AJ+ celebrates second anniversary with unprecedented success

Published on: 15 Sep 2016

AJ+ has already surpassed five billion lifetime video views on Facebook
In two years AJ+ has ranked 7th as global Facebook publisher
Emmy nominated Ahmed Shihab-Eldin joins team as Senior Presenter

San Francisco – 15th September 2016.

AJ+, the U.S.-based digital spin-off of Al Jazeera Media Network, officially launched on September 15, 2014. Starting as a small experimental unit based in San Francisco, AJ+ has quickly grown its presence in digital news to become one of the most prominent publishers in social media.

In July 2016, AJ+ celebrated 5 billion lifetime video views on Facebook. In the same month, AJ+ was ranked #7 in the global Facebook publisher ranking by Tubular. Launched in the same spirit, AJ+ Español covers stories that matter to Spanish-speaking millennial audiences in Latin America and is nearing 1 million likes. And AJ+ Arabi, introduced on May 30, 2016, has already garnered 1.7 million likes on Facebook as of September 2016.

To coincide with the second anniversary, AJ+ has appointed Ahmed Shihab-Eldin as Senior Presenter. Shihab-Eldin is an Emmy-nominated journalist and a former Correspondent for the groundbreaking, award-winning documentary series VICE on HBO. Shihab-Eldin joins a strong team of existing presenters that includes Senior Presenters Dena Takruri and Francesca Fiorentini.

“AJ+ has grown into a truly major digital news publisher in the past two years. We will continue to innovate in storytelling and serve stories that matter to our globally minded audiences,” said Dima Khatib, Managing Director of AJ+.