Khaleej Times review: TERMINATION OF OLD STAFF 41

I don't know about the "sexual favors", but i quit KhaleejeTimes because of the low salaries for existing staff, while new staff hired by the new management are earning double and triple salaries for nothing. All what they have to do is make the newspaper look more "beautiful" and "white". Most of the demoted or sacked staff mentioned in the above article are highly professional dedicated people who wasted their time serving this establishment that spared no effort to get rid of them as soon as the new gang arrived...! I thank God that i left KT before it was my turn; so i call on the old staff to quit with dignity and avoid the walk of shame. Just consider your previous years with KT as time wasted...good luck and i hope you people don't get in trouble for this complaint...

all these complaints are not based on facts. All those old timers are not great shakes. some of them are downright idiots and uncouth fellows. i do not agree with the old is gold philospohy. KT badly needed a change. change is being brought about now.
just becoz u worked in the kt for 15 years, u cannot behave as though u r owning the place.

There is no smoke without fire. The matter has to be thoroughly investigated, to bring out the truth. The complaint was a detailed one with lot of facts which can be verified, especially the disparity in salary, abtrupt termination, the salary at which the new staff are recruited as replacement, salary of existing staff, any commission exchange hands for new recruitments thru recruitment agentsetc.

the person who has written this complaint is also asking for the governmet and the ministry of labour to help so i really dont think he would be writing things which are'nt even true! and talking about what "qeqwe..." has written seems to be wrong (and disrespectful as well), if older employees are being kicked out and it is the new ones who are ruling so that must be the reason why weekend sucks - all the good columns have been removed and have been replaced with where to dine and all that which isnt great at all and city times is just filled with hollywood and bollywood news - which majority of the people arent even interested in, the old features (now called as city times) was really good. I am an old reader of KT and really preferred the old one as the new one doesnt really have much important information like health etc. anyways, this really needs to be investigated thoroughly in my opinion and if the company says its becuase of recession people are getting kicked out and they are hiring new people and giving them higher salaries is extremely wrong and stupid as well, because now KT isnt that good anymore and even young times was discontinued!

I have worked in KT previously and I quit because of its unprofessional attitude towards journalists combined with bad pay. I have browsed through the paper occasionaly through the years. The earlier team sucked and the new team seems no better. All you need to do is read the newspaper to realize it.

That paper stinx. Its hi time to shut it down4good. Keep f*ck of change!

MOHAMMED KHALED.
KT is not the way it was before.Before it was beautiful now its awful.I think all the professional people are gone.That's why the paper is going down.Young Times is out.Ones someone told me KT is like Titanic, but it will sink slowly.

After reading the complaint.. i hope things improve for those who were sacked / retired or quit... Truly believe each and everyone can make a difference by boycotting KT altogether.
Have been a reader for over 20 years.. i guess its time to give it up.. hit them where it hurts the most.. without readers there is no newspaper..

I have been a journalist for decades. Professionally, I have never encountered a more unethical, incompetent and downright mentally unstable team than Rahul Sharma and Ovais Subhani. Investigate the backgrounds of these two charlatans, they have lied about their experience and credentials. There is definitely favouritism towards young women who are known in the KT newsroom as Rahul’s harem. Just check the salaries at which these ladies were hired relative to their contribution to the newspaper. Poor Ovais Subhani is functionally unable to put a sentence in English. His attempts at an economics column are a joke/plagarised (just talk to him in English). Rahul’s English writing talent is also nonexistent, though he does seem to enjoy his gourmet meals at the Capital Club. Will keep you posted with more inside titbits.

KT old timer!

The new KT board could help save the newspaper by asking a few relevant questions.

Compare the cost (salary, perks, nightclub expenses, etc) of senior editorial team with any change in the content of the paper.

Content (reporting, editorials, columns, feature) are as third rate now as they were in the Mohammed Galadari time. So what exactly are these bunch of overpaid idiots contributing by their presence?

The relaunch was a total failure. Did it increase subscriptions or ad revenue? Did it chance the perception of KT as the most poorly written, worst managed daily in the UAE? Did KT win market share against Gulf News? If the relaunch was a failure, why was it a failure (other than a job placement program for glamorous chicks and old friends of the Editor)? Please investigate.

