THE opportunity to travel to Saudi Arabia is rare.

Tourism visas are pretty much non-existent and Westerners need a business sponsor to visit the world’s most traditional Islamic country.

In the past week, I have been fortunate enough to spend time in Riyadh with the Saudi Research and Marketing Group, the largest publisher of newspapers and magazines in Saudi Arabia with a market share of almost 50 per cent.

I attended and presented to a business meeting of editors and senior executives of its newspapers and magazines from across the kingdom, as well as Dubai and London.

The issues we discussed – both in the meeting and while smoking shisha in those fantastically ornate pipes at the CEO’s retreat (quite an experience in itself) – were remarkably similar to those faced by association members.

Integrity of editorial was one of the foremost issues on their minds. Like other parts of the world, even the seemingly super-rich Saudis have felt the pain of an advertising downturn.

What is the role of the Editor in terms of changing this situation around? They were pleased to learn that the editorial integrity of newspapers in our part of the world has held very firm during this period of fiscal challenges.

Indeed, we have made a point of underscoring the quality of our journalism; its integrity and the trust that our readers have in our work.

Putting aside the more challenging environment of publishing in an Islamic culture, the executives of SRMC were just as firm on the editorial independence of their publications – and delighted to learn we felt the same way.

The prediction of News Ltd chairman and chief executive, John Hartigan – that journalism will evolve and writers with specialist knowledge will underpin much of the value of newspapers – was roundly welcomed by Arabic editors.

Like publishers the world over, readership trends are a challenge and there is a strong desire to ensure their newspapers remain relevant. Hartigan’s prediction made sense to them.

A lot of interest was shown in the different ad shapes that our newspapers have been offering to clients in an effort to break out of the traditional rectangle-box-ad. The Herald & Weekly Times has been good enough to offer and send a presentation of advertising alternatives that it has taken to Australian ad agencies in the past years or so.

Editors also wanted to know about the attitude of Australasian publishers to launching new titles. Of course, I had many examples to offer on the commercial and editorial innovation of members even in tight times.

They were impressed by the activities of Singapore Press Holdings, The Australian and Fairfax Media in relation to launches of prestige publications.

SPH’s strategy to exploit subscriber databases and offer a controlled circulation model for its new prestige title, Moments, really sparked lots of questions.

Sport & Style – a glossy Fairfax publication licensed through L’Equipe, might naturally find its niche in sports-crazy Saudi Arabia at some point.

My time coincided with SMRC’s launch of The Robb Report – a hyper-prestige publication licensed from the United States. I have never seen a magazine printed so beautifully with spot varnish, five colours throughout and hundreds of pages featuring watchers and boats so expensive that I had never even heard of them.

I brought a few copies home. If anyone is interested, I’d be happy to loan a copy.

The area where Arabic publishers are now starting to explore properly is the Internet. By comparison with Western publishers, this has not been a priority.

Saudi editors are all well aware of the difficulty of making money from the Net – they’ve heard the global war stories - but are starting to build up their presence, using publishing and workflow software that will make their initial experiences much smoother than the trail blazed by Western publishers 15 years ago.

Plans are in play to use the Net to licence their copy to other publishers around the world. I’m sure that will be a treasure trove for those who could use travel and cuisine articles by journalists who call the -Middle East their home.

SRMC is a fascinating company. If anyone would like to know more, or have an introduction for whatever reason, let me know.