About Anoujoum

Anoujoum

Overview

Anoujoum — the name means "The Stars" in Arabic, and the title is also transliterated An-Noujoum — is a bilingual Arabic and English magazine published from Bankstown in Sydney's south-west. It describes itself in Arabic as a general cultural, arts and social magazine, and its editorial mix is built around entertainment and the arts: interviews with performers, coverage of Arab and international celebrity news, fashion, community social events and features on Lebanese and Arab cultural life. The magazine operates two websites, an Arabic edition at anoujoum.com.au and an English edition at en.anoujoum.com.au, and for many years it also appeared as a monthly print magazine sold for $5.00 an issue. Its October 2016 print issue billed itself, in its own words, as "Australia's Only Monthly English Arabic Magazine". Anoujoum should not be confused with Bankstown's Arabic newspapers: it is not one of the Australian Middle East Media titles, and no published source links it to that group. It is an entertainment and culture title rather than a news title, aimed squarely at Arabic-speaking readers interested in the arts, celebrity and community life.

History

Anoujoum's own publishing record points to a start around the turn of the century. The print issue of October 2016 was labelled on its cover as the magazine's "17th Year, Issue No. 2", which places its first year of publication at about 1999–2000; the magazine itself has not published a more precise founding account in the sources available, so no firmer date can be stated. That October 2016 issue gives a clear picture of the print-era title: a glossy monthly with a cover price of $5.00, a cover interview with fitness personality Maya Nassar, a travel feature on the Philippines and the magazine's "must reads" drawn from Arab entertainment coverage. The masthead name most closely associated with the title is Dr Sam Nan — also rendered Samih Nan — who is credited on the English site as the editor-in-chief conducting its interviews, and who contributes signed columns to the Arabic site. More recently, editorials on the Arabic site have also been credited to Joubran Kallab as editor-in-chief. Over time the magazine's centre of gravity has shifted from print to its websites. Whether a print edition is still produced could not be verified from current sources: the documented print history runs to at least 2016, while the verifiable publishing activity in 2025 and 2026 is online.

Programming and Content

Anoujoum's content is entertainment-led. Its signature format is the long interview with an artist or performer: in May 2024, for example, the English edition published an extended interview with Eleni, a Sydney belly-dance artist of Greek descent, covering her training in Egypt and Spain, her teaching work and her stage career — an interview conducted by editor-in-chief Dr Sam Nan. The English edition also carried international celebrity news, such as an August 2024 story on Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise, and community social coverage, including a detailed May 2024 report of the Touma–Barakat wedding at St Maroun's Cathedral in Redfern, naming the celebrants, families and reception at Doltone House. The Arabic edition ranges more widely: arts and theatre coverage from Lebanon, Arab-world current affairs, fashion reporting — including 2026 fashion-trend features among its most-read items — health and lifestyle pieces, and recipes and food writing. Recurring elements include the editor's own columns on fame and the arts, opinion pieces on Lebanese cultural life, and profiles of Arab artists and media figures. The Arabic edition's March 2026 output shows the current range in detail: a feature on the Lebanese woman as the country's "cedar" (27 March 2026); a report on Lebanese performers leaving the stage for street solidarity as Lebanon went through the events of March 2026 (26 March); technology coverage in a piece on Nvidia moving AI computing into orbit (23 March); an Oscars preview (23 March); Eid al-Fitr coverage set against the region's conflicts (19 March); a feature on Australian assistance to shattered communities in Lebanon (18 March); a report on actor-director Kassem Istanbouli turning the Lebanese National Theatre's cinema into a shelter (17 March); an obituary of photographer Mohamed Chehab (17 March); and a media-criticism piece on an Al Jadeed correspondent's reporting from Khiam (16 March). Alongside this, fashion and seasonal-trend features — 2026 colour and style trends among them — rank among the site's most-read items. The result is a magazine that mixes diaspora community coverage from Sydney with entertainment and cultural journalism drawn from Lebanon and the wider Arab world.

Audience and Reach

Anoujoum serves Arabic-speaking Australians, above all Sydney's large Lebanese community concentrated in the city's south-west around Bankstown, Lakemba and Guildford. Its bilingual format speaks to two generations at once: Arabic-dominant readers who follow the Arabic edition's cultural and Lebanon-focused coverage, and English-speaking readers of Lebanese and Arab heritage who use the English edition for celebrity news and community social coverage. The magazine's long print life — monthly issues sold through the community over many years — and its continuing websites make it one of the longer-lived Arabic entertainment titles in Australia. No audited circulation or readership figures for Anoujoum are published, and none are claimed here: its reach is best described in terms of its longevity, its Bankstown base in the heart of Sydney's Arabic-speaking community, and the breadth of its arts and social coverage rather than in numbers.

Digital Presence

The magazine publishes through two WordPress websites. The Arabic site, anoujoum.com.au, was still being updated in 2026: its news feed carried new articles dated through 27 March 2026, including coverage of Lebanese theatre and arts, Arab-world affairs, health and food content. No posts dated later than March 2026 were found, so the site's activity beyond that point is unconfirmed. The English site, en.anoujoum.com.au, organises its entertainment coverage under a "Stars News" banner and carries the title's interview archive and celebrity coverage, but its news feed shows no items newer than 2 August 2024, indicating the English edition has been dormant since 2024 even as the Arabic edition continued. Imagery uploaded to the Arabic site in January 2025 confirms the operation was active into 2025 on that side as well. The two sites share the Anoujoum branding and logo, and the Arabic site is the clearly senior partner in the title's current digital presence. The Arabic homepage also carries third-party display advertising — a Sydney kindergarten's advertisement appeared on it when the site was examined — which indicates a commercially operating website rather than an abandoned one. A separate Blogger site under the name Al-Nujoom Cultural Magazine carries further long-form interview content in the same spirit; its formal relationship to the magazine is not stated on either site, so it is noted here rather than assumed. Archived print content also circulates online: a full scan of the October 2016 print issue is hosted on a third-party site, preserving the print-era magazine's format and cover billing.

Ownership and Organisation

Anoujoum appears to be an independently published title rather than part of a larger media group. Business directory listings place "An-Noujoum Magazine" at 398 Chapel Road, Bankstown, categorising the business as a publisher that also offers advertising and printing services — a profile consistent with a small, self-contained community publishing operation. The editorial figure most consistently attached to the magazine is Dr Sam (Samih) Nan, credited as editor-in-chief on the English edition's interviews and as a columnist on the Arabic site; editorials credited to Joubran Kallab as editor-in-chief have also appeared on the Arabic site. Despite sharing a suburb and a language with Australian Middle East Media's newspapers El-Telegraph and Al Anwar, Anoujoum has different editorial personnel, a different format — an arts and entertainment magazine rather than a newspaper — and no documented corporate connection to that group. Readers and advertisers should therefore treat it as a separate, standalone publication.

Contact and Availability

Anoujoum is published from Bankstown in Sydney, New South Wales, with business listings giving its address as 398 Chapel Road, Bankstown and its telephone number as (02) 9790 8888. The magazine is available free online through its Arabic website, anoujoum.com.au, and its English website, en.anoujoum.com.au, which together carry its interviews, arts coverage and community social reporting. Print copies were historically sold at a $5.00 cover price as a monthly; whether print issues remain available could not be confirmed from current sources, and the websites are the reliable way to read the title today.