Which research lady went on sponsored European trips with the enthusiastic approval of the Editor? Why was this lady hired even though she had never worked in a newspaper in her life? Why are unemployed hacks from Hindustan Times showing up in Dubai on high salaries? Is it a coincidence that the Editor also spent some time at that third rate rag sheet? How come the Editor and his team have ZERO experience or knowledge of the UAE? Why is the Business Editor clueless about business in the UAE? Why was he hired if he does not know the Gulf? Who hired them? How much business has VP Advertising bought to KT personally? How did he happen to hire a Supplement Manageress who has never sold a dirham of print advertising in her life? What has happened to advertising revenues since the Little Yellow Hummer Man took command of the (sinking) KT ship? Who hired these bunch of incompetents?

Why are new staff hired at double or treble rates of old staff when media business is in depression? Who is making these idiotic hiring and salary decisions? Who is benefiting from all this millions of dirhams in salaries and contracts awarded to friends, family, lady friends and ### lickers?

It seems clear that the KT was founded by Rahul Sharma’s father and not Mohammad Galadari’s father, why not rename the paper Sharma ### Times? It is obvious even to the youngest sub in the newsroom that the dozen top overpaid duffers (beginning with Editor + sidekicks + lady friends + consultants who share the loot with you know who + ex Hindustan Times jobless hacks) can be immediately sent back to India etc without making any difference to the quality, content and net profits of the newspaper. It will actually help if these incompetents are thrown out before they cause the newspaper to close down by their wild spending, obscene costs, foolish decisions and unlimited expense accounts. The party time is over. The day of reckoning has come. The board will do what is best and Sharma ### Times must die so KT can live once again!

Please tell me more about the sordid harem in KT...

to author of sharma ### times
i am sure this is authored by an old-time disgruntled KT staffer whose wings are clipped by the new dispensation. If he is so unhappy, he can as well quit, instead of launching a malicious campaign against the new editor and his team. It is known every editor comes with his own team at the top. it is too well known a fact. I am sure the author of the above comment is knowledgable enough to know this.

KT over the years got used to small time time characters as editors. One of the subs used to be promoted and made as editor. Hence, they could never rise above their petty-minded ness. It is high time the KT staff got used to high-profile individuals as editors. Better times have come to KT.
If disgruntled senior staff launches a campaign like this on blogs, the KT will slip into dark ages again.
If u do not like it, please leave. But do not wreck the ship by throwing mud at all and sundry.

All this is very entertaining, but the author/s of this propaganda should first learn to write basic, coherent English (correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Khaleej Times, misleading though the name may be, come out in English?). If this is the top-notch editorial kwaliteee out there (shudder, shudder), it's absurd that these guys want a pay hike. They should be plain grateful they have a job. We, at one of the 'rival' papers, would not even let any of these 'writers' get past the reception desk. Tip for the propagandist/s: They could consider outsourcing their content from someone who has at least completed primary school.

YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED. HA-HA-HA

excuse me, who is a high-profile individual there? rahul sharma, who was a small-time features writer in economic times and later got fired from reuters, or didier brun, who was a circulation manager at international herald tribune, and was fired (surprise, surprise!) because he forced himself on his female subordinate?

The 'kwalitee' of ur own English is not very outstanding either.

I think the general standard of english from these so-called disgruntled "journalists" speaks volumes. If they tried to get a job anywhere else in their profession they would surely be shown the door pretty darned quickly. They should instead of throwing crap at Rahul and his new team be bloody thankful they have been allowed to stay at all. The KT has improved immeasurably in recent times; the fact they can't see this says a lot about their shoddy non-professional ways. So I say all power to the new team, and the sooner you can get rid of the old-timers who don't understand the most basic tenets of journalism, the better!

These so-called journalists can't even string a sentence together in English!

Bragging about being with KT for 30 years or previous work for the Bangladesh Bugle is hardly journalism of note.

The only egregious error KT committed was by not firing all of these waste-of-spaces many years ago.

It’s a sad story at KT and the fact that everything runs very unprofessionally leaves a lot of doubt to the quality of the newspaper. But most surprisingly the Galadari Group have not yet made the required changes, yet whatever appears on this blog are almost 70 per cent true and cannot be denied.

Actually the wrong people have been posted in different departments, and that is why there is the so-called dissatisfaction in the job. The blame goes to Mr. Brun, Mr. Sharma, Mr. Subhani and their associates. Mr. Subhani according to sources is the man behind the entire mess at KT due to what the staff call "nepotism" that has actually ruined the journalism profession in this once reputable media house.
Yes, the kwaletee of journalism is real trash. Almost everything is copy and paste and the grammar is terrible. Most of the chaps at KT need to go for proper English classes first before being recruited.

