MIDDLE EAST
MEDIA WEEK
THREE MINUTE PROFILE
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
Out but not down
Frank Kane’s time working for Dubai media organisations may not have panned out, but
the knocks he’s taken, he says, will make him a stronger consultant
IT COULD reasonably be argued that he says, “I think now that this was en- than most, in terms of both growth po-
Dubai, Q1 2009, isn’t the most auspi- tirely out of my control—that was Dubai tential and value for money. “Hopefully,
cious time and place to go it alone as a versus Abu Dhabi, and my piddling lit- it’ll be someone with a very big bulge in
media dealmaker/editorial consultant. tle launch got caught in the middle of his right-hand jacket pocket,” he says.
But then no one ever accused Frank that.” “The idea is to get someone like that,
Kane of shying away from a challenge. He adds, “If I’m advising someone, and put them together with like-mind-
A former business editor of the Ob- I can tell them where those frictions ed people here.”
server and Sunday Times Insight Team might occur, and how best to avoid Kane allows that the first half of 2009
member, Kane made a name for him- them. I think it’s valuable to have sat will be hard going, but insists that this
self in the UK as a roll-up-your-sleeves around a table with some of the most fact does not alarm him too much. “Re-
newsman—which doesn’t only refer to important media people in Dubai.” And cession has hit the UAE—it would be
his work ethic—and he has earned a so, armed with his “savvy” and his “con- foolish to say it hasn’t—and this will
similar reputation during his short but tact book”, Kane is venturing out into the affect the pace of media investment
eventful stint in Dubai. world of media consulting. plans,” he says. “But the recovery will
Kane first came to the UAE in 2006, Many of his clients, Kane says, will be come; it will happen sooner and will be
to launch a business daily for ITP—a outside investors, looking to take advan- steeper than in other parts of the world,
project which, after a tortuous period tage of a market that’s in better shape and here I’ll be, already in position.”
of will-they-won’t-they, never came to
fruition. Next, he took on the role of di-
rector of business media for Arab Media
Michael-
Group, a job that came to an abrupt end
late last year.
With a 25-year career at the “sharp
Ryan
end” of print journalism behind him,
Kane says, he is well equipped to navigate
the challenges facing regional media.
“I’ve worked in the toughest newspaper
Fletchall
markets in the world,” he says. “I think
that can be put to good use for anyone
who wants to enter the UAE or who wants
to expand their operations here.”
COULD THE UAE be about to get its very- Famously, Kane has gone toe-to-toe
own West Wing? Unlikely (and, perhaps, ill- with a number of people in the industry
advised) as it sounds, this is the ambition of here—and he sees this as being a plus,
film and TV producer Michael-Ryan Fletch- too. “I didn’t always see eye-to-eye with
all, who has just arrived in Abu Dhabi from the people I met,” he says. “But I got a
Hollywood The 32 year-old Texan wants to good taste of the Dubai media establish-
film a TV series called Sheikh, which will ment, and that’s the kind of thing I’d like
“essentially be similar to The West Wing, to exploit. My time here has taught me
but about the inner workings of how the how the power structure works, which
sheikhs run the country.” doors to push at which times.”
He is well aware of the political The “knocks” Kane has taken during
sensitivity of this. “It’ll have to be about a his time here have also taught him that
fictional sheikh because we want to convey there are times when it doesn’t matter
the types of things they’d be dealing with, how hard you push—the door won’t
rather than the actual things,” Fletchall budge. Of his aborted ITP business title,
says. “We don’t want to be stepping
on toes, or getting into the region’s
geopolitical concerns.”
COVERS
Fletchall began his career in the US,
working as a technician on various film
and TV productions including CSI: Crime
Graphic violence
Scene Investigation and Clerks II. After FOR OVER a decade, Wallpaper has posi-
producing a couple of film shorts, he tioned itself as the go-to guide for people
decided to move to the UAE to open who favour square-framed spectacles,
a branch of his US-based company, complicated coffee drinks and corkscrews
Mediusphere. that don’t work—that is, the “design cog-
He is currently in Abu Dhabi finalising noscenti”. And so, when Wallpaper puts
his free zone-license, and is looking for out an awards edition, the cognoscenti
financing for his film and TV ideas (he tend to sit up and take notice.
claims to be close to a deal with one While we wouldn’t be doing our job if we
investor). He hopes to have two TV projects didn’t point out the top-to-toe dreadful-
and one or two films given the go ahead ness of the cover design for Wallpaper’s
this year—and most of his work will be (premature?) ‘Awards 2009’ issue, the
about local history and traditions. magazine is packed with aesthetic novel-
But what could a Texan tell Emirati ties, providing plenty of ammunition for
Arabs about their own culture? “I’m a those who like to discuss doorknobs at
storyteller, and my skills and abilities are dinner parties. ter informs us that “Dubai is becoming a key part of the design cognos-
making films for an audience, whatever The cover of this month’s identity, the centi’s agenda”, you wouldn’t know it from reading the magazine.
that audience may be,” says Fletchall. “I’m Motivate title that strives to be the UAE’s Never mind that the features within whisk us from Hollywood to Gene-
not trying to teach Emiratis about Emirati answer to Wallpaper, sports a picture of an va, via Finland and France, any magazine that offers up puns like “sofa so
culture. I’m just trying to tell stories.” upscale igloo—which, of course, screams good” and “egg-stra special” will always have the square-framed masses
regional design. And while the editor’s let- vomiting into their Philippe Starck-designed sinks.
22 / 25 JANUARY 2009 www.mediaweekme.com
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