ENEX Expands Further in the Middle East

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As the Middle East again dominates the news agenda ENEX, has announced a series of further partnerships in the region. The expansion comes in three parts: a major agreement has been reached with a leading pan-Arab news agency to supply content, a new Jordanian television channel joins and, for the first time ever, ENEX will take on a wholly print and digital entity from Egypt into the group.

Arab 24, is headquartered in Amman, Jordan and is a leading independent Middle East and North Africa news-gathering agency covering key events and breaking news. Founded in 2015 the agency has rapidly expanded during a tumultuous period of news events in the region.  Adrian Wells, Managing Director of ENEX, said, ‘’Partnering with Arab 24 adds a new level to ENEX’s coverage of the MENA region. Arab 24 has on-the-ground expertise in some of the most difficult places to report in the world and we are delighted to bring their content to our members and work closely to grow our collaboration further.’’

Shadia Ajlouni, the Istanbul-based Regional Operations Manager for Arab 24 welcomed the move saying: ‘’The Arabic speaking region is characterized by unique political, social, cultural and linguistic nuances. Arab 24 has built keen competency in understanding this environment to bring to viewers across the globe a comprehensive picture of vital headline news stories and those that are otherwise overlooked, ignored or misrepresented. Our partnership with ENEX will enhance this even further.’’  The agency has fully equipped production teams in all the key regional capital cities and news hotspots and an office in Washington DC.

Al Ordon Al Yoom (Jordan Today)

ENEX’s global membership base now reaches 56 with the latest signing of Al Ordon Al Yoom (Jordan Today), one of Jordan’s leading commercial news channels. ENEX now has five Middle Eastern partners and talks on-going with a number of others.

The Middle East expansion follows similar regional growth in Latin America and Asia. ENEX has news editors based in Bogota, Colombia and Sydney Australia and has ambitions to locate a news editor in the Middle East to coordinate news activities.

Hamza Attar

The latest agreements were negotiated by ENEX’s MENA Operations Manager Hamza Attar who has previously worked in Egypt, Gaza and the United Arab Emirates.

ENEX has also reached outline agreement with the leading privately owned Egyptian newspaper and digital entity Al Masry Al Youm (The Egyptian Today). The newspaper is rapidly developing its digital edition and seeking to incorporate more video into its offer.

Enex has traditionally partnered with commercial broadcasters but this latest negotiation signals a move to broaden ENEX membership not just geographically but to other types of media entities.

GA 2018 Vilnius: One of the most exciting ENEX General Assemblies

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Vilnius turned out to be one of the most exciting and interesting ENEX General Assemblies ever. The conference sessions included: how artificial intelligence is affecting the news industry, digital disruption, fake news, cyber warfare, augmented and virtual reality, oh and a private briefing with the President of Lithuania!

Even more revealing was the beautiful city of Vilnius and the warmth and professionalism of our hosts, LNK, Lithuania.

The GA keynote address was delivered by renowned author Dr Kjell Nordstrom whose theories include how the 85% of the world’s population will soon live in a number of super-sized cities.

ENEX General Assembly attendees meeting H.E. Dalia Grybauskaite, President of the Republic of Lithuania at the President Palace in Vilnius

ENEX General Assembly attendees meeting H.E. Dalia Grybauskaite, President of the Republic of Lithuania at the President Palace in Vilnius

ENEX MD Adrian Wells and Shadia Ajlouni, Regional Manager ABS Network sign new partnership agreement with Jordan’s Al Ordon Al Yoom channel

Talking about Fake News: Olaf Steenfadt, Reporters Without Borders Sonja Schwetje, RTL Rep. on European Commission HLG, n-tv Germany, Marc Schreuder, Deputy Editor in Chief, RTL 4 NL

New Cold War, Cyber War, Propaganda Panel. Moderated by: Dr. Margarita Seselgyte, Studies Director at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University. Introduction by Donara Barojan, Assist. Director for R&D, Atlantic Council; Linas Linkevičius, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania; Michail Kasyanov, former Prime Minister of Russia Tacan Ildem, Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy, NATO

Welcome speech by ENEX Managing Director Adrian Wells

ENEX General Assembly attendees meeting H.E. Dalia Grybauskaite, President of the Republic of Lithuania at the President Palace in Vilnius