And of course the really big time for change has come and it should be done with immediate effect without wasting time.

It is now talk of Dubai, wherever a KT staff goes, the public are keen to know what is going on behind the scene and why changes are not being implemented, yet the rot has been exposed. It seems like the reputation of KT will only be restored once the public are aware there is a total overhaul in the entire editorial management, to restore confidence of both the readers and the society in general.

Every single day, there seems to be some sort of blunder and the pages are not to perfection, because the editors no longer take keen interest in scrutinizing the errors before going to print. The headlines do not relate to the stories at all and does not make any sense. Most of the articles now appearing in the papers are either stale news or recycled features from elsewhere. Surely, where are we headed for, when we actually lack professionalism?
Obviously, something needs to be done fast, even if there is need to appoint an interim editorial board to oversee the day to day running of the newspaper.

If Rahul Sharam and the new team is from North India, than I completely agree. These north Indian and Pakistani survive only on politics. Even in their home they have politics. This is my 14 years of experience with norther Indians.

This is becoming a real joke, this is all non sense and the concerned or people who know more about the REAL/ACTUAL facts should raise their hands and act on this BS.

The people commenting love waiting their time ### about others instead of concentrating on improving themselves...It's very easy to criticize...

To Amal
The real joke is you don't even know to spell nonsense. It is not "non sense"? Moreover, whatever gibberish that you have written doesn't make sense in English. Do you work in the editorial or are you one of the ### lickers? Either way, it shows how good you are. No wonder KT is going to the dogs!

You can have them all; provided you stroke them - --er-- I mean smoke them before breakfast, lunch and dinner. Maybe, in between meals too as this weed is of the least inferior quality. So, it is cheap.
By the way, is it a coincident that most of the unproductive and useless managers and manageress, editors and their hangers on are smokers! Weird, isn't it? They are indeed weeds!

The whistleblower is back. To all those who are upset because the management has not implemented the Hay Consultants' recommendation on salaries, I wish to enlighten them of the following:
1. As per my information, 40 per cent of the editorial staff are unproductive. That means at least 40 per cent of the editorial staff needs to be sacked, that includes some senior editors who resent change.
2. Salary structure: As per my information, the consultants does not believe in the concept of same pay for same job. There is a slab system as per the grades. If reporter or sub-editor A is getting say 8, 000 and reporter or sub-editor B is getting say 10, 000, then well it is fully justified. The reason - the salary slab for that particular grade will be within the range of say 7, 500-12, 000. So a person in that particular grade will get any thing between7, 500 and 12, 000.
3. Content management and quality of English language: As per my information, it is below average. The reason - many of the editorial staff don't know basic English. They think adding a few commas and a full stop to wire copies is editing. And writing a few incoherent sentences by merging words and phrases is good writing. Mind you, I don't cast aspersions on the few who are good - they will be rewarded.
4. This will be a shocker to most of you guys.
The Senior Editors.
They are equally bad. I'll grade them as follows:
a. Ovais - no hands on experience to manage a multi-national team. Lacks leadership qualities and is disoriented. A poor judge of talent. Totally lost when it comes to goals, target readers and focus of the newspapers. Overall performance - below average.
b. Sharma - Same as above, but the only positive aspect is that he makes an effort to write.
Overall performance - average.
c. Newland - Same as (a). Minuses - a square peg in a round hole. Attitude problem and himself is not good at written British English.
Overall performance - below average.
d. Sagar - Immature, thinks he is still in college - has one noticed his dress code? Not a team player, so is not capable to lead a team. Plus point - he is good at spotting errors.
Overall performance - average
e. Zaka Saeed - Immature, attitude problem, not a team worker. Highly one-tracked and opinionated. Writting skills - average.
Overall performance - below average
f. Jha - A square peg in a round hole. No news sense from a Gulf perspective.
Overall performance - below average
g. Michael - Conscientious, hardworking, but lacks leadership qualities of a section head. Not very much of a team player and vacillates in his decisions.
Overall performance - average
... I can go on... However, judging by the overall performance of the top editors and if the average of all workers is computed, then it will work out to "below average". And as per the consultants recommendations, it translates into like this: Performance - Below Average = No pay rise and monitor the employee for performance for three months, a maximum of six months. If no improvement is seen, then replace him/her.

