Daraj CEO considers selling chewing gum to support newsroom — Daily Maverick

In Lebanon, Alia Ibrahim, co-founder and CEO of the pan-Arab media platform Daraj, wrote in a column for Daily Maverick about the search for new ways to distribute journalism and engage younger audiences. She named the sale of chewing gum, postcards and other goods in bookshops and cafés where the media outlet’s audience gathers as one possible model for supporting the newsroom.

According to Ibrahim, the idea emerged after dinner with her daughter Mia and her friends, who study business. They said that reluctance to read an article does not mean rejecting knowledge, experience or authoritative journalism. In the Daraj CEO’s view, media outlets should not equate the form of delivery with the purpose of journalism.

Investigation into former central bank chief

Ibrahim also mentioned Daraj’s investigation into Riad Salame, the former head of Lebanon’s central bank. The newsroom published its first investigation on August 10, 2020, less than a week after the Beirut port explosion, which killed more than 200 people.

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As Ibrahim wrote, journalists established that Salame owned at least two dozen companies, some of which were concealed behind little-known names. Daraj’s reports, she said, stated that more than one million depositors in Lebanon lost access to their funds, while the then central bank chief’s wealth was protected in bank accounts and assets in Europe.

The column’s author said that documents from French investigating judge Aude Buresi state that the investigation was opened after publications by Daraj and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. According to her, assets linked to Salame were frozen or seized in six European countries. At the time the column was written, the former central bank chief was again in custody and had been charged in Lebanon and abroad; Salame denies wrongdoing.

Search for a new model

According to the Daraj CEO, 15 lawsuits had been filed against the newsroom by 2025. Ibrahim believes that publications alone are insufficient if media outlets do not find ways to deliver them to audiences. She noted that she is working on the newsroom’s business component and shared infrastructure that will help distribute journalism in different formats.