ENEX Goes Far East

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ShanghaiEye, part of the Shanghai Media Group (SMG) is joining ENEX in one of the most important expansions in recent years for the organisation. ENEX’s growth plan is now focusing on Asia with China the most significant strategic partner for ENEX in the region.  China’s economic and political influence is obvious and, of course, its population of 1.4 billion, makes it the most populous country in the world.
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ENEX News Cooperation Partners Are Sometimes In Unexpected Locations…

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ENEX News cooperation partners are sometimes in unexpected locations: Take Unitel, Bolivia for example, which last week (April 26-27) hosted more than 80 attendees at a gathering of ENEX Latin American partners and ENEX’s sister organisation, the Allianza Informativa Latin Americana (AIL). Headquartered in Santa Cruz de La Sierra, Unitel is Bolivia’s leading commercial television channel and news service. Read more

Welcome back to Stod 2 Iceland

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ENEX is welcoming back an Icelandic partner to the news alliance. Channel 2 (Stod 2) Iceland is part of Syn, the parent company of Vodafone Iceland, which operates several radio and television stations and one of Iceland’s main digital news sites, visir.is. Channel 2’s Editor in Chief, Thorir Gudmundsson, said, “Rejoining the ENEX partnership is part of an ambitous policy of strengthening our domestic and international news coverage. We are happy to be back.“ Read more

The Future Of Government Communication

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The future of communication was discussed at the 7th edition of the International Government Communication Forum in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. The meeting came as huge questions are being asked about how governments communicate with their citizens and what responsibilities lie with the technology giants like Facebook and Google? ENEX was participating in the conference as a media partner. Read more

HRH the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg paid a special visit to ENEX

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HRH the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg paid a special visit to ENEX Headquarters Wednesday 14 March. Luxembourg is the only ‘Grand Duchy’ in the world and Grand Duke Henri has ruled since 2000. The Grand Duchess, Maria Teresa is originally from Cuba and married into the Luxembourgish Royal Family in 1981. The delegation also included RTL ‘royalty’ as Liz Mohn and Brigitte Mohn accompanied the royals. The Mohn family are the owners of Bertlesmann media – one of the world’s largest media companies and ultimate owner of RTL. Read more

Indoors is one of few places it doesn’t rain in Bergen. ENEX members with TV2 rain hats

Big Audience For Bergen

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TV2 News studio with robotic camera rail and advanced lighting scheme

‘ENEX keeps on growing’ was the key message to a record number (75) of journalists and coordinators from ENEX’s partners when they met in Bergen, Norway, February 22nd and 23rd.  The event was hosted by TV2 Norway which has just moved into a new media centre. The building hosts TV2 and many other media and technology companies.  It is a small city but Bergen has a big profile in media, being the venue for the Nordic Media Festival (May 2nd -4th) and the home of many innovative broadcast technology companies like Vizrt, Wolftech and Vimond.

New Partnerships

Recently ENEX has secured a new partner in Panama and hopes to welcome back an Icelandic partner in the near future. A trial cooperation has also started with the Shanghai Media Group as ENEX’s growth strategy moves towards Asia. ENEX’s Head of News, Mark Evans, told the audience that items named ‘Donald Trump’ topped the category list of most broadcast content. Other traditional ENEX favourites included weather stories, elections, attacks and shootings, protests and referendums.  Read more

ECO TV Panama joins ENEX

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The ENEX partnership is growing again, this time with a new member joining from Panama. ECO TV is a 24-hour news channel offering opinion, analysis, interviews and is an exclusive channel of the main cable company in Panama, Cable Onda. ECO’s news journalists and presenters are highly experienced and its schedule includes many innovative formats. The channel is ENEX’s 14th partner from Latin America. Of course, famous for the canal, Panama is also a centre for trade, agriculture and tourism.

Soraya Castellano, ECO Senior Manager

Soraya Castellano, ECO Senior Manager

Soraya Castellano, ECO Senior Manager, said, “The incorporation of ECO to the ENEX gives us exclusive and differentiated content in an increasingly globalised and competitive world. Through this alliance, we now possess news content from Europe, Asia, and North America, which allows us to offer our audience relevant and immediate information.”

Adrian Wells, ENEX Managing Director, said, “ENEX is now very strong in Latin America. ECO is a great addition for us alongside other progress we are making in the Middle East and Asia.”

ENEX General Assembly Dubai 2017

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For those of you who missed it, or those who want to be reminded, this is a summary (helped by some pictures and links) of our very successful annual General Assembly in Dubai.

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