One more thing...
The stakeholders of KT won't allow KT to sink. We have our eyes and ears in each and every department. They are seen, yet unseen - normal people with a proper head on their shoulders. An institution like KT is run on checks and counter checks. Just like the CIA. We don't rely on what the managers say. At the appropriate time, all those who are siphoning off KT revenues and claiming exorbitant expenses on their overseas trips for frivilous things will be exposed.
We have our own way of finding out things.
So get to work and be productive. There is no such thing as long years of service to the company or loyalty. No one has tied you down. You are there because you have no option.
We are there because we run a business. And we look only at the balance sheet.

Whistleblower, you are truly enlightening! But you seem to have missed out on a few more senior names in ROP and City Times/Weekend as well. Was that deliberate or inadvertent? Or is it that your eyes and ears suffer from selective amnesia?
Having proclaimed yourself as the CIA of KT, let's have all the skeletons out. Surely, you wouldn't want to sound partisan. Without complete details, I am afraid, your blog contents remind me of the quote from Aaron Levenstein:' Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital." Looking forward to reading your next expose.

To Passive Voice
If the doctor advises you that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, will you eat 365 apples in just one day so that you can keep the doctor away for a year. Or will you just eat an apple a day for a year?
Think about it.

By the way, no where did I say that I am the CIA of KT. Moreover, "the eyes and ears" don't suffer from "selective amnesia"- they are physically and mentally fit; not impaired. Each and every section and its head will be analysed, including City Times and Wknd.
I was asleep all these time, but now have awoken from my deep slumber.
Cheers!

