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Dubai - Khaleej Times remains the UAE's favourite English news provider, with audience spending more time reading KT compared to our main competitor.

Khaleej Times, the UAE's first English newspaper, remains the country's favourite English news provider as the audience spends more time reading KT compared to our main competitor.
In news, every second matters. Our readers spend an average of nine minutes with Khaleej Times every day as against 8.8 minutes with our closest competitor, according to the recently published 2017 National Readership Survey by Ipsos.
The definitive survey is based on responses from 4,000 UAE residents, including a mix of nationalities (Emiratis, Arab and non-Arab expatriates).
Similarly, Khaleej Times also takes a clear lead in terms of frequency, based on reading 1 to 3 issues on a weekly basis - more than our competitor. As many as 13 and 46 per cent residents read between 1 and 2-3 issues, respectively, of Khaleej Times as compared to 12 and 38 per cent, respectively, of our main competitor.
With regard to recency, 53 per cent of UAE residents confirmed that they read Khaleej Times yesterday as compared to 52 per cent for its main competitor.
Khaleej Times also took lead in "source of obtaining last read issue", where 42 per cent of survey responded revealed that they bought KT, leading our competitor by nine percentage points.
Importantly, Khaleej Times is also widely popular among graduate and post-graduate residents with 69 per cent of them reading the newspaper. This is followed by 29 per cent of intermediate and secondary school residents. These figures are in line with its competitors.
The UAE's first English newspaper is also quite widely read among upper/middle management, professionals such as doctors and lawyers. The daily enjoys more readership than its competitor.


What advertisers say...
Being the first and the most trusted UAE newspaper, Satish Mayya, chief executive officer of BPG Maxus, says Khaleej Times is read by generations together.
"Since the credibility is well-established over a period of time, it has developed loyal readers. The main newspaper has a new appeal and it is classy in terms of presentation and looks. The Business section comes out with excellent stories and engages the readers."
"The layout of the Business section is reader-friendly and appeals to that audience," he added.

Mayya also praised KT's mobile app which has scored well over competitors and is accepted by one and all.
Nobel Ravindran, general mananger, Media & Publications, Jashanmal National Co, says he closely watches and monitors the effectiveness of adverts in print media.
"KT provides excellent in-depth coverage of local and international news. The format is much more user friendly, has a neat and tidy page layout, offers more reading content per page - particularly on the front page - rather than same story spread over another page. These are a few brownie points I would love to pass on to KT. KT's format is far ahead and effective and it has evolved a lot over the past 10 years. Well done! Keep up the good work, Team KT!," says Ravindran.

From another loyal reader's point of view, there are many areas where Khaleej Times stands out, says Dheeraj Thakur, account director, Publink Advertising and PR Dubai.
"Today, when we have multiple sources to get our regular dosage and news update, the role of a newspaper has changed from just a news provider to a news analyser. Khaleej Times has embraced that transformation in the right manner.
"Moreover, especially during the weekends, there is a great shift towards features. The features are well-written and interesting. The reader gets a good fill of articles that transform the newspaper to a different level. Even the layout of the Expressions section is reader-friendly. With regard to the online edition, ease of navigation helps KT to retain readers during changing times," Thakur said.


What readers say...
Sunil Menon, a Dubai-based financial consultant, says that he has been a KT subscriber ever since he came to Dubai in 2003.
"I never felt the need to change (to other newspaper) as KT gives comprehensive coverage, particularly in the Indian segment. I love Matein Khalid and his [Global Investing] column every Monday on the Markets page. The WKND magazine is very refreshing, as are daily crosswords. In fact, I love all your segments; I can't pick one over the other. By habit, I read only print in the morning," reveals Menon, a Khaleej Times subscriber for 15 years.

"I have been a Khaleej Times reader for many years. I try to remain as updated as I can on the local news as well as international events. When I have some time in the office, I like to check out the news posted on KT's Facebook page. I first like to go through all the sports news, and then the business news. It is important for me to keep track of the latest in the forex market. I also like to keep an eye on the weather and any traffic news, which is regularly updated," says Aftab Ahmad Qureshi, a KT reader based in Abu Dhabi.
Kiran Viswam, a senior data analyst, says that "although I like to read news on digital platforms, I still prefer getting the newspaper as I am quite old-school like that. I prefer Khaleej Times over others because coverage of local news is more in-depth."
Najeeb Mohamed, a UAE-based businessman and a loyal reader of Khaleej Times, states that he prefers reading news digitally because of the convenience it offers as all stories are at the fingertips.

"I like reading Khaleej Times instead of other newspapers because the sports stories are more detailed and local events are better displayed."
Another KT reader, Mithun Menon, an insurance executive, believes that the coverage of news is more extensive and reader-friendly rather its rivals.
"I am more partial to print since newspaper reading has been inculcated in me since childhood," adds Menon.

With inputs from Sandhya D'Mello and Deepthi Nair
- waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com