The Gulf Daily News was the first daily English newspaper to be published in Bahrain. It was founded in March 1978 by the Al Hilal Group which is also the publisher. The group also publishes Akhbar Al Khaleej, an Arabic daily. Until the publishing of Bahrain Tribune, the paper held the status as Bahrain's only English newspaper. The paper was created with a focus to provide news to the English-speaking residents of Bahrain, consisting mainly of British, Americans, Filipinos, Indians and Pakistanis. The staff are a mixture of Bahrainis, British, Filipinos and Indians. Traditionally, the Gulf Daily News is a pro-government publication, despite its largely balanced coverage of domestic affairs following political reforms instigated after 2001. It's diverse staff include both Sunni and Shia Muslims, while other faiths represented on its workforce include Christians, Hindus, and Sikhs. The newspaper has several columnists who write regularly about local issues.
Reporters
The GDN currently has some of the Arabian Gulf's widely known writers working for it, namely the following: Mohammed Al A'ali, Sandeep Singh Grewal, Raji Unnikrishnan and Avinash Saxena. Notable past reporters: Arthur Macdonald, Mandeep Singh, Indira Chand, Reem Antoon, Colin Young, Amira Al Husseini, Eunice Del Rosario, Sara Wickham, Tariq Khonji, Soman Baby, Noor Toorani, David Fox and Mohammed Mohsen. Reporters who have since died include Les Horton, Richard Moore, Vinitha Vishwanath, Sanjay Santiago and Mohammed Aslam.
''Gulf Daily News'' today
The Gulf Daily News is the most prominent current Bahrain daily newspaper. The newspaper is currently owned by the Al Hilal Group. The paper is based in Bahrain with its editorial offices located at Isa Town and commercial offices in Exhibition Road. The GDN has created a close relationship with readers and advertisers throughout the years and is the number one used form of media today for daily newspaper promotional campaigns. The newspaper has a paid daily circulation of 11,500 copies. News content is primarily local, political and social news, but the paper also features international business and social news deemed to be of interest to its readership. In addition, the GDN has established a significant online presence through its website www.gdnonline.com, with a monthly readership of more than 200,000, as well as its social media channels such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter - on which its followers total more than 100,000. Its online success has been driven in part by the launch of a video production operation in mid-2018.
Major sections
The newspaper is organized in four sections: ;1. News : Includes International, National, Business, Sports, Weather. ;2. Opinion : Includes Editorials, Op-Eds and Letters to the Editor. ;3. Features : Includes Cinema schedules, Local events, Crossword/Games, Cartoons, Horoscopes, Channel schedules. ;4. Classifieds ;5. Archives: Includes back-dated issues of the newspaper
Style
The paper has a page size of 36 cm x 26 cm and a column width of 3.45 cm with 7 columns per page. It is printed via Web Offset and has a 100 lpi screen
Online edition
A revamped website of the Gulf Daily News was launched in June 2015.The website also caters to the people of GCC countries including UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. While the readers have to pay for the local Bahrain content, other sections are free to access.