Nobody should scare off the other with threats of privacy law. Yes, without name calling and avoiding character assassination, we (both in KT and outside) need to expose the rot. And who doesn’t know that Mr. Subhani has kept a full time research person to comment on this blog and make it look like comments by outsiders. This is to fully support them and seek sympathisers at the eleventh hour of the clean-up campaign and the time has now come to “Keep track of change”.
Ever since the rot has been exposed, Mr. Sharma and Mr. Subhani have been moving through various departments in the organisation seeking for sympathisers to help them resolve the issue.
The CEO also decided that all employees should join him for Breakfast meeting on a Thursday every month, this was only introduced after the crooks realised they are being exposed and to save their name from shame, decided to bring the employees closer, so as to get friendlier to them. But all this is too late, you cannot escape in the 38th day, remember the days of a thief are only 40 and hence we are closer to cleaning the rot at KT once and for all.
It is a sad story that the likes of Mr. Sharma and Mr. Subhani can come from across other continents, without any knowledge of the UAE and wreck (or rape) the once flourishing media house by ruining its professionalism.
None of the new recruits have any media background, either they are fresher’s straight from college or have been working in non-media related companies, or were just a bunch of rejects from Hindustan Times. It also took HT quite a while to realise they had employed the wrong people in their organisation and this paved way for Mr. Sharma and his gang to easily sail to KT, because there was a loop-hole somewhere and there is readily available resources that can be misused to the maximum.
Yes and very true, one of the female business reporters does not know to construct a sentence in English, all her press release and press interviews are forwarded to Mr. Subhani’s private email i/d and then he works on all her articles from his cabin. Once it is put together with all the copy and paste stuff, he orders the Business Editor to give the articles prominence even if it is not news-worthy. This is just to build an image for the female staff so that she looks like she can write some concrete material.
After being dropped from the supplements desk, Mr. Subhani hurriedly deployed her in the Business section, as he has direct control over this department and all work is channelled through him, so it makes the life of the female staff easier. Of course, the woman has no option, but to keep the editor entertained during his needs and everyone is aware of the situation, its nothing new in KT.
The Business Editor Mr. Bruce Stanley himself is a lost person in the KT world and does not have any Middle East experience. On the Business Desk, he has no powers at all and must go by what Mr. Subhani instructs him to do.
In any case, he hasn’t been much of an editor. Prior to joining KT, Mr. Stanley was a stringer with the Wall Street Journal in a South East Asian Country and was brought in by Mr. Newland (Associate Editor) to add colour (white skin) to the department. Not forgetting Mr. Newland served in the same City as Mr. Stanley, but at a fast food outlet as a duty supervisor.
“Doesn’t matter if you cannot construct a story, but you are most welcome on board KT and enjoy your tenure here, ” this seems to be the assurance given to every new staff recruited to the desk through nepotism. It is total disaster, because most of the staff are acquaintances to the charlatans in senior position.
Why should one man bring down a multi-billion dirham investment overnight? Immediate action must be taken, there should be no room left for compromise, because every single day that passes through the hands of Mr. Subhani and his associates is bringing KT down extremely fast.
Mr. Subhani has ruined KT with the powers of nepotism, hoping that he would be using all his might to take control of the organisation. Little did he know that he was ruining the once reputable media house in the region, because he engaged people with no knowledge in journalism?
On closely scrutinising, all the new appointments at KT have been done purely on nepotism. Each and every person currently working in KT has had some association with Mr. Didier Brun, Mr. Sharma, Mr. Subhani, Mr. Newland etc. Sit and observe and ask yourself the same question, who are these chaps and what are their underground connections with the so-called editors.
The sad part is all these new staffers are given top priority with whatever they do, even if blunders appear in the newspaper, which actually does, they hurriedly try to quash up the matter among themselves, some of these problems are damn serious to the public and cannot be overlooked from the professional point of view, but because nepotism works at the highest level, they somehow get away with lots of errors and that is why KT is known to have a daily column for clarification and corrections/APOLOGIES.
Look at the enormous entertain bills being presented to the accounts, besides this there is fuel allowance, what not allowances just to boost an individual’s bank account. We really don’t need to entertain people, because the high quality of KT in the past spoke for itself. The duties of these editors is just to wine and dine with female work colleagues and sending them to foreign trips at the expenses of potential advertisers.
People frequently call KT to complain that the newspaper had failed to publish certain meaningful and news worthy articles or have recycled some stale news that had already appeared in other publications 2 weeks ago.
Why? Because KT lacks the professionals and all that Mr. Subhani has to do his deploy his research person on the Net to copy and paste paragraphs from different sites and build up story database, which has no head or tail and does not make any sense when read in between the lines.
It is a known fact that those who have made comments on this blog protecting Mr. Sharma and his associates are just people from within the circle posing as outsiders and sympathisers in general.
The news features are badly written too many grammatical and factual mistakes, even copy paste jobs cannot be perfect
They are doing everything possible to write comments supporting themselves and at the same time looking for people to give them a back-up, because time has come to “keep track of change” and this is now the eleventh hour for drama to unfold.
Though it is appreciated that the Galadari Group have put on hold the hiring and firing of staff (due to recession), but time has come for a complete overhaul of the entire editorial department, just to save the newspaper’s once reputed image.
The image of KT has to be saved at all costs and time has really come for the big change. All the re-launches have been a wasted effort, both material wise and financially, there has been no improvement of sale, the quality of the Weekend magazine has dropped tremendously and urgently requires a new look all together.
Every single employee needs to go through fresh interview and screening, this way there will be great improvements. The HR Manager, Sevine Ghandour herself has no knowledge in the HR world and just runs about with big files, targeting on who should be dismissed from the organisation. The cleaning up exercise should start from her, as it passes through the editorial.
And guys don’t worry about the privacy law, because we are all here to save a reputable organisation from being totally destroyed. No one is against the other in any way, it should not look like a personal grudge.
We must continue contributing to this blog in one way or the other, and please lets avoid character assassination. Right now, the duty is to clean the ROT at KT, and not name-calling, because this touches on the personal image of an individual and it is not really appropriate. Yes, we should expose everything from the petty incidents to the top-most level. Lets avoid abuses, but let’s give out the concrete information.
This beautiful investment took 3 decades of hard work and must not be destroyed. There is still hope for salvage, but let the bad boys leave first, none should be spared, because they are all eggs from the same basket, sparing one does not improve the situation, we need to get rid of the bad egg too.
There are many professionals out here in the market, who can bring a big change to KT at the most minimal cost, especially at this time of the crisis. So why can’t we utilise their talents, rather than rely on people who come from fast food outlets and pubs.

