Neither advertising nor subscriptions, even less private capital and secret funds: when the site Orient XXI launched on the Internet in the spring of 2013, at the initiative of a small team of enthusiasts of the Arab-Muslim world, its very modest finances contrast with its great ambitions: to decipher the evolution of a geographical area stretching from Morocco to Afghanistan, provide keys to understanding a region as complex as it is central to the balance of the contemporary world.
Ten years later, this somewhat crazy bet was taken up. With an average of 300,000 unique visitors per month, the pure player, which publishes five large articles per week, has found its audience.
Thanks to a vast network of volunteer editors, two fundraising campaigns per year and some state aid, he has also found his economic model. “We were convinced that there was a void of information, an urgent void to be filled in the face of the clichés and simplifications which lead to the war of civilizations, to the crusade against Islam”explains Alain Gresh, director of the site.
Retired press founders
This former deputy director of Diplomatic worldspecialist in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to which he has devoted several works, is the soul ofOrient XXI. It was around him that the small group of founders was formed: young retirees, from the press – like Jean-Pierre Séréni, former director of New Economistand Henri Mamarbachi, a former AFP – or diplomacy – like Christian Jouret, former political advisor to the European Union’s special envoy to the Middle East –, all determined to continue working on a region to to which they devoted a good part of their career.
This initial core was joined by around twenty journalists and researchers, some from the Arab world, who form the site’s editorial committee and contribute regularly, under the leadership of Sarra Grira, the editor-in-chief, previously to France 24. This diversity of profiles gives Orient XXI a unique tone, halfway between a specialized media and an academic publication.
The newspaper follows major political events shaking the Middle East and the Maghreb. But he is also interested in the underlying economic, cultural or environmental dynamics that shape these societies, while publishing historical analyzes and short educational articles, focusing in particular on key notions of the Muslim religion.
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