It was sometime in 1979 that I saw a copy of Arab News for the first time. I was idly leafing through newspapers and periodicals at the Islamic Center library in a town a few miles away from my home. A daily published in Saudi Arabia, the focal point of the Muslim world, was enough to arouse my curiosity, but soon I realized that Arab News opened a new window for me to the outside world.
Unlike other newspapers, it covered news from almost every country, and it contained indepth analyses of current developments, timely editorials, blunt and forceful views and viewpoints.
Nineteen seventy-nine was a turbulent year, especially for the Muslim world - the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the jihad against occupation, the Camp David Accord between Egypt and Israel, the Islamic revolution in Iran, the rise of the Solidarity trade union movement in Poland that precipitated the downfall of the Communist empire and the rebirth of independent Muslim republics of Central Asia, the military takeover and subsequent execution of Prime Minister Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto in Pakistan and the siege of the Grand Mosque in Makkah all had engendered wide interest in Muslim world affairs.
The year also marked the beginning of the new Hijrah century. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) had declared worldwide celebrations lasting two full years to commemorate the turn of the century. It was as if the dawn of a reawakening in the Muslim world.
I was an undergraduate student then. Global developments created ripples in Kerala's politically sensitive campuses. Support groups were formed. Public rallies and seminars were held. Debates focused on the ramifications the twist of events in Islamic countries would have on the world at large. There was great demand for news from the Muslim world. India's high-flown national dailies dismissed coverage of Muslim countries as an "expensive" turnoff, while domestic politics and petty crime dominated the vernacular press.
Arab News, which had been mailed free of cost to Islamic institutions and libraries across Kerala, filled that gap to a certain extent. Then there was an influx of periodicals that discussed Muslim world issues. Publications from Canada, the US, UK, Malaysia, Iran, Lebanon, Kuwait and many Muslim countries found their way to our libraries.
When a library was founded in my own small town a few years on, we wrote to Arab News to include us in its free mailing list. The response was prompt. In a couple of weeks, we started receiving Arab News, Asharq Al-Awsat and the group's other publications.
By then, Arab News had become a major source of information for Muslim writers and publishers there, thanks to the company's free publicity campaign. Articles were reproduced in full; Kahil's cartoons were on the covers of at least a few, and Adil Salahi had become a celebrity. The campaign had paid off. Thousands of Keralites who would flock to Saudi Arabia for work over the years had already made their choice of a newspaper.
Times have changed. Twenty-four-hour news channels and Internet blogs have made a daily newspaper that arrived by post irrelevant. But old-timers still say that no local newspaper could satisfy their craving for global news as Arab News did.
Newspapers are an obsession for the Malayali. He wants to read his paper with his morning cup of coffee. Those who cannot afford their own copies make their rounds religiously to the reading rooms, which are found in every nook and cranny of the state that prides in its near 100 percent literacy. Since I came to the Kingdom in mid-1980s, I have always wondered why newspapers here fail to build a solid readership base. One of the reasons may be a completely different pattern of life in the country. An early and staggered work day deprives people of enough leisure to read the day's news fresh. Most readers buy their newspaper on way to work; I've also seen Saudis buying them past midnight.
For us, the value of a daily newspaper diminishes with the declining day. The only way to get newspapers delivered at home now is to make annual subscriptions which is not an attractive proposition for the average reader. Newsboys are an extinct species in Saudi Arabia. I have heard that in the 1970s and early 1980s street vendors made big money by selling newspapers on commission. The distribution monoliths that have taken over since should share the blame for newspapers losing their mass appeal in Saudi society.
The entry of Internet and the visual media has eroded the base of the print media. Newspapers around the world disappear without trace, triggering a soul-search in the industry. Intellectual readers are increasingly turning to the Internet as access to news sites that reprint newspaper articles is becoming fast and cheap.
Readership has eroded, especially among the young. According to one worldwide survey, although 70 percent of people in the age group of 18-24 read a newspaper in the 1960s, by 2000 that number dropped to about 40 percent. The declining readership among the young, however, is the direct result of the waning interest in civic engagement. Young people are gradually losing a sense of involvement.
The positive change that Saudi society currently witnesses offers a mine of opportunities for the media which has to cultivate a new culture of readership among the country's young population. Despite the onslaught of electronic media, newspapers have always occupied a particular niche of public opinion. Identifying this peculiarity is the recipe for success for any newspaper.
This is where Arab News has come off well against its rivals. Although some frequently changed their facades and others completely lost face, Arab News stood the test of time. Over the years it has kept its identity intact and widened its outreach.
And so has its responsibility. The paper has become the mouthpiece of the Arab nation and the defender of Muslim causes. As few rights are restored, more are usurped; as old stereotypes are removed, new ones are created. The struggle is on. Arab News has come of age.
From a daily that initially satisfied foreign workers in their quest for news from home, the focus has shifted to presenting the mood of the nation to the world outside. The metamorphosis was gradual but forceful. Issues that were once taboo are now discussed openly. The people in power listen. History is in the making. The newspaper, as journalism's big thinkers have it, is the first draft. Arab News reflects the pulse of the nation. And it will definitely remain the anemometer for the winds of change that are sweeping the region.