Where's my apple for the day? I thought the doctor had woken up from his slumber?
By the way, most of the bloggers seem to agree on removing the rotten/bad eggs? But the big question remains: Who will bell the cat?
With the KT board having been dismantled, does anyone know who is really in charge? Especially, when it comes to senior level hirings and firings? Case in example: though the ex-( or is it axed?) VP Advertising was hired by the current CEO of KT (presumably on the recommendation of the consultant hired by ICD), the CEO in question as well as the Galadari Group CEO were kept in the dark till the eleventh hour about his exit. And this happened soon after the dismantling of the KT board. The poor guy either must have been having his blinders on in his single minded pursuit of cleaning up mediocrity within KT Marketing or did not know which side of his bread was buttered. The timing of recession would not have helped either. Guess, he would have known what hit him when it was too late. Fingers point in various directions- both within the organisation and without. So, who are these people behind the curtain? Within KT, all the heads of departments seem to be having their own personal agenda and axe to grind. Outside KT, pampered agencies were perhaps given a rude awakening. They were after all making good monies earlier. Amongst all these rumor mongering, will the truth prevail?
The editorial department by virtue of more numbers is more politicised. This place always had various lobbies working at cross puposes. There was never a good editor to run the show or call the shots. Currently, the sordid state of affairs at this place reminds one of The Bold & the Beautiful.
Ironically, politics is so deeply ingrained in the very fabric of KT & the group that any change has always been vehemently opposed. A different story altogether that agents of change may not be totally above board either.
But, whether we like it or not- Change is the only permanent thing in life and KT does deserve a real one.

Here is another assessment:

six years ago, Meraj, the UAE editor came up with a sentence that made sense. Then she put six feet of make up on her hideous face. Then two subs died.

Come on guys! Stop making personal remarks!

Miraj/mirage/fat/ is a good journalist. She once...wait, she cannot write a sentence in English because she is functionally illiterate. How about finding out why the rewrite desk is so poor? No? OK.

What about the op-ed desk? Five years ago, a man ran into Khaleej Times and threw three monkeys into the news room. They actually managed to write proper sentences. Miraj/Mirage/Fat/Makeupface had sex with all three monkeys. The result was Patrick Michael.

Lets keep track of change...more to follow...:)

Guys, it appears that those in Marketing who are guilty of various acts of omission and commission have gone to great extents to delete the postings of “Whistleblower”. There is no smoke without a fire, otherwise why would they hack into the system only to delete the postings about Marketing? So Merle Arshad was sacked from AMG or is it ARN? She was a sales executive, but with a glorified title who failed miserably in her job. She was sacked for poor performance. She was recruited by Mohie because her husband is Mohie’s friend. And Haroon promoted Nafeesa because they are intimate. Haroon and Mohie used to give preferential rates and page positions without loading charges for certain agencies because they get a commission. Mamata is working for her husband’s agencies to produce Supplements for KT. Revenue generating supplements are outsourced to Red Door and Mediascope for a commission which goes in the pockets of the managers. And the Classifieds managers give ridiculously low rates of Dh200 for a full page to desert safari clients. No wonder NADIA terminated KT contract and is back with GN.
You marketing guys are real ###s, suckers of the lowest order, ### and ### lickers. You are the ones who are responsible for bringing the value of KT down in the market. It is not the Editorial. The editorial may have their differences, but they don’t cheat the company. You the marketing managers have bled the company dry by sucking its blood. You the marketing managers have filled you pockets in conniviance with agencies.
I hope the new management conduct a proper audit in the marketing department, especially in ROP, outsourced Supplements and Classifieds. There is a big scandal, involving millions of dirhams, that will be unearthed is a proper investigation is carried out.

pmichael, you are a riot, dude! :-) Keep up the good work.

Yeah and I was looking forward to Whistleblower's next expose. He seemed to be spot on to a large extent. But why has he stopped blowing his whistle?

