Discussion for article #244636
I am surprised by this. Any fool would know that their establishing an audience in the US would take years of investment. If they weren’t in it for the long haul with a business plan that allowed several years of lossing money why did they even begin?
It makes no sense at all.
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Probably a different name might have helped.
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Al Jazeera has been my preferred cable news channel for about a year now. It reminded me of CNN of about 25 years ago. Just news. Less opinion. Some long form news stories. I liked it a lot. Tried to get others to watch. Those who did liked it also. Not sure what I’ll watch now.
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I wonder if it is another victim of the low oil prices. Qatar may not have the cash.
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I’ve watched Al Jazeera and liked it. Much more straight news, international and long form stories than CNN, MSNBC and Fox. To me they were the only real news network on cable.
But they had the worst branding ever. I’m sure many people could never get beyond the name and the calligraphy logo. Many Americans couldn’t tell you the difference between Al Jazeera and Al Qaeda. When I told people that I thought it was a good source for news they reacted as if I got my information straight from ISIS.
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When Al Jazeera America rolled out, it blocked my access to the international Al Jazeera, which is what I wanted to see. Maybe access will come back now, in that case this is a win.
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I enjoy Al Jazeera and their in depth stories on real important issues, The negative side is that you see the misery that is happening in this world which is very hard to take most times. I am very sorry to hear this. A lot of folks are going to be out of a job. Many reporters from our various networks have landed there,
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I agree. Really sad that there name turned people off. Ignorance abounds
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Agree, I for one visited their website every day, will be sorry to see them go.
… the network’s founders pledged to counter the din of cable news with in-depth reporting and smart commentary.
That’s their problem right there. They wanted to do in-depth reporting and smart commentary. You call that a business model? It sounds like a suicide pact to me.
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Just the name “Al Jazeera” was a no-go in the US.
“The AJ” would have gotten them better than they got. Or “AJAM”
And the Arabic calligraphy logo? That was insane to try and sail under that flag.
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Ya know it friggen figures. I too liked this network better then the others. I do think the name was a bad idea. I have the app on my phone, will it disappear I wonder?
One less outlet for real news. I’ll now have to fall back on BBC World News, CBC and France 24.
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I was never able to access Al Jazeera to assess the news channel for myself since basic cable where I live wouldn’t put it on their list of alternative news sources unless you paid extra. That’s Comcast trying to run out the competition if you ask me. As a startup news organization with lots of Qatari money to back it up, they should have seen that as an early impediment and negotiated a better deal or something. There are forces I believe that were hoping for it to fail dating back to, well, the Iraq War when they accused them of biased journalism. We only have 5 or 6 big multi-media conglomerates in this country now. That’s the real problem for the industry. A lack of competition in the cable news business with alternative points of view is just one of the outcomes it seems.
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It’s not like the gov’t of Qatar is short of money. I would have thought they’d want an audience here in the US. They were a much better site for news than CNN lately.
While I feel a great sadness for the folks losing their jobs, I can’t say I’ll miss AJA all that much. I had been a steady viewer, until they stopped the Arabic Language availability in the US. If I want English language news, there are dozens of places to get it, most of which are (happily) NOT American.
But if one wants and likes Arabic News, AJA became a big fat ZERO.
I can only remember using them for News once or twice after that change.
Maybe once AJA dies, I will be able to get the genuine Arabic programming back again.
It’s amazing to me how people rich beyond any man’s dreams “can’t find” their checkbooks now that oil has dropped below $30 a barrel. The only down side is that a bunch of good people are being “dropped” right along with AJA.
Oh well, so much for principled journalism. When it all comes down to a checkbook (and all of it does) I guess we’re all just SOL. Just ask Sheldon Adelson and Rupert Murdoch, and…
It’s brilliant of you to provide an ambiguous example of ignorance abounding!
“Really sad that their name turned people off.”
Or did you intend the southern version?
“Really sad that-there name turned people off.”
This is horrible news, but I am not at all surprised. America is not smart enough for this network to succeed.
This country prefers opinions over facts.