Arab Detroit website strives for national readership

Arab Detroit readership is growing, along with its reach, staff, and maybe even its name.

The Dearborn-based website reports on news relevant to the Arab world for a readership that includes not only North America's growing Middle Eastern population and other Arabs around the world, but people who are interested in those areas.

The 4-year-old website is about to cross the 40,000-subscriber mark and hopes to go well beyond that as it continues to assert itself as a national publication. A name change to "Arab America" is also being considered. A little more than a quarter of the website's readership consists of non-Arabs interested in Middle Eastern-centric news, such as teachers and members of the media.

"Our goal is to have 100,000 subscribers," says Warren David, founder & publisher of Arab Detroit. "It's going to take us a year, but we're going to be at 100,000."

The site has hired three people over the last year, expanding its staff to seven. The new positions are on the technical and sales sides, as well as a content editor. David hopes to add another couple of sales reps over the next year as it grows its readership, especially as the U.S. Arab population now numbers four million.

"I think we have the potential to reach 500,000," David says. "I don't think that is that far out there."

Source: Warren David, founder & publisher of Arab Detroit
Writer: Jon Zemke

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