Media Companies

Most major owners of media outlets are present across sectors. The only obvious cross-ownership is between the audiovisual and online sectors on the one hand, and the print and online sectors on the other hand. Most TV stations have websites that reproduce the content of what is broadcast but also have their separate editorial teams and exclusive web content. The same applies to some newspapers, including Annahar, L’Orient-Le Jour, Al-Akhbar, and Al-Joumhouria, which have dedicated teams for their online platforms that often publish web-only content.

Apart from the state-owned media outlets, all media companies are privately owned. Most of them are registered as Joint Stock Company (Société anonyme libanaise /ش.م.ل.) or Limited Liability Company (Société à responsabilité limitée/ش.م.م.). Some media outlets are not associated with a media company, as they are individually owned companies (تاجر) (e.g. Bint Jbeil, Lebanon Debate, or El Shark), or because they are parts of an association (Law of 1909) (e.g. Ya Sour).

Most of the companies were created as legal entities of the media outlet they own and do not own other media outlets. The Lebanese Communication Group L.C.G. SAL (Al-Manar and Al-Nour), Al Jadeed SAL (Al-Jadeed and Al Jadeed 90.3 FM), and the National Broadcasting Network SAL (NBN and Al-Risala Radio) are the only companies in the media selection operating in more than one audiovisual media sector.