

Desperate to increase traffic to their websites, many news organizations are focusing on the quantity of stories they produce, regardless of their quality. “They try to become the primary source of news by publishing as many stories as possible,” said El Hawari. The rationale is that this will reflect positively on the traffic coming to their websites from search engines and social media referrals. “In some organizations the salaries are conditional on the journalist achieving certain targets… so for example, they’d say, ‘you’ll only get your full salary if you produce a certain number of stories.’” El Hawari adds that this number could be dozens of pieces per day. Obviously, no journalist can produce proper stories on such a massive scale, so they churn out low-quality content instead.

Fathia El Dakhakhny who led Al Masry Al Youm’s news website a few years ago, gives the following example: “A deceased celebrity’s funeral might justifiably be worth one or two stories. Instead, websites would do ten or more small pieces about it, by publishing a separate story each time a famous person arrived at the funeral.”

Another common practice is that websites on any given day would publish a number of stories revolving around keywords that people often search for, such as the weather or the price of gold, to maximize traffic from search engines. These stories would often be almost identical, with only some minor changes in the headline and body.

At one point, it became clear that views on Facebook live videos can generate a lot of money, so plenty of news organizations went overboard in using them. Without proper training, journalists were encouraged to simply go live on Facebook from the location of whatever story they were covering. The result was often very low-quality coverage, and sometimes embarrassing ethical violations.

Click-bait stories and overly imposing advertisements have become a common feature of most Egyptian news websites. So too are stories that chase whatever is trending on social media at a given point, regardless of their news value. This can become quite frustrating to journalists and editors hoping to promote more serious forms of journalism. El Hawari remembers one day when a highly significant story about tribal clashes in Upper Egypt was ranking thirty-three on Al Masry Al Youm’s website, while the number one slot was occupied by a story entitled “Woman Walks Through London Streets With Man As Dog”.

Sensational and tabloid-style stories are always likely to generate more audience interest than highbrow news. Traditionally, serious news organizations have balanced the urge to bring in readers with their need to maintain a certain brand image as providers of reliable newsworthy coverage. However, the financial troubles of Egyptian news organizations in recent years have tilted the balance more and more toward audience maximization. Managers set overly ambitious traffic targets for their editorial teams with few quality control measures, and financial incentives are offered to journalists whose stories generate most traffic, with little regard to editorial value.

Dangerously Obsessing About Traffic

As I sat at Khaled El Balshi’s office in the syndicate our conversation was interrupted a few times by phone calls that he had to take. There were two problems he was dealing with that morning: The first was that the government had a couple of days earlier announced a new hike in fuel prices. Anticipating the usual wave of inflation that would likely follow, many journalists were now frantically demanding that El Balshi must act decisively to lobby the government for an increase in what is known as badal. For over fourty years, the government has paid journalists through their syndicate a monthly stipend, officially as an allowance—in Arabic ‘badal’—for training and professional development. The allowance is paid to all members of the syndicate, and is currently set at 3900 pounds per month. For many low-paid journalists it has become an essential part of their income, even if critics view it as a tool for the government to maintain leverage over the syndicate.

The second problem was that the previous day a news website had published a number of classified videos that were part of the prosecution’s evidence in an ongoing rape and murder trial. Expectedly, the Public Prosecutor’s office was incensed, and immediately announced it was launching an investigation into the leak. The publication of the videos—reportedly showing some of the crimes unfolding—potentially violated a number of ethical and legal codes, but they were likely to increase traffic to the website. In any case, the syndicate was bound to support its members as they faced investigation.

It occurred to me that the two problems symbolized the dilemma facing Egyptian journalism. The financial predicament of news organizations is leading them to dangerously obsess about traffic. A complicated relationship with authorities is leaving little room for high-quality journalism, thus alienating audiences and further contributing to the financial crisis. Meanwhile, overworked and underpaid journalists are mostly in no position but to produce low-quality content.

Can the planned General Conference of the Press Syndicate really hope to break this cycle?

Aside from Bassal’s committee that will focus on freedoms and legal reforms, the conference includes a committee that will address technological changes affecting journalism, and a third committee that will focus on the financial aspects of the industry. Yet, the challenges facing Egyptian journalism seem to be determined by market and political forces that are beyond the control of syndicate members who will attend the conference.

I asked Abdel Mageed what he thought these committees could achieve in terms of solutions. He offered some tentative thoughts, maintaining that specific proposals will only be developed by discussions within the committees. However, the main point about the conference was to mobilize journalists. “The aim is to produce a plan of action . . . but the real value of the conference and anything it produces will depend on how big the participation is. The wider it is, the more it will be possible to achieve things that cannot be achieved if participation is limited.”

Then, as if cautioning himself and his colleagues against over-optimism and complacency, he added, “It’s a double-edged sword; if engagement is lukewarm then [the conference] will lead to weakening journalists, the syndicate and journalism in general.”