''The World Weekly'' was an international online magazine created in November 2012. The founding editor was
James Geary and the founding managing director
Rory O'Grady.
The magazine stopped publishing in June 2018.
Origins
Founded in November 2012, ''The World Weekly'' began publishing in January 2013 with 75,000 print copies being distributed at corporate venues, members' clubs and transport hubs around London.
It was backed by
Roland Rudd
Roland Dacre Rudd (born April 1961) is the founder and chairman of Finsbury (public relations), Finsbury (formerly RLM Finsbury), a public relations firm. Rudd was educated at Oxford University, becoming List of Presidents of the Oxford Union, ...
,
Lord Mervyn Davies and
Lord Jonathan Marland.
Much like other free newspapers, ''The World Weekly'' was handed out on the streets of London. Except its vendors wore yellow branded jackets and bowler hats. The plan was to distribute a
freemium
Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium," is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical (o ...
print edition first in London, before expanding to Hong Kong and New York City, with the aim of establishing a presence in 45 major cities.
Rory O'Grady described ''The World Weekly'' as an independent publication without any "specific political ideology" or "religious/non-religious view" with a "multidimensional" approach to news. Originally the magazine had rotating editors rather than one chief editor.
Content
''The World Weekly'' started out in 2012 aiming at translating content from international news providers and "building a global network of
stringers". It aimed to provide international news including non-Western points of view, with both free and premium services, targeting elite business, airlines and hotels.
Apart from ''The World Weeklys founding editor
James Geary in 2012,
the editor-in-chief in 2014 was Salman Shaheen. Shaheen described the journal's team as "very multicultural from all over the world" and aimed to "cut through the Western bias of big news organisations and get around entrenched political positions", and to "give readers the bigger picture".
In 2014, ''The Good Web Guide'' described ''The World Weekly'' as a "slick
aggregator" that offered "original analysis".
In 2015, its free service included retransmission of "leading" (according to
Media Diversity Institute
The Media Diversity Institute (MDI) is a London-based non-governmental organisation working with the media to improve reporting on ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality and other diversity issues.
The mission of MDI is to promote "responsible jou ...
) media articles and content from
think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
s and professional
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
s.
In 2015, ''The World Weekly'' was briefly taken offline by Turkish hackers over its critical coverage of
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Recep may refer to:
People Surname
* Aziz Recep (born 1992), German-Greek footballer
* Sibel Recep (born 1987), Swedish pop singer
Given name
* Recep Adanır (born 1929), Turkish footballer
* Recep Akdağ (born 1960), Turkish physician and poli ...
. At the time, editor-in-chief Salman Shaheen said the magazine “will not be silenced or intimidated”.
Shaheen left in 2017. His successor Manuel Langendorf, later a
European Council on Foreign Relations
The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is a pan-European think tank with offices in seven European capitals. Launched in October 2007, it conducts research on European foreign and security policy and provides a meeting space for decisi ...
visiting fellow, was the magazine's editor-in-chief until it ceased publishing in June 2018.
World Weekly Media Ltd was dissolved on October 15 2019.
Editors
''The World Weekly'' ceased publishing in 2018 after a six-year run. During those six years, the magazine had several editors:
* 2012-2014:
James Geary, Cathy Galvin, Peter Guest, Karen Bartlett
* 2014-2017: Salman Shaheen
* 2017-2018: Manuel Langendorf
References
External links
* {{official website
Publications established in 2012
British news websites
Defunct magazines