Expanding the Ettelaat Empire
While Ettelaat remained the flagship of his publishing activities, Masoudi was not content with a single newspaper. Faced with competition from Kayhan, a new newspaper founded in 1942 that quickly became Ettelaat’s rival, Masoudi diversified his publishing ventures.
He launched several other periodicals, including:
-
Ettelaat-e Haftagi (Weekly Ettelaat)
-
Ettelaat-e Ma’aneh (Literary/Intellectual Edition)
-
Ettelaat-e Banovan (Ettelaat for Ladies), a women’s magazine
-
Donyaye Varzesh (The World of Sports)
-
Al-Akhy (Brotherhood), an Arabic-language magazine aimed at Arab readers
Through these initiatives, Masoudi turned Ettelaat into a media empire, with content that catered to diverse audiences: intellectuals, women, athletes, and even foreign readers. This expansion was a strategic move to secure his dominance in the Iranian press against rivals like Kayhan.
Senator and Political Career after 1949
In 1949, the Iranian Senate was established as part of Mohammad Reza Shah’s constitutional reforms. Masoudi was elected as a senator and held this position until his death in 1974. As a senator, he played a quieter but steady role in politics. Unlike some of his contemporaries who became outspoken critics of the regime, Masoudi maintained a pragmatic relationship with the Pahlavi state.
