Young foreigners eye the first Baghdad English weekly

With American and British businessmen flooding the Iraqi capital to start investments of all sizes, three young men -- two British and one American -- took the first step toward launching a weekly English newspaper, the Baghdad Bulletin.

The three men, David Enders, Mark Tim and Ralph Hassel have been in Baghdad for the last month.

They are preparing the infrastructure for their project. The launching date, or the first day of publication was expected to be June 9.

The project was almost totally funded by these men and some of their partners. No major sponsors stand behind the new weekly but Tim, the business manager, told Alternative that a couple of major donors are already on the way.

David Enders, the weekly's editor, told Alternative that the team has been getting lucky since the start of the project. "But we realize that we need more than luck," he said adding that ever since they embarked on launching the publication, they have been working at a rate of 14 hours a day.

Enders argued that the newspaper was not a business adventure but rather part of what they conceived of as Iraq's re-development.

Baghdad Bulletin is expected to cover Iraq's local news at the first stage. At later stages, however, the team hopes to report on regional events.

The publication welcomes young journalist volunteers and is currently recruiting English and Journalism students from the university of Baghdad.

According to its editors, it does not have an editorial policy and seeks to become a forum for debating different ideas.

The newspaper's website was designed and uploaded a while before the team arrived in Baghdad.

Those interested in surfing the site can go to www.baghdadbulletin.com.