Al Jazeera Network announced its strategic plans for the next three years at a dinner for over 500 staff and attended by of board of directors and 25 heads of foreign bureaus at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Doha on the 7th February 2010. Entitled COMPASS 2012 This large-scale project is geared towards consolidating the content produced by all Al Jazeera channels and promoting creativity, strategic positioning in the global media industry, and a dynamic environment for Al Jazeera staff to take the Network into the future.
During the past decade journalism has undergone enormous challenges and many changes. As a result news gathering and in-depth journalism has declined worldwide. Compass 2012 aims to consolidate Al Jazeeras content and extend Al Jazeeras standard of professional journalism on all levels. It will widen Al Jazeeras newsgathering reach in order to enhance the networks capacity to cover stories first hand, and to continue to bring original and challenging journalism to the networks viewers.
Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer al-Thani, Chairman of board of directors of Al Jazeera Network officially launched the Compass 2012 project which seeks to encapsulate the Spirit of Al Jazeera across the Network while continuing to build the Networks global audience and penetrate new markets , new regions, and new media platforms. Compass 2012 will seek to establish global benchmarks for independent, trusted, and credible news and information.
Wadah Khanfar Director General of the Al Jazeera Network said The goal of this initiative is to continue to make Al Jazeera Network one of the leading players in the industry and to set the gold standard in robust international news coverage. Starting in 2010, the Network has an unprecedented opportunity to cement its status as a market leader and to become the leading provider of trusted news and information content in the world.
The event saw the announcement of three new departments to develop and implement the overall goals of Compass 2012: Corporate Development, Editorial Development and Media Development departments which are headed respectively by Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Horr, Ibrahim Helal, and Al Anstey.