The Daily Star: LF makes over magazine for new generation

The Lebanese Forces will take one step closer to rebuilding its media empire with the relaunch of AlMassira on July 19, 30 years after it was founded and two months after the party succeeded in legally wrangling it from a former editor. The editors have promised a new look and fresher tone as part of the LF’s effort to pull in a younger generation and complete its transformation from a wartime militia to a modern political party.

“We speak to everyone, but above all it is a youthful magazine; it’s not traditional,” said Amjad Iskandar, the new editor-in-chief, told The Daily Star. “We really wanted a large part of the team to be young people who just started working in journalism. Of the old magazine, we will keep the same [political] line and continue to represent the Lebanese Forces, and the same boldness with which [the magazine first] distinguished itself.”

Al-Massira was founded in 1983 as an internal publication for fighters and supporters. In 1985, it registered as a legal publication and began appearing in shops and bookstores. When publication was suspended following the recent legal settlement, circulation stood at about 5,000.

In addition to a younger slant, the magazine will be 64 pages – double its previous size – and focus more on long-form writing and analysis of Lebanese and regional politics, rather than trying to compete in the digitally driven world of breaking news. It will also cover social issues and lighter subjects such as entertainment. And while Al-Massira will continue to promote the party line, the magazine’s chairman Fadi Salameh said he hoped to reach beyond the party’s base.

“The core audience of course is LF, we cannot fool ourselves, but because of the type of articles [we will publish], it will have a wider readership,” Salameh said.

In fact, the editorial board of AlMassira found inspiration in a surprising place: the pro-March 8 AlAkhbar, which has succeeded in attracting a young, fairly broad readership by covering a range of social issues and encouraging more stylistic flexibility.

“Even when they are political adversaries, we have to admit when they have something good,” Salameh conceded.

Whether Al-Massira will succeed in winning over new readers remains to be seen, and depends largely on how it is perceived by a new generation that has no memory of the publication at its peak in the ’80s and early ’90.

“People of my generation and those who grew up during the war are acquainted [with Al-Massira]; it was quite popular among Christians as the main organ of the LF,” said Ramez Maluf, the head of the Mass Communications Department at the University of Balamand. “I don’t know how young people will see the magazine; it will depend how it is going to be presented in its new format.”

Maluf was skeptical, however, that the magazine would have much impact outside LF circles, especially in a media landscape dominated almost exclusively by political interests.

“You can have a debate about what to do about the treatment of animals, but very few people are undecided when it comes to their views on Hezbollah,” he said.

“I don’t think anyone is waiting to see what the LF has to say. Politically people know what the Lebanese Forces stand for,” he continued. “Whether it will be a commercial success will depend on many factors, but its political line will not make or break it.”

When LF leader Samir Geagea was imprisoned in 1994, all his party’s media outlets were handed over to trusted party members. While Radio Free Lebanon was returned to Geagea upon his release in 2005, Vivianne Saliba Dagher and Pierre Daher, the respective heads of Al-Massira and LBC television station, maintained that after 11 years, they had legal claims to the outlets they ran and helped grow.

The LF eventually reached a settlement with Dagher. Both Iskandar and Salameh were diplomatic in answering questions about the dispute.

“The conflict with Vivianne was a commercial, legal, ownership issue. It was not about the content,” Salameh said. Dagher could not be reached for comment on the issue.

With Al-Massira and Radio Free Lebanon now firmly under LF control, it has recaptured two of its three original media holdings. But the crown jewel, LBC, remains out of reach – for now.

After fighting several rounds of appeals, the Court of Cassations ruled in the LF’s favor last year, and Salameh said he expects a final judgment in the coming months:

“For now these [the LF website, Al-Massira and Radio Free Lebanon] are the media outlets under our umbrella, and we are waiting for the decision on LBC which hopefully will be soon to complete the circle of media which belonged to the LF and now are returning to us.”