Al Akhbar (Egypt)


Al Akhbar is an Arabic daily newspaper based in Egypt. It is a state-owned semi-official newspaper.

History and profile

Al Akhbar was first published in May 1952 as a part of Akhbar el-Yom. The founders were the Amin brothers, Ali and Mustafa Amin. The publisher is Dar Akhbar El Yom. The paper is headquartered in Cairo.
Egyptian novelist Gamal El-Ghitani is one of the former contributors and editors-in-chief of the daily. He was appointed to the post in 1985. Another prominent Egyptian author Anis Mansour was also the editor-in-chief of the daily. In January 2011 Mohamed Barakat was appointed editor-in-chief, replacing Mohamed Mahdy Fadly in the post. Mohammad Hassan El Bana assumed the post during the Morsi era. Ibrahim Abdul Meguid worked for the daily and was dismissed during the same period due to his critical articles about the Muslim Brotherhood. The paper also ceased its "free opinion" section and fired several contributors during the same period.
In terms of institutional size, it is the second daily in the country after Al Ahram. During the 1950s Al Akhbar had a circulation of over 700,000 copies. In 1976, the paper was the most read daily in Egypt with a circulation of 650,000 copies. The circulation of the daily in 2000 was 1.1 million copies. The 2005 circulation of the daily was 750,000 copies.