The editing was done in a hazardous environment. An editor would work on a linotype machine in a room filled with gas from molten lead. He would also be involved in setting the headlines for which he would have to collect the molds of the alphabet in the right size from a box attached to the machine. If the report included a photo, a zincograph would be used and the photo would be put on a wooden base and lifted by a lever to align it to the text of the report.

After proofing, every letter placed wrongly would then be reset on the linotype and the paper sheet secured after arranging all the article and photos in it. The letters were rearranged with the help of strings. A final proof was taken on a wet paper before the OK to send for printing.

The work was long, laborious and exhausting. You had to be on your feet all the time and move from one section to another to coordinate and cooperate on the day’s work. We used to work up to 18 hours a day before the tabloid sheets were ready. It was not only tiring but injurious to health because of the use of lead in machines.

This was how Arab News, the first English daily, was published in its initial days in a country where only primitive facilities for printing and publishing were available. It was the story of 35 years ago when we were edging forward at the speed of a camel.

Then gradually the primitive machines gave way to modern technology. The Linotype company developed new printing machines in which newspaper articles appeared in the form of magnetized tape perforated with the required letters as an old telex machine used to do. Instead of manual work, the new machines would read and translate the perforated tape to written pieces and produce a skin-like sheet in the size of a newspaper sheet, which could be proofed in a simpler manner and wholesome atmosphere.

The later versions of the machine were marked with cleanliness and precision.

Newspaper printing and publishing have become faster and easier with the advent of powerful computers and advance in technology. The changes are unbelievable in terms of the flow of information and even in distribution. An editor sits in his office and all copies and graphics come to him online and editing is also done online. Computer networks now control every process of a newspaper production. An editor can work at home. That is where Arab News stands now.

When I visit the beautiful Arab News online edition these days, I recollect a forecast made by Publisher Hisham Ali Hafiz that print newspapers would one day be replaced by electronic newspapers. He made this prediction while speaking at a press meeting decades before the appearance of online newspapers.

The events of the night in 1975 when the first Arab News copy was produced is still vivid in my memory. The situation was comparable to a woman in labor and no doctor or midwife around. Publishers Hisham and Muhammad Ali Hafiz, apparently under severe stress, were closely watching the editorial staff including stone editors and proofreaders. Their experience in printing an English daily was virtually nil.

The anxiety and nervousness was, however, not confined to the publishers and the editorial staff. A large number of people in the Kingdom were anxiously waiting for the first-ever issue of an English Saudi daily. All the copies that appeared on the newsstands at noon on the next day sold out within minutes. It was apparent that readers never looked at the faults of Arab News but were delighted that a newspaper that they could read was now available in the country.

The whole Arab News family, including the two publishers, went home exhausted and sleepless like warriors returning from a fierce battle.

They did not have enough time to rest, as they had to return to the office, a garage in the Binladin building in Jeddah, for the second issue. Still they were relieved because they had succeeded in bringing out the first issue. They had to forget their exhaustion and work with renewed energy because they could not afford to let down the readers who were waiting for the next copy of Arab News. This awareness that the readers are waiting for the next issue, has been the driving force behind its success down the years.