Al Jazeera eyes 100 new staff after US TV buy

Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera is advertising more than 100 job openings in New York and Washington DC following its recent US$500m purchase of Current TV.

The acquisition of US-based Current TV, founded by former US Vice President Al Gore, will give Al Jazeera access to an additional 40m viewers through its cable deals and distribution network. Al Jazeera, which broadcasts in both Arabic and English from Doha, currently has an audience of 220m people.

After Current TV is absorbed into the Qatari broadcaster, which is owned by the oil and gas-rich Gulf state's government, it will be rebranded as Al Jazeera America.

The positions on offer in the US range from planning producers to wardrobe stylists.

The new channel will be headquartered in New York and in addition to existing bureaus in that city, Washington, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago, Al Jazeera will open more bureaus, doubling the network’s US-based staff to more than 300 employees.

Current TV, founded in 2005 by Gore, is distributed in around 60m of the 100m homes in the US with cable or satellite service. Comcast Corp and DirecTV, with 22.4m and 19.8m subscribers, respectively, both distribute Current.