Al Jazeera is hiring dozens of producers, correspondents and other staffers around the world to get ready for the launch of its AJ+ online video news network. The AJ+ project, which is run by a team based in the former offices of Al Gore’s Current.tv in San Francisco, put up a placeholder web page Friday that states that AJ+ is “coming soon.”
The page includes the following description of AJ+:
“Al Jazeera Media Network’s newest digital experience. PROJECT AJ+ is a digital community dedicated to YOU. We are the network for a generation connected to the real world. Leveraging the expansive Al Jazeera bureau, PROJECT AJ+ will gather and present the stories from around the world of ordinary people dealing with extraordinary situations.”
The page also includes listings for around 50 jobs for offices in San Francisco, Doha, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, Kuala Lumpur and Nairobi.
AJ+ executives gave me an exclusive first look at their San Francisco offices three months ago. During our conversation, they told me that AJ+ was going to produce exclusive content for an online audience, as opposed to repurposing reporting that was made for Al Jazeera’s traditional networks:
“‘You don’t want to inherit the legacy of the TV,’ said Al Jazeera Media Network’s Executive Director of Strategy, Development and Technology Yaser Bishr. He argued that previously, news networks simply tried to repurpose TV content online, or positioned their online presences as a kind of supplemental offering; something where viewers go if they want to learn more about what they’ve seen on TV. With AJ+, there is no TV.”
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