Al Jazeera gears up for launch

After being delayed for almost a year, this week brought news that Al Jazeera's English-language network will finally debut on November 15, the 10th anniversary of Al Jazeera's Arabic channel. The delay has reportedly been attributed to technical glitches, but the extra time may have been a blessing in disguise.

In July 2005, we reported (sub req'd) the network had hired Brown Lloyd James as its global AOR to help specifically with the launch. BLJ EVP Mike Holtzman acknowledged in that piece that there would be some challenges to launching such a channel in the current political climate, but did not think they would be "insurmountable."

Hopefully, we'll have some news in the magazine in the coming weeks about BLJ's work on this highly anticipated launch.