Happy birthday to CNNArabic.com!

The website launched on this day (January 19) in 2002, with a mix of news, special reports and exclusive interviews in Arabic for readers around the world.

CNN is noting the 10th anniversary of the website with the press release below.

CNN Press Release: CNNArabic.com celebrates 10 years of coverage

Today marks a significant milestone in the history of CNNArabic.com, as the site marks 10 years since it began providing news in Arabic to audiences around the world.

Launched on 19 January 2002, the site has seen the Arab world change beyond recognition, and charted a decade of events across world news, theMiddle East, science and technology, business, entertainment, and sports for a global audience of Arabic speakers. Its mix of special reports, videos, exclusive interviews and daily stock market reports has gained the site around a million unique users per month and seven million page views per month.

The site has also become a key part of CNN’s international newsgathering capability, contributing to reporting across the network’s services. It has also played a pioneering role in reaching out the Arab world’s influential blogging community and introducing dedicated sections for Arabic-speaking social media groups.

“Right from the moment it launched, the layer of analysis, knowledge and nuance that CNNArabic has given to CNN’s coverage of the Arab world has been invaluable,” said Tony Maddox, senior vice president at CNN International. “It has enabled us to deliver a picture of events, issues, people and places in fully rendered detail, right across the network. Audiences across the globe turn to CNN for this considered coverage, and this is in no small part down to the hard work, dedication and resourcefulness of the CNNArabic team.”

The events of the Arab Spring have seen CNNArabic.com’s contribution become even more valuable to the network, especially online. "The contribution of CNNArabic.com to CNN’s coverage of global news has been vital to our digital success, especially during last year’s Arab Spring," said Susan Grant, executive vice president of CNN News Services. "We’re proud to celebrate CNNArabic.com's 10-year anniversary and their excellent coverage of the Arab world for audiences everywhere, whether in Arabic, English or Spanish."

Caroline Faraj, CNN Arabic digital services director, highlighted the interactive relationship the site has with its growing audience. “Our audience is a constant source of ideas and inspiration for us. Throughout our first decade they have given us ideas, suggestions and comments, and we have walked together step by step. This has been invaluable in delivering credible news and professional journalism across the network. We’re hugely thankful for this input and look forward to our next decade growing together.

The way in which the Arab world has embraced digital media over the past decade was also highlighted, "The digital revolution has had a profound impact across the Middle East, especially among the youth”, said Rani Raad, SVP & Managing Director, CNN International Advertising Sales and Business Development, “In a region that generates close to a thousand tweets a minute and has more than 36 million Facebook users, CNNArabic.com has been at the forefront – delivering a credible window on the region and beyond."

Speaking about the future plans for CNNArabic.com, Peter Bale, Vice President & General Manager, Digital, CNN International, added: “CNN Arabic is a vital and growing part of the CNN digital network. Its dedicated team has carved out a strong voice in the region and a big following among Arabic speakers worldwide. It is an authentically Arab service with the integrity and independence consumers and advertisers expect from the CNN brand. We aim to grow CNN Arabic to better serve one of the world’s most economically dynamic and newsworthy regions.”

CNN Press Release - CNN 's redesigned Arabic-language website www.CNNArabic.com reinforces CNN’s on-going commitment to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as well as bringing CNN news to Arab-speaking communities across the globe. It follows a year after the opening of CNN Abu Dhabi in November 2009, which made CNN the first Western news organization to have a permanent broadcast and production hub in the region.

The investment is the most substantial in the website’s history and means that CNNArabic.com will now be aligned with the look and feel of the brand’s award-winning CNN.com/international and CNN.com sites, at the same time as introducing a significantly enhanced content offering.

The refreshed website is a direct response to extensive audience feedback on what they looked for from CNN. It puts ease of navigation, regional stories, exclusive interviews and content, and more video and enhanced interactivity at the heart of the re-design, and has invested in additional stringers to deliver the increased local content.

“This is a fundamental re-imagining of CNNArabic.com as part of our ongoing engagement with the Arabic speaking world,” says Rani Raad, senior vice president and managing director of CNN International Ad Sales and Business Development and General Manager of CNNArabic.com. “The investment is a statement of the scope of our ambitions in this important part of the world.”

CNNArabic.com editor Caroline Faraj adds, “CNNArabic.com is your home for not just breaking news, but also human interest stories, expanded regional sports and business coverage and an aggregator for the best from the Arab blogosphere. We’ve put video content front and center to enrich the user experience, and we have made it easy for users to interact with the content and put their imprint on the site with their commentary and recommendations.”

About the new features
Connecting with the blogosphere and Facebook forums in the Arab world
Expanding on current activity with influential bloggers and Facebook forums in the Arab world, there are two dedicated segments for key social media influencers in the region to post their latest thoughts and ideas, and at the same time add their URL so users can easily access their pages. The site’s team will provide their weekly roundup of the most important and interesting Arab blogs and Facebook forums and invites users to recommend their own favorites.

Bringing the latest regional business, sports and entertainment news
CNN’s reporting takes on a more localized perspective to provide a daily roundup of the stories making the headlines across both Arab and international media. There are daily reports from the MENA markets as well as weekly roundup of financial news. Moving beyond the news headlines, it also throws the spotlight on the big sports names from the region with regular segments on Arab athletes and brings the latest news from the world of entertainment with recommended movies of the week. Each week a feature story tackles the hot topics from the region and users are encouraged to post their comments online.

Keeping users up-to-date on CNN’s local programming
Users can stay up to date on CNN’s most popular programming from the region, including Inside the Middle East, Inside Africa, Marketplace Middle East, and Marketplace Africa via locally edited programming pages.

Launched in 2002, CNNArabic.com is produced in Dubai. Follow CNNarabic.com on Twitter @cnnarabic and Facebook www.facebook.com/CNNArabic