Seeing the city I panicked but was too embarrassed to pack my suitcase and return to London. I flew first class with the ever hospitable Hisham and was ensconced in a villa at Al Kandara Hotel, across the street from the old airport. I decided to make what I thought would be impossible demands for myself and the proposed staff. To my utter surprise Hisham and Muhammad Ali Hafiz exchanged a few words and agreed to all my demands. Hisham said: Ala barakat Allah (with God’s blessing) and that was that.

I returned to Jeddah in August (not the best time to visit) to start work, with trepidation rather than hope being the overriding feeling. I haven’t regretted a minute in Jeddah or at Arab News. We were riding the wave, or should I say tsunami, of the quadrupling of oil prices and Saudi Arabia was suddenly the most sought-after destination for news. The editorial staff interests were as varied as their nationalities. We had Arab, American and British journalists, and we covered a number of human interest stories of which the Western media took notice. And I remember a day in 1977 when we saw darkness at noon without the help of Arthur Koestler. Very low black clouds produced sudden burst of rain that lasted two hours, but it was of Biblical flood proportions. It nearly ruined the unfinished sewage system, with cars ending up in the gutter, heads and tails. Our memorable weather forecast the next day said: “We depend on the airport for the weather, but the weather is so bad we cannot get to the airport to get the weather. A low wall separated our offices from the airport, but the downpour left a lake between us. It was that bad.”

Still, the city and the newspaper grew together and prospered. I added to my journalistic knowledge and gained friends. My experience in Jeddah held me in good stead when I moved back to London about two years later to start Asharq Al Awsat. That experience spared me any pitfalls in the country providing the most advertising and sales for the fledging newspaper. The Saudi market alone garners most, if not all, pan-Arab advertising, and that is on top of the big local market.

I have always looked at Arab News as My newspaper. Ten years later, 20 years later and 35 years later it is still my newspaper, and I am proud of its continuing success. In my experience, maintaining success is harder than achieving it.

Today, Arab News is both a Saudi and an international newspaper, a credible source of information for the layman and the expert inside the Arab world and overseas. It is the best-selling English language newspaper in the Arab world today. Its editor, Khaled Almaeena, is a personal friend, but I say honestly and objectively that he is a great journalist whose knowledge is matched by his hard work. And there is a solid establishment run by professionals behind the editorial side. Arab News could not have succeeded without the daily input, guidance and support of the administration. I will always miss Prince Ahmed bin Salman, but find solace in seeing Prince Faisal bin Salman at the helm. With such an editorial team and administration Arab News can only move forward and upward, a prediction that is very hard to make of most print journalism today.

— Jihad Al-Khazen is one of the leading media personalities in Arab journalism, both in Arabic and in English.