Mirette Mabrouk:
At the Helm of a Publishing Empire

Within a year of graduating with a masters degree in Television Journalism from the Adham Center in 1990, Mirette Mabrouk left broadcasting for print journalism, never to return.

"I am at heart a print person and always have been," Mabrouk told Adham Online.

At age 36, Mabrouk is director of publication for International Business Associates Ltd. (IBA), which publishes English-language magazines Business Today Egypt, Egypt Today, Travel Today Egypt, and Carnival Arabia as well as the French La Revue d'Egypte and an Arabic quarterly version of Egypt Today.

"Television journalism didn't do it for me," she said. "When I was working in broadcasting, I woke up doing something different every day, but in the end it all felt the same to me. You get trapped into a formula.… You've got three minutes and you know the picture is more important than the words."

Mabrouk concedes that she is not a "hard-bitten" reporter, chasing after the latest headlines. Her heart is more in analysis and in-depth journalism than breaking news.

"TV is brilliant for breaking news," she said. "But I like to know why things happened. What happened on its own is not of interest to me."

At the helm of IBA's publishing division, Mabrouk oversees policy and quality control for all the magazines. All are private and independent publications that support themselves entirely through advertising revenue, leaving them free of any governmental or political influences. This puts Mabrouk in a perfect position to offer what she believes to be an essential public service in the form of in-depth analysis and a forum for experts to express their opinions about current events in Egypt and the region.

"Any consumer of news wants to know something: they want to know why the news means something to them," Mabrouk said. "As a journalist, it is not your job to tell people what to think. It's your job to give people enough information to arrive at an intelligent decision for themselves."

Mabrouk studied both print and broadcast journalism as an undergraduate at the American University in Cairo. She also wrote for the student newspaper The Caravan, obtaining her first press card at age 18. Later, as a graduate student at the Adham Center, Mabrouk learned hands-on journalistic skills that gave her the confidence that comes with learning on the job and not just in the classroom. Mabrouk recalls producing local stories for CNN and other affiliates while still a student.

"One of the nice things at the Adham Center is that you got to write, got to shoot, got to edit, to do everything," she said. "They gave us an enormous amount of responsibility for young people."

Mabrouk jokes that she worked so hard as an Adham student that she felt like an indentured servant.

"I remember going almost a year without a weekend," she said. But "it was really a fantastic education."

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Mabrouk counts herself lucky to be working for IBA, which she considers the best place for foreign-language journalism publications in Egypt.

"Really we produce an excellent caliber of journalism that I'm very proud of," she said. "The staff are really very dedicated and of very high caliber. And I've been extremely lucky because my boss (Ann Marie Harrison, CEO and Publisher of IBA Media) has pretty much given me free rein."

As primarily an English-language publisher, IBA Media caters to a niche audience, but it would be a mistake to think magazines like Egypt Today and Business Today were designed for foreigners only.

"My goal really is not the expats, never has been," Mabrouk said. "In social and political issues, your targets are Egyptians. It's a niche market - maybe 2 percent of the population - but the 2 percent you're talking to are decision makers."

Mabrouk's work takes her all over the world. Often she finds herself one of the youngest people in the room at a conference or business meeting. She says this experience can be "enormously gratifying," but attributes her precocious rise in the ranks to a combination of luck and hard work.

"I was lucky enough to be in the right place in the right time," Mabrouk said. "A lot of what happens to you in life is luck. Obviously if you sit around on your rear and not do anything, you won't get anywhere, but a lot of it is luck."

She added that she is happy with what she is doing now, and looks forward to more challenges in the future.

"One of the nice things about journalism is that it gives you access to some things you would never have access to otherwise, and I am grateful for that every single day."

-Lindsay Wise