TECHNICAL DETAILS

 20TH ANNIVERSARY -AL ITTIHAD NEWSPAPER

The daily Arabic newspaper AL ITTIHAD is a publication of the AI Ittihad Press Publishing and Distribution Corporation Established by U.A.E. Federal Decree on March 25th 1977.

AL ITTIHAD Newspaper was formerly published by the Department pf Information and Tourism -Abu Dhabi as a weekly newspaper, and was first issued on Monday 20th of October 1969. AL ITTIHAD was published one day before the arrival of their Highnesses the Rulers of the Emirates to Abu Dhabi, to attend their fifth meeting of the formation of the Federation.

On 22nd of April 1972, AL ITTIHAD was changed to a daily newspaper, when a local printing press was available to undertake the printing. The first daily issues were published for two weeks, before the 22nd of April 1972, and during the festival of the Anniversary of His Highness Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan AI Nahyan's Accession as the Ruler of Abu Dhabi, on 6th of August 1971, when the newspaper was printed by one of the local printing press.

On the 8th February 1974, AL ITTIHAD entered a new stage, by increasing the publishing interests, recruiting more qualified labour in order to expand its interests from the local environment, and cover the Gulf, Arab and international events.

In 1977 AL ITTIHAD was increased to twelve pages with a total improvement in the different techniques which helped greatly to increase the distribution to 30,000 copies and then to 55,000 in 1980.

During the 1980's AL ITTIHAD expanded rapidly. New internal and external offices were opened, and representatives and correspondents were appointed in many countries in order to cover all the important events. The daily distribution of the newspaper increased to 65,000.