Al Jazeera fails to make a go of US operations
15 Jan 2016
Al Jazeera America will end its cable TV and digital operations in the united States on 30 April.
The decision, made by AJAM's board, was "driven by the fact that our business model is simply not sustainable in light of the economic challenges in the US media marketplace", chief executive Al Anstey wrote in an email to employees.
Al Jazeera America is owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is funded by the Qatari royal family. AJAM runs fewer ads than its competitors while having a very small audience - it averaged only 7,000 prime time viewers in the 25-43 demographic in 2015.
The American arm of the Qatar-based media company was launched in August 2013. Al Jazeera had previously struggled to penetrate the American market, and bought cable news network Current TV, much of whose staff was absorbed into Al Jazeera America.
Despite producing quality news content, including a recent documentary about doping that prompted lawsuits from baseball stars Ryan Howard and Ryan Zimmerman, the network didn't catch on in the crowded American cable news field, and was plagued by internal strife from the very beginning.
The Al Jazeera Media Network will reallocate resources to focus on expanding its global digital properties. The network operates many news websites, including an English-language edition, and has had great success with AJ+, its online and mobile-only news channel that launched in 2014.
The shutdown comes less than three years after a massive investment in a cable news operation aimed at rivaling CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.
In mid-2013, the channel went live after hiring some 850 staff and opening 12 bureaus in the United States.
The wind down of Al Jazeera America will not affect the rest of the group's global media operations, the memo said.
The move comes amid a growing shift of TV viewers to digital platforms. In news, this includes startups like Vice Media.
The channel, an offshoot of the Qatar-based Al Jazeera cable network, had trouble persuading cable and satellite companies to carry it, and viewers to watch. It failed despite a promise to offer serious-minded journalism and some award-winning work.
"I'm not sure it was inevitable, but it's certainly not surprising," said Philip Seib, a University of Southern California journalism professor and author of the book 'The Al Jazeera Effect'.
"In the news environment today there is so much competition that it is virtually impossible for a new company to get any traction."
Al Jazeera also could not overcome suspicion among some potential viewers about its motives bred in the years after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Last month, Al Jazeera America was honoured with an Alfred I duPont-Columbia University journalism award for a documentary that depicted the lives of working class Americans.