The Whistleblower is back

I am not amazed that my earlier postings about the exposes in ROP and Supplements were removed. This very well shows that the offending parties in ROP run this blog. Is it Haroon? Or is it Mamta?
Haroon has never got any new business for the newspaper. EVER.Check with Burjoor Patel and Vijay Manikoth. All that he does is to keep the agencies happy by giving then their commissions as well as annual volume rebate. And now the same agencies are dumping KT because the clients don’t want to advertise. Why would they? All clients know that the response factor in KT is nil. And they know that the one or two calls that they receive in response to their advertisements are in fact from KT staff themselves. So the cat is out of the bag.
The actual circulation figure too is fudged. The paid subscription of KT is not more than 7, 000, and I am ready to lose even my shirt if it is more than that. The rest of the copies are just dumped as complimentary. The total number of copies printed is not more than 30, 000. So a huge wastage is created at a huge cost to the company.
Check the KT classifieds. The revenue that is show does not reflect the actual revenue. Appointments revenue is also clubbed together and shown as Classifieds revenue. Until last year, the Classifieds used to copy and print lineage advertisements published in GN classifieds, just to fill up the pages. Only when GN threatened to take KT to court was it stopped. So all these years, the select few managers fooled the management into believing they were generating revenue for the company.
As for the City Times, it is no longer the product that was launched by Bikram Vohra. When it was launched it made an impact. Now no one even looks at it. The advertising manager Poonam and her side kick Amit are incompetent. Amit was a failure in Supplements and Poonam took him because he is relation of hers. So you see, the whole marketing department runs like a family business. Every one is related to someone. In ROP, Haroon took Dunstan - who was a failure in Classifieds – because he is related to him. Richa was a disappointment in KT and she was roped in by Haroon when she should have been shown the door.
As far as the Supplements is concerned, it is only Philip and Ms Rosario who are good. In fact Ms Rosario was the only one who brought in revenue of nearly Dh1.5 million last year. When was the last time did any one in the Supplements cross a revenue of Dh 1 million. Bilal is okay, but the rest are just surviving because of the help that is given to them by the ROP in bringing out shift supplements.
The management is really keeping track of change. If things need to improve in the marketing, then all the old timers, starting with Haroon, who are abusing the system for their personal ends should be shown the door.
It is this mafia from a particular country and region that is giving a bad name to KT. We need to flush this mafia out. Only then will KT survive. Otherwise, alas it will meet a slow death.
If any of you have more skeletons to bare, do so. At least we will know where the real problem lies, so that we can take action to bring back KT to its days of glory.

Good to have you back Whistleblower.
You were initially showing signs of being an impartial contributor to this blog and that could be the reason behind some vested interest having one of your blogs removed. Unless of course you are a great conniver and had it removed yourself to add authenticity to your claims. You be the judge.
Your recent contribution to this blog, am afraid, is not totally above board. Firstly, if you asking Mr. Burjoor Patel to be the judge for Haroon, it's fine. After all, Burjoor is the grand father of this industry and whatever his shortcomings (quite a few there for another blog) may be, he has contributed immensely to KT. But, you couldn't possibly take the name of Vijay Manikoth... or is it Mani'un'couth... in the same breadth. He still holds the award for being the greatest ### licker and a pain in the wrong place both in and out of KT. If ever there was an example of an umprofessional, mediocre employee or ex employee, he would be top of mind. But must accept the fact that his greatest strengths were he was a hard core sales guy (provided he stepped out of office) and he was a very good politician.
Then, you talked about circulation figures. I do not have access to the real numbers and hence will refrain from shooting numbers out of my hat. But I do agree that the numbers quoted in the market by KT are way off the mark. Common sense tells you that the true yardstick for the popularity/ circulation strength of any general newspaper is the strenth of it's classifieds. Need based advertising thrives only on circulation figures.
I do have to agree with you that City Times is no longer the product that was under Bikram. But as regards the current advertisement manager is concerned, Poonam has always been known to be hard working and not incompetent. She certainly has shortcomings as regards the Queen's language is concerned. But she does bulldoze her way through both internally and externally. The beauty of the whole thing is that she understands her weakness and strength very well and uses it to her advantage. People included! Internally, it is even rumored that she has a Godfather in the upper echeleons of power. Did I hear some one say: "Ya, Ya!" Smart girl that one! As regards Amit is concerned, professionally, less said the better. Anyway, he is just a foot soldier. Another footsoldier mentioned, Dunstan, should perhaps have been a gigolo by profession rather than a sales/marketing guy. He sure talks and behaves like one. When you say related to Haroon, must be the Srilankan connection, I presume.
As regards your take on Supplements, Philip is a joke. In the industry he is regarded as a Made in Taiwan, American. Professionally, not a team player nor a category head who can motivate a team. The only American quality in him is that he is a cowboy, a lone ranger. As reagrds Ms. Rosario, one should recheck those figures again. If she has really contributed this much by her own efforts and not hand me downs, it would really speak volume of someone who is a lil cuckoo up there! Another name mentioned Bilal, workwise seems fine but interpersonal skills are a real disaster. He has a penchant for inviting trouble by putting his own foot in his mouth. Again, language skills are lacking in this gentleman though he knows his job. Just the opposite of his boss Merle, good language skills bit unfortunately, doesn't know her onions.
Talking about language skills, marketing department is certainly lacking in this respect. Except a few, majority of them surviivng for years have a big drawback in this department. The few good lucky ones seem to have left on thier own quite some time back for better pastures.
As they say, "If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys." KT management has always lived by this rule.

Hey guys with all the new and the better lot gone, are you guys rejoicing? ...wait till the board gets to know what your game plan has been and how they have been deceived...they will be on your back soon..You plonkers will never be able to deliver!

