FACT Magazine

What FACT Magazine does

FACT Magazine, operating as FACT Magazine FZ-LLC, is a Dubai-headquartered lifestyle media brand covering hotels, restaurants, bars, nightlife, spa and wellness, arts and culture, travel, events, fashion, fitness, motoring, sport, real estate, news, and shopping across 9 cities in the Middle East, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. The company operates localized city editions (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Jeddah, Singapore, London, Doha, Muscat, Manama, AlUla, The Red Sea) delivered primarily through its digital magazine at factmagazines.com, supported by Instagram accounts, e-newsletter subscription, and a live-events platform called FACT Live. Its core products are editorial content plus three flagship annual awards franchises: FACT Dining Awards (across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, London, and Singapore from 2027), FACT Spa & Wellness Awards UAE (8th edition in 2026), and FACT Hotel List (GCC ranking), each combining BEST (editorial/expert) and FAVOURITE (public vote) categories.

The business model is advertising- and sponsorship-led, monetizing the audience of affluent consumers and tourists seeking dining, hospitality and lifestyle recommendations, and charging restaurants, hotels, beach clubs, spas, and lifestyle brands for marketing exposure, media-kit placements, and event sponsorships. Award entry, attendance, and winning are free, with no money exchanged for nominations or accolades; this positioning is used to defend editorial independence and brand credibility. FACT is privately held and founder/management-controlled, led by Editor-in-Chief David Tapley and Publisher Edward Smith, with no disclosed institutional investors or parent company and no funding rounds on record. Recent strategic activity has focused on geographic expansion (Singapore 2027, deeper Saudi coverage including AlUla and The Red Sea) and vertical extension via the Spa & Wellness and Hotel awards programmes, alongside a minor strategic collaboration with Tashkeel around the Gerbou restaurant concept.

Name

FACT Magazine

Legal name

FACT Magazine FZ-LLC

Website

https://factmagazines.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

FACT Magazine is a Dubai-based lifestyle media brand covering dining, hotels, nightlife, wellness, travel and culture across 9 cities in the Middle East, the UK and Singapore, monetizing primarily through advertising, sponsorship and a portfolio of annual awards programmes.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Lifestyle Media and Publishing

NAICS

Periodical Publishers (51312)

SIC

Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Consumer Lifestyle & Fashion Magazines (MPAJAEAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Travel & Outdoors Magazines (MPAJAEAH), Health, Fitness & Wellness Magazines (MPAJAEAD)

Keywords

• Lifestyle media publication
• Dining awards programme
• Hospitality editorial content
• Restaurant reviews guides
• Spa wellness awards

Headquarters

HQ city

Dubai

HQ country

United Arab Emirates

HQ region

Middle East

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Advertising and Sponsorship: FACT Magazine generates revenue through advertising and sponsorship from restaurants, hotels, hospitality brands, and lifestyle businesses featured in its content and awards programs.

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

FACT Magazine is a digital lifestyle publication and awards operator covering hotels, restaurants, bars, nightlife, spa and wellness, arts and culture, travel, and things to do across 9+ cities in the Middle East, the UK, and Singapore. It runs annual awards programmes including the FACT Dining Awards, FACT Spa & Wellness Awards, and FACT Hotel List, all free to enter, attend, and win. The business monetises its audience through advertising, sponsorship, and media kit packages sold to hospitality brands.

Product overview

FACT Magazine is a lifestyle publication offering editorial content across multiple cities (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Jeddah, London, Singapore, Doha, Muscat, Manama, AlUla, and The Red Sea) covering hotels, restaurants, bars, nightlife, spa & wellness, arts & culture, travel, events, fashion, fitness, motoring, sport, real estate, news, and shopping. The company operates several branded award programmes: FACT Dining Awards (covering restaurants and culinary talent), FACT Spa & Wellness Awards (covering wellness venues), and the general FACT Awards 2026. FACT Live serves as the brand's live events and experiences vertical. The publication provides city-specific editions and maintains regional event calendars and dining guides.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• FACT Dining Awards: Annual awards programme celebrating the best restaurants, cafés, chefs and teams shaping the region's food and beverage scene, held in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, London, and Riyadh
• FACT Spa & Wellness Awards
• FACT Live
• FACT Hotel List

