About Us
Nineteen years later, the potential This Week in Palestine still looks bright. In fact, neither the magazine, not its team have been ever stronger. We have been accused of (at times even ridiculed for) being the eternal optimists of Palestine. I hope the following brief about the company would show that our optimism was in place all along!
Briefly, Turbo Computers & Software Co. Ltd. ̶ publisher of This Week in Palestine ̶ started in September 1985 as a software house. In 1986 we developed a full-fledged multi-lingual word processor/typesetter around the (then) new laser printers. We weren’t satisfied with what was available on the market as far as word processors, so we simply built one of our own. It took us almost a whole year to produce a decent word processor for which we also built a set of fonts in Arabic; dot by dot. The package was a brilliant and an affordable solution for those who needed to typeset text in Arabic. Printers were particularly pleased with the product after realizing that they could use it to typeset books. Seeing its business potential, we started to use TurboSet, as we called the product, ourselves and began to offer layout services, which in turn introduced us to the design world.
In the early 1990s we shifted almost totally to being a design firm. Our technical background, coupled with being blessed with talented designers, prompted us to cater to the higher end of the market with designs and creativity that conform to international standards. For over than two decades now, we’ve been commonly known as Turbo Design.
In December 1998, Turbo Design put out the first issue of an English-language magazine called This Week in Palestine (TWiP). Nineteen years later, the magazine is now considered to be a major Palestinian success story and, unfortunately, remains the only English-language magazine in Palestine. TWiP essentially promotes and documents Palestine. In 2006, TWiP became a high-end brand under which annual agendas, calendars, and posters are marketed. Other commercial merchandise will soon be added to our product line. Today, TWiP’s website attracts well over 30,000 individual visitors per month, with also over 33,600 fans on our Facebook page.
More than two and a half decades after we started to offer design services, we are still considered to be one of Palestine’s main design firms with a track record of producing some of Palestine’s highest-profile publications.
Sani P. Meo
Publisher / General Manager/Partner