You just dont have it in you...all your energies are wasted in negative strategies, moaning and groaning.

KT has just been talibanised...did anyone realise that?..this is called conditioning the raw minds
People who have done this know only too well...they have played too well.
Do remember that Evil triumps over Good only for a short while...then you only rot.

Unfortunately your illfated legacy will affect your coming generations..it does.history has proved it.

OMG... I was blissfully unaware of such a KT "expose"...ha ha ha ha.

All these so-called "dedicated" journalists of Khaleej Times who worked for donkey's years and have got the boot now should do some soul-searching. Did they ever deserve the posts they held in KT? Take Neville Parker, the erstwhile editor. Even a junior reporter can write cleaner copies! Meraj Rizvi had no experience whatsoever to run a bureau. Suchitra Samuel might be a nice person, but she is no professional - a Dubai Shopping Festival award means nothing!

More importantly, during their reign, Parker and his coterie dismissed a lot of professional journalists who were more competent than they would ever be in their lifetime. So in a way they had been beaten at their own game.

The disgruntled lot should also utilise their time now to learn some English and the basics of journalism!

Having worked with Mr. Vijay Manikoth for many years and being a true well wisher, I drew his attention to the ridiculous lies written about him, for which, Mr. Vijay was absolutely shocked (as he was not aware of it) but said he did not want to dignify the statements by responding to the nonsense and would rather leave it to God to punish those people who try to malign others by making false accusations and that too by using unparliamentary/foul language. He said, after reading all the trash written about some of the veteran KT staff, both past and present, I can only pray that the writer repents and seeks God's forgiveness before it is too late. He said, you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to know who could have written such BLATANT LIES.

The Khaleej Times Management and everybody in the Marketing Department (both past and present) are well aware of Mr.Vijay Manikoth's excellent productivity, contribution and outstanding character. During the past 20 years, he had maintained an excellent track record filled with achievements, received several appreciation letters and accolades from the management. He started his career with Khaleej Times as Area Manager in Abu Dhabi then to promoted to Branch Manager - Bahrain then to Dubai as Marketing Manager, after which to Asst Vice President - Marketing and subsequently to Director - International Advertising.

Apart from being a hardcore sales person (which is acknowledged even by the writer), Mr.Vijay is also well liked and respected by all the Khaleej Times Staff and clients. He was a good leader and an excellent motivator as he always believed in empowering his team and led by example. He is not only a teetotaller but also respects all religions, infact he also fasts during Ramadan and celebrates, Eid, Christmas and Diwali with equivalent fervour.
Mr.Vijay is presently Managing Director & CEO of Winning Edge Advertising FZE and had recently published a KT Supplement on Iran and will soon be publishing supplements on Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan etc... Infact till now nobody has broken his KT record for the highest revenue generated by an individual for a Supplement i.e USA fetching a revenue exceeding half a million.
On behalf of all his well wishers, may I take this opportunity to wish him and his family... All the Very best in his future endeavours.
From True Well Wishers

basically, all KT staff are fighting among themselves. but whos losing? it is loss of KT. As a reader, i would say tht newspaper didnt do too well as compared to gulf news. Now going public abt internal issues, will nvr help the cause.

The guy who launced complaint, i've started to doubt his professionalism. No idea why you have to show your disgrace this way. I'm sure people must have fired as i could get a hint. but that's not best way to talk about it. Rather he could have launced official complaint with ministry of labor about staff grievance.

SHAME ON ALL OF YOU... FIGHTING AND SPOILING YOUR OWN COMPANY!

I am pained to hear of how KT is going down the drain. I never worked directly for KT but worked for one of their sister companies. The actual downfall of the entire organization came about when the dear late Abdul Rahim Galadari passed away and the paper was in the hands of his incapable son, Mohammed, to do as he pleases, use it as a puppet to vent his frustrations. He misbehaved with all his employees, even went to the extent of raising his hands on some, brought his dogs to work and terrorized his staff. When he lost the company to his aunt, Farahnaz, the saga started again. The current duo who run KT are probably using them as a vehicle to attain wealth and much more. If there are complaints of them being womanizers and demanding sexual favours from female employees, maybe there should be a deep dive enquiry by the government.
In case anybody is interested in what Mohammed Galadari is doing.. he has recently bought over the Crowne Plaza hotel in Blackfriars, London. Only a matter of time before his employees flee from his sadistic and authoratarian ways.