Products and services

• FACT Magazine Digital lifestyle magazine covering hotels, restaurants, bars, nightlife, spa and wellness, arts and culture, travel, fashion, fitness, motoring, sport, real estate, news, and shopping across 9+ cities in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, the UK, and Singapore, targeted at affluent consumers and tourists seeking trusted regional recommendations.
• FACT Dining Awards Annual awards programme celebrating the best restaurants, cafés, chefs, and hospitality teams across Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the UK, and Singapore, free to enter, attend, and win, with BEST (critic's choice) and FAVOURITE (public vote) categories.
• FACT Spa & Wellness Awards Annual UAE awards programme recognising excellence across the health and wellbeing industry, covering hotel spas, independent spas, salons, health clubs, and wellness centres, with BEST and FAVOURITE categories; the 2026 edition recognised 150+ venues and awarded 56 prizes across 29 categories.
• FACT Live
• FACT Awards 2026 Annual multi-category awards programme covering lifestyle categories across FACT Magazine's coverage areas, with public voting open to readers.

Quantifiable outcome

• FACT Dining Awards expanding to Singapore in 2027, marking first awards program in Asia

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• TashkeelminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 February 2025Gerbou restaurant is a collaboration between Atelier House Hospitality and Tashkeel. Tashkeel is a leading visual art and design incubator in the UAE. Gerbou reimagines Emirati cuisine through a modern lens while celebrating local artistry and craftsmanship, with Tashkeel's Tanween by Tashkeel program alumnae providing design elements that fuse tradition with contemporary design.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• Hotel & Catering News Middle East: Hotel & Catering News ME is a regional B2B hospitality trade title covering hotels, restaurants and F&B across the Middle East. It is comparable as a regional hospitality media brand monetizing through industry advertising, but skewed to B2B rather than FACT's consumer-lifestyle angle.
• The National (UAE): The National is a UAE-based English-language news publication with substantial lifestyle, dining, hotels and culture coverage targeting the same affluent, English-speaking resident and tourist audience as FACT. It competes for reader attention and lifestyle advertising spend in the same market.
• Skift: Skift is a global travel-industry media brand covering hotels, hospitality and tourism trends. While global rather than GCC-focused, it is a relevant comparable on the model of monetizing a niche hospitality/travel audience through B2B advertising, events and research.

Direct peers

• Time Out Dubai: Time Out Dubai is the closest direct competitor: a city-based lifestyle publication covering restaurants, bars, hotels, things to do and events across Dubai, with a very similar editorial-to-events-to-advertising model. Both target affluent residents and tourists seeking trusted local recommendations and both monetize primarily through hospitality advertising.
• What's On Dubai: What's On is a long-standing Dubai-based lifestyle/events publication covering restaurants, nightlife and entertainment, with a comparable audience (residents and tourists) and the same hospitality advertising pool. It also runs restaurant awards and events that overlap directly with FACT Dining Awards and FACT Live.

Broad incumbents

• Esquire Middle East: Esquire Middle East is a men's-lifestyle publication covering restaurants, bars, travel, motoring and culture across the GCC. Its content mix closely mirrors FACT's dining/nightlife/travel verticals and it competes for the same male, affluent reader and hospitality advertisers in the region.
• Condé Nast Traveller Middle East: Condé Nast Traveller is a global travel and hospitality title with strong Middle East coverage, targeting affluent travelers and monetizing through luxury hotel and hospitality advertising. It is comparable to FACT on the travel/hotels vertical and competes for the same GCC hospitality marketing budgets.
• Vogue Arabia: Vogue Arabia is a large, well-funded regional lifestyle and fashion title covering dining, hotels, beauty and culture across the GCC. It competes for the same affluent reader and the same hospitality/luxury advertising dollars as FACT, but operates at a much larger scale under a global publishing brand.
• Harper's Bazaar Arabia: Harper's Bazaar Arabia is an established regional lifestyle title covering dining, hotels, travel and luxury experiences targeted at the same affluent female-skewing GCC audience. It competes with FACT for premium hospitality advertisers and lifestyle awards credibility in the region.

Emerging players

• Time Out Market Dubai: Time Out Market extends the Time Out brand into curated food hall operations, directly leveraging editorial dining credibility into commercial F&B — a model FACT could theoretically pursue via FACT Live. Comparable on the dining-editorial-meets-hospitality commercialization axis.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses1 record

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/factmagazines
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/factmagazine

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about FACT Magazine