Volante

About Volante

Volante is an English-language lifestyle magazine published in Doha, Qatar, by Firefly Communications. Part of the Doha-based publisher's brand expansion in the early 2010s, it joined the company's portfolio alongside titles including Qatar Construction News, Alef and Sur La Terre. The name — Italian for "steering wheel," and by extension "flying" — evokes motion, aspiration and the good life: the vocabulary of a luxury lifestyle title in one of the world's most affluent small states.

History

Volante emerged from the growth of Firefly Communications, the Doha-based media content and publishing firm that became one of the two most prominent magazine publishing houses in Qatar, alongside Oryx Communications. In the early 2010s, as Qatar's economy boomed and its expatriate population swelled, Firefly expanded its portfolio beyond its business and current affairs flagship The Edge into specialist and lifestyle publishing. By 2014, the company had added several new publications to its brand, including the B2B title Qatar Construction News, the bilingual cultural journal Alef, Sur La Terre and Volante.

The expansion reflected the logic of the Qatari magazine market at the time. With nine magazines recorded in the country in 2009 and a rapidly growing audience of affluent residents, publishers saw room for titles serving distinct interests — business, construction, culture, family life and lifestyle. Firefly's strategy was to build a stable of brands covering the segments of that audience, and Volante was its lifestyle entry: a magazine for the aspirational reader, in the aspirational city.

The Publisher: Firefly Communications

Firefly Communications is a Doha-based media content and publishing company whose portfolio has spanned business and current affairs magazine The Edge, B2B publication Qatar Construction News, associated websites, brand extensions and new launches. The firm also operates Firefly Premium, a content marketing and periodical, book and digital publishing division whose client roster has included Qatargas, Al Asmakh Real Estate and Qatar Insurance Company.

The Lifestyle Magazine Moment in Doha

Volante belongs to a particular moment in Doha's publishing history: the lifestyle magazine boom of the early-to-mid 2010s. As the city's skyline rose and its population of professionals, executives and entrepreneurs grew, a market emerged for glossy English-language titles covering the trappings of success — the cars, watches, travel, dining and design that define luxury life in the Gulf. Within that market, Volante's name positioned it suggestively: in Italian automotive parlance, "volante" is the steering wheel, and in a country where the automobile is a cultural artefact, a lifestyle magazine named Volante speaks the local language of aspiration.

A Note on the Record

Detailed public documentation of Volante's editorial content, frequency and circulation is limited — a common fate for lifestyle titles from the period, many of which lived primarily in print distribution across hotels, lounges and newsstands. What is verifiable is its place in the Firefly Communications portfolio and in the documented expansion of Qatar's magazine sector by 2014. The title stands as part of the record of Doha's publishing growth: the lifestyle magazine that rode the city's boom years.

Position in Qatar's Media Landscape

Within Qatar's media landscape, Volante represents the lifestyle segment of the Firefly stable — the glossy complement to the company's business and trade titles. Where The Edge served the boardroom and Qatar Construction News served the building site, Volante served the aspiration: the lifestyle magazine for Doha's affluent English-speaking residents, published by one of the country's leading magazine houses at the height of the city's transformation.

The Name

A magazine's name is its first editorial statement, and "Volante" makes a suggestive one. In Italian, the language of automotive romance, il volante is the steering wheel — the driver's point of contact with the machine. The word also means "flying," from the verb volare. Together, the associations are motion, control, aspiration and escape: the fantasy of the open road, rendered in the language of Italian automotive culture that the Gulf's car enthusiasts know well.

Facts

• Title: Volante
• Publisher: Firefly Communications (Doha)
• Headquarters: Doha, Qatar
• Language: English
• Category: Lifestyle magazine
• Portfolio: Added to Firefly's brand stable by 2014, alongside Qatar Construction News, Alef and Sur La Terre
• Name: Italian for "steering wheel" (also "flying") — evoking motoring and aspiration
• Market context: Doha's lifestyle magazine expansion of the early-to-mid 2010s