In an ever growing industry with an enterprise as old as the practice of translation itself, and one of the most productive lines of scientific research in Translation Studies, translation quality assessment (TQA) establishes a pragmatic framework, an essential tool to be scaled to fit the needs of the different actors of translation. This study investigates and tests the application of Larsons (1984) model of translation quality assessment. The criteria-based model is applied to assess the translation of Arabic news texts into English within an interdisciplinary framework of discourse analysis that draws heavily from critical discourse analysts, such as Dijk (1988), Fairclough (1995), sociolinguists and practicing journalists, Bell (1991), and Cotter (2010), focusing mainly on translation errors, their nature and root cause. The study hypothesizes the applicability, efficiency, and practicality of the adopted model in assessing news texts as it operates on three basic, but universal criteria. To test the hypothesis validity, nine MA translation students are given different news texts. The quality and success of the test subjects translations are assessed based on the models three criteria of accuracy, clarity, and naturalness. Along with a fourth criterion proposed to cover the typographical features of texts. The study reveals that the model is, in fact, applicable when applied to test the translation quality of news texts and that it can be very helpful in shedding light on the complex nature of news texts that are often domesticated to fit the needs of both diligent newsagents and a demanding audience in a highly competitive market.