Before the first issue of Al-Ahram Weekly there were four zero issues published with a view to achieving the best possible journalistic quality and to determine the new newspaper's relationship to its readers, its local and regional context – particularly after the first Gulf War. The challenge was to work out two questions: Who is the Weekly's reader? And how can we stand out at a time when numerous newspapers were practically identical in terms of layout and division? There was concern with losing the value of journalism when you do not honestly and clearly convey what is happening in society. When you ignore the social issues, your vision becomes unclear and you end up producing what is known in Egypt as “newspaper talk”. Journalism in the 21st century has developed on many different levels – both in terms of the techniques used, notably with the advent of the Internet – many print papers, most recently the British Independent, disappeared – and at the human level as well, with a more inclusive and open approach to public life. The first issue of the Weekly appeared on 28 February 1991 as a liberal English-language national weekly newspaper, but before too long it had become a leading newspaper beyond its immediate brief, more liberal and, I daresay, more professional than its Arabic, daily counterpart. The founding team of the Weekly was made up of Olfat Al-Tohami, Ragia Nashaat, Jill Kamel, Fayza Hassan, Ghada Ragab, Mourad Wahba, Mona Anis, Mursi Saadeddin, Wadie Kyrollos, Mamdouh Al-Dakhakhni and Bahgat Badie. They were as eager as they were qualified for the task at hand. The team had been painstakingly gathered by the founding editor Hosny Guindy, whose deputy was Hassan Fouad. Mohamed Salmawy was the managing editor, and I was the head of design. The Weekly also drew in Al-Ahram journalists like Mahmoud Mourad, Ezzat Al-Saadani, Ismail Al-Baqari, Mohamed Basha, Abdel-Rahman Akl, Hedayat Abdel-Nabi and Mustafa Al-Naggar. Mohamed Hassanein Heikal also found the idea appealing and he met with the team of the Weekly to discuss the state of the press in general and Egypt's need of just such a platform. Our initial problem was writing in English, followed by the challenges of editing and proofreading – choosing among British and American styles (we settled on the former) and developing our own style book to give the Weekly its own unique character. As the team started to make its mark ideas flowed and we relished the taste of professional journalism in English. The Independent had published a book about developing their own look and format, and that proved invaluable to us. We settled on a distinctive format that nonetheless remained open to development. Indeed in its 25 years, despite the change of management, the Weekly has utilised every development in print and web journalism. On the publication of the first issue, a letter of congratulation arrived from the presidency praising the issue and demanding that it should set space aside for embassy announcements as well as advertising and property sales. I recall the former chairman of the Press Syndicate Kamel Al-Zohairy expressing his happiness that Egypt should have press establishments like Al-Ahram and Al-Hilal that not only were over 100 years old but were also constantly reinventing themselves and living up to the challenges of the new age.
