Al-Hayat ( ar, الحياة meaning "Life") was a London-based,
pan-Arab newspaper owned by
Saudi Prince Khalid bin Sultan
Khaled bin Sultan Al Saud ( ar, خالد بن سلطان بن عبد العزيز آل سعود) (born 24 September 1949) is the former deputy minister of defense and a member of the House of Saud.
Early life and education
Prince Khalid was born ...
, that had a circulation estimated over 200,000.
It was the
newspaper of record for the Arab
diaspora
A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews afte ...
and the preferred venue for liberal intellectuals who wish to express themselves to a large public. Founded in 1946, the paper closed in March 2020 after years of financial problems.
Though rather pro-West and pro-Saudi with respect to articles concerning the Arabian peninsula, it was quite open to various opinions concerning other regional questions. ''Al-Hayat'' prints in London, New York, Frankfurt, Dubai, Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Beirut and Cairo.
The newspaper had offices in London, Paris, Washington, New York, Moscow, Riyadh, Jeddah, Beirut, Cairo, Baghdad, Dubai, Amman, and Damascus, among others.
The newspaper was "regarded as by far and away the best and most intensely read Arab newspaper", according to a 1997 article in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''.
[Ibrahim, Youssef, M.]
"Al Hayat: A Journalistic Noah's Ark"
article, ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', 15 January 1997. Retrieved 26 March 2008 A 2005 article in the same paper described ''Al-Hayat'' as a "decidedly Arab nationalist paper".
[Fattah, Hassan, M.]
"Spreading the Word: Who's Who in the Arab Media"
6 February 2005. Retrieved 26 March 2008 The newspaper was distributed in most Arab countries, and most of its editors were from Lebanon, where ''Al-Hayat'' was very popular. It was more critical of the Saudi government than its main rival, ''