From a modest beginning in 1975 in a cozy place in the Sharafiah District of Jeddah to glitzy offices on Madinah Road (Head Office) and Hai Al-Motamarat in Riyadh, over a span of 40 years, Arab News, Saudi Arabia’s leading English daily, represents the Kingdom’s history as it unfolded over the decades.

It has reported on the paradigm shift in Saudi Arabia’s socio-economic and political landscape — from the time when the use of radical terms or expressions other than Islamic was a taboo to today’s stories deemed shocking by the norms of yesteryears.

Thus, there was no ‘cross’ but only ‘crescent’, no ‘revolution’ but only ‘evolution’— a far crying from the current reporting on domestic violence, sexual abuse, surge in crime and such sensational headline as “Corruption Costs Flight of SR3 Trillion Worth Funds” (Arab News, Feb.22, 2007).

Such a scenario, when contrasted with the landmark visit of late King Abdullah to the Vatican in November 2007, had a far greater dimension to it than a headline in the international media.

It made history by bringing representatives of the Cross and the Crescent under one roof, with the king and Pope Benedict XVI seeking to promote inter-faith understanding. Arab News again reported history in the making.

But, this component of modernity has always been there in the foreign policy of the Kingdom.

This was also evident when Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman (then Riyadh governor) visited Rome way back in 1994 to inaugurate a grand mosque and Islamic enter. I was accompanying King Salman at that time.

I reported the diplomacy shown by King Salman, when he hosted an interfaith dialogue in Rome represented by a huge panel of Islamic scholars and clergymen from Vatican City.

I had the honor at that time to take part in the dialogue in the Italian capital city and file reports to Arab News, which were front paged for several days.

What I would like to make clear here is the importance of Arab News as a strong communication vehicle, which has grown from strength to strength during the last four decades.

Before exploring the dynamics of change in the Arab News contents and style, it would be appropriate to connect the dots in the jigsaw puzzle through the flashback of its history. It dates back to 1974 when a new era of Arab News started with a Linotype machine.

The prime movers behind this initiative were Hisham and Muhammed Ali Hafez, chief executives of the Al-Medina Printing Press, who took the plunge in 1974 to put Saudi Arabia on the map of the publishing world.

The nucleus of their effort was the Kingdom’s first English daily, Arab News, whose overwhelming success from the start was to inspire the launch of 24 publications, of which 16 Arabic dailies, weeklies and monthlies survived.

The story behind the launch of Arab News is that of grit and determination to survive in an Arabic-speaking environment.

This was the time when there was no English daily, no English TV channel, while Saudi TV had only Arabic service.

There was a pressing need for an English daily, so that expatriates who were pouring in from all directions could have an English daily to keep them updated on national and international news.

It was at this stage that Hisham and Muhammed Ali Hafez, who had a successful track record as printers, decided to try their fortunes as publishers.

Currently, Arab News has access to information from different channels that include the Kingdom’s Islamic and cultural values, Saudi Press Agency and wire services, satellite channels, Internet, blogs, embassies, the opening up of the Saudi economy and the banking sector in the wake of the reforms.

Other sources include governmental or autonomous organizations concerned with political, economic and judicial reforms.

They constitute important sources of news about human rights, women’s issues, domestic violence, maid and child abuse, news about multinational companies released through advertising agencies, international schools, university news, ministries, hotels and hypermarkets.

The diversification of the news base resulted from a host of factors, the foremost of which was the Gulf war that turned the spotlight on Saudi Arabia as it confronted Iraq with the help of the US-led multinational forces.

The situation in the Middle East, the Kingdom’s accession to the WTO, and competition among the GCC states for foreign direct investment (FDI) leading to economic reforms were the other dynamics that triggered the flow of news into the news room.

The importance of the news dissemination was also realized by the visionary leaders of Saudi Arabia, who have been taking large number of journalists with them, when they now travel abroad.

As a foreign journalist working for Arab News, I have had the privilege to travel with King Abdullah to India in 2006 and again to Turkey in 2010.

