Fortune launches Arabic editions

Fortune launched two local Arabic-language editions in the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, it was announced Tuesday.

These are the first two markets where Fortune Arabia will be available, followed by an additional five local editions — Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Levant (which will include Lebanon, Jordan and Syria) and Qatar — scheduled for release in 2012.

Fortune’s Middle East editions will be published monthly, in Arabic, through a license agreement between Time Inc. and AWI Co. The Fortune Arabia team is run and headed by Elie Wakim, vice president of magazines at AWI, along with the publisher, Komal Bajaj and managing editor, Bilal Hijjawi.

With the addition of these seven local editions in Arabic, Fortune will publish a total of 13 foreign-language editions, including China, Turkey, Korea, Indonesia, the recently launched edition in India and the twice-yearly special issues in Greece.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.