As the presses began to roll on April 20, 1975, when the first edition of Arab News was printed, it would have been hard to imagine what has unfolded on its pages since that time.
From a blueprint crafted in a humble building and its startup in a garage, this newspaper has come a long way. It started as a tabloid with a press run of a few thousand copies and was distributed mainly among news-hungry expatriates.
Those were the days before satellite transmissions, and the only reliable sources of news were the BBC and the Voice of America, not to mention outdated and censored copies of foreign newspapers. Arab News provided some relief from all that, and the newspaper’s readership grew.
As the 1970s ended, and technology began to move faster, so did the newspaper. In a time of advancements, from telex machines and printers to faxes and painfully slow drum photo transmitters, Arab News also advanced its content, as its staff continuously sought editorial excellence.
This included embracing new styles of journalism — part of a strategy that would give us credibility in a fast-changing world. The road was long and torturous, but events helped us. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Falklands War, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the subsequent massacres of innocent Lebanese, the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and later her son Rajiv, the death of President Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan, the withdrawal of the Soviets, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the release of Nelson Mandela, the end of apartheid and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait were the hallmarks of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. Although we often had to rely on other news sources, our consistent coverage earned us the respect of our readers.
A newspaper is a living organism — it grows, and it absorbs. In order to keep pace with a changing world, we also began to evolve, remembering that this was an English-language newspaper in an Arabic-speaking country. We attracted talent. Some left because they could not stand the pressures of the job and, frankly speaking, it was not an easy job. A skeleton staff, time constraints, a relatively low tolerance for dissent and a host of other issues would have broken the back of many editorial teams, but we had the true grit and determination to succeed. In many ways we succeeded primarily because of our adaptability to change and acceptance of realities. But there was still another challenge to overcome — that of a new and strange technology of bits and bytes. Computers, Internet, networks and other forms of information technology were emerging, and we took to them like a duck takes to water.
The Internet opened new vistas for us. Our paper would be read electronically around the globe — often before editions in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf hit the newsstands. As a result, many of our reports and columns were picked up by wire services and started running in other newspapers. Even those who disagreed with us begrudgingly acknowledged our objectivity. We have become the primary source for news of Saudi Arabia internationally, and some people now refer to Arab News simply as “The Green Truth.”
We earned the respect of our competitors, and we produced stories that highlighted man’s injustice to man, focused on rights issues, shed light on the Kingdom’s progress, reported on the heroes who exist within our society. We acted as a bridge between the people and the authorities. We focused on points of convergence and not divergence, and we rejected the idea of a clash of civilizations instead viewing it as a clash of ignorance.
As newspapers go, it is not only the content but also the form that appeals to readers, so we made changes. We continue to strive to make Arab News more appealing, more refreshing and more useful for our readers. We have experimented with new designs, typography and informative graphics, and we decided after a long and painstaking process to come up with a fresh look — the one that you see today in your hands.
We hope you will enjoy the new Arab News. It is the latest milestone in our 33-year mission to keep you informed and entertained — and anxiously awaiting our next edition. Our typefaces and graphics may have changed, but our commitment to you, our readers, remains constant — and that’s the truth, the Green Truth.
