Al-Madina Newspaper

Al-Madina Newspaper is one of the private local newspapers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and one of the first Saudi newspapers to publish photographs. Its first issue was published on April 8, 1937. It was founded by Ali Hafez and his brother Othman and It is published by al-Madina Establishment for Press and Publishing.

Al-Madina Newspaper is published daily in Jeddah Governorate. It has offices inside and outside the Kingdom and employs a number of reporters. The number of its local offices specifically reaches eighteen offices, in addition to one regional office in Cairo. Since its foundation, the newspaper has focused on spreading culture, expanding areas of knowledge, and monitoring local and international news. Amin Madani was its first editor-in-chief.

Sections in al-Madina Newspaper contain local and international news and encompass politics and culture, economics, health and sports, technology, articles by opinion writers, job advertisements, some oddities, cartoons, infographics, selected and expressive daily photos of any event, and women’s news. Moreover, some of its pages are dedicated to congratulations, such as promotions, honors, etc., in addition to condolences.

The Newspaper's website offers an electronic version of the newspaper, in addition to an archive tab that facilitates browsing through its previous issues. Al-Madina Newspaper partners with local and Arab news agencies, including the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the Gulf News, and internationally the Associated Press, Reuters, the German Press Agency, and Agence France-Presse.

In its early stages, al-Madina Newspaper was initially published with four pages from al-Madinah al-Munawwarah, and it was released on a weekly basis. Then, it expanded, spread, and increased the number of its pages. It reached a new stage and began to be published twice a week. The newspaper continued to be published from al-Madinah al-Munawwarah until the beginning of 1963. On June 25, 1963, it started to be published on a daily basis except for Fridays. This was after its headquarters transfer to Jeddah Governorate when Hisham Hafez became editor-in-chief. Then the Newspaper continued its operations until the first issue canceling the weekly holiday was published, specifically on December 16, 1981, thus remaining active throughout the week.

The Newspaper was characterized by issuing supplements that differed from other newspapers during that time. In 1978, it published the first sports supplement entitled 'Sports Stadiums', while its first weekly cultural supplement called 'Wednesday' was issued in 1982.