The Scoop
Moniify was meant to speak to a new generation of investors in emerging markets — a population keen on investment apps, with an outsized enthusiasm for crypto, and an entrepreneurial streak. Unveiled by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris at a lavish launch party at Dubai’s Museum of the Future in November, the UAE-based outlet hired aggressively, spent prolifically, and made the competition take notice.
But it quickly ran into the harsh realities of the news business, multiple current and former staffers told Semafor.
Around $50 million — furnished by the Sawiris family office — was spent by the time Moniify launched, and those working on the business plan forecast another $50 million in annual running costs after that, one person with direct knowledge told Semafor. Runaway expenses mounted: two years of strategizing and extensive hiring before Moniify published its first story, expensive studio rentals that went unused, a new office in a creative district in Abu Dhabi, and a staffing plan that called for a 100-plus person newsroom. The scale of spending gave Sawiris pause, people with direct knowledge told Semafor.
Moniify’s then-CEO Michael Peters and most of the newsroom was fired in early February. Moniify pivoted to financial literacy soon after. And Lana Sawiris — the billionaire’s daughter and a former communications manager for French luxury brand Christian Louboutin — was appointed to lead the outlet under a new, video-only strategy revealed internally in March.
Sawiris’ family office, Moniify, and Peters did not respond to requests for comment.
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Staffed up with alums from places like Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, VICE News, The Wall Street Journal, and the South China Morning Post, Moniify tried to differentiate itself in a quickly expanding landscape of fin-fluencers and financial journalists. In appearance, it stood out from more staid Gulf media outlets, featuring a slick interface with tickers for FAANG stocks and crypto, TikTok-style short-form videos on its homepage, and articles focused on tech, stock picks, and venture capital.
Early headlines included an analysis of Nvidia’s share price and an explainer on the difference between crypto and Web3, as well as an interview with Fix Chocolate founder Sarah Hamouda, maker of the original Dubai Chocolate.
But six current and former employees from the editorial and business divisions described an organization that struggled to find coherence in an editorial strategy. In the weeks before Moniify went online, reporters and editors agonized over whether the language they were using in their early drafts was “Gen Z enough” — using terms like “earnings seazn” and “slay” in stories, which, in Millennial vernacular, felt pretty cringe to some staff.
They were not helped by Peters, previously the top executive at loss-making, linear TV channel Euronews, who struggled to deliver a working business model, those who worked for him said.
During an all-hands meeting a month before launch, one reporter asked Peters how Moniify would measure success, and over what time frame. Peters, who is Franco-German, joked English wasn’t his first language and said that he didn’t know, a person who was at the meeting said.
The Sawiris family office tasked the editorial staff to come up with novel ways to drum up cashflow. One idea that never left the drawing board: Sublet the tiny studio space in their Media City offices to other media outlets. Plans to generate revenue through premium paywalled content, events, and sub-brands also never materialized.
Step Back
Sawiris, an heir to Egypt’s wealthiest family, made his fortune in media and telecoms. He owned Euronews from 2015 to 2021 and Forbes estimates his net worth at $5 billion. Upon exiting Euronews, he vowed never to return to the news business, he told entrepreneur and host Muhammed Mekki on Money Moves, a Moniify show.
But within a year, Sawiris wanted back in, this time to deliver financial content to young people, he told Mekki. He brought Peters over to lead the venture.
“I want to help [young people] become rich, and even richer than me and to achieve their dreams. I can book it under my social work. So if it doesn’t make any money at the end, or if it loses money, it’s for a good cause,” Sawiris said.
Kelsey’s view
Moniify’s retrenchment and pivot comes as the Gulf media landscape is getting more competitive.
Just this year, Dubai has rolled out a 10-year renewable residency visa to attract the sort of freelance influencers and podcasters fueling the creator-economy boom. And on the legacy media front, Bloomberg has made new hires to follow money and power in the region; Reuters is launching an Arabic website and an Abu Dhabi conference; and Condé Nast has brought Vogue Arabia and GQ Middle East back in-house after years of licensing the brands to local publishers. (That is to say nothing of Semafor’s own expansion into the region.)
So how is Moniify different? Executives I spoke to at competing outlets praised the company’s high-production value shows geared to an underserved audience. One lauded Sawiris for being quick to pivot, but questioned whether the company will ever make money. Another speculated that Moniify was originally conceived as a tool for Sawiris to identify startups and trends in emerging markets he might invest in — a kind of journalistic VC funnel.
Whether Moniify has to monetize is ultimately up to Sawiris. But his patience with hefty losses, at least, appears to have run out. The journalists who left homes in the US, Singapore, India, and elsewhere to join the Dubai upstart are out of work, but for now, the video side of the business still has some runway.
Notable
- UAE media outlet The National is expanding its video offerings and has tapped former Bloomberg anchor Manus Cranny to become its founding geo-economics editor, after it laid off journalists at the start of the year.
- Jubilee Media, a US video platform known for wild debates (like a doctor going up against 20 anti-vaxxers) is on track to make eight figures in revenue this year, founder Jason Y. Lee said in Semafor’s Mixed Signals podcast.