I still remember the high-profile royal visits to New Delhi, Ankara and Istanbul, where I rubbed my shoulders with a number of high-ranking officials including presidents, prime ministers and ministers.

From all these three places, I filed about a dozen of reports, which again landed on front pages of Arab News.

But, my story and relationship with the Arab News, in fact, began in a roundabout fashion.

After my arrival in Riyadh in 1993, I worked in tandem with Javid Hassan, a senior Indian journalist, whose good company and pleasant personality helped weather any storm.

We were a good team at that time.

But, now also, I can boast to have a good team, when I am working as bureau chief of Arab News, responsible for Riyadh office.

I have veterans such as M. Rasooldeen and Abdul Hannan Tago, while I have an anchor like Shareef M. Taha working in Riyadh bureau.

The team is further backed by stalwarts such as Rodolfo Estimo Jr and Rashid Hassan, who have the ability to fill any gap left by other staffers of Riyadh bureau.

Then, there is a panel of freelancers including business development executives, who are there to comb the whole field for news and revenue.

Thus, I can boast to have a huge contingent of reporters and freelancers; whose cumulative journalistic experience will exceed 300 years.

Now, let us look at Arab News in particular and the Saudi media in general, when it comes to reporting events taking place in the Kingdom and in the Arab world.

Comparing the situation on the news front in retrospect, I believe that there are lots of differences between the media of today and yesterday.

Many investigative stories are being carried now.

Some of them are about laborers not paid even these days during the economic boom. Accidents happened. Crimes and murders are now often reported.

In fact, now things have changed in Arab News.

It is one of the best daily newspapers of not only Middle East, but the whole world at large.

Arab News today is the window to the West and to the East.

The Arab News website receives a large number of Pageviews because of its in-depth stories about foreign policy, oil diplomacy, conflicts in Arab world and commercial projects.

Moreover, stories like child abuse, girls absconding from their homes are being published. Restrictions exist even now, but they are imposed more by the society than the Saudi government today.

One may be surprised to know I have written several fraud, fight, deceit and rape stories during the last 10 years.

Currently, me and my reporters based in Riyadh have been filing reports about Saudi-led coalition’s strike on Yemen.

Arab News reporters are well aware of the turmoil in the Middle East, which is hampering all efforts to restore peace Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan and Libya as well as in extended neighborhood.

Arab News reporters today are free to report any thing and everything.

In fact, the twists and turns that Arab News is going through in tandem with the political and economic changes in the Kingdom had a tonic effect on the editorial staff led by Mohammed Fahad Alharthi, the current editor in chief of Arab News.

“Smooth seas do not make skilful sailors,” says an African proverb.

The peaks and troughs that marked the fortunes of Arab News during that turbulent era of the late 1980s honed the leadership skills of the people who were running the show.

Another distinctive feature of Arab News, that continues to this day, is that it is free from speculative reporting, sensation-mongering and other political stories based on allegations and hearsay that characterize the media of other countries.

Here everything is based on facts with no scope for stories of the type that won Pulitzer Prize for reporters who were subsequently found to have concocted them. Even Arab News reporters received threatening phone calls from Saudis for factual reporting of maid and child abuse incidents on the specious ground that they run counter to the Saudi culture and traditions.

It is for this reason that some well-documented Arab News stories are taken seriously by the international media when it reported that 33 women in the Kingdom get divorced every day which raises the rate of divorce to 20 percent.

These changes, both at the editorial and technical levels, underline the dynamics at work in Arab News that seek to keep it upfront as Saudi Arabia’s quality-driven newspaper.

More changes were introduced in response to the challenges that were facing the newspaper industry from the satellite media and other news channels. Arab News is still incorporating changes.

Today, the whole Arab News team under Editor in Chief Mohammed Fahad Al-Harthi works hard to publish a newspaper, in which every Saudi man and woman as well as every expatriate worker finds something interesting, something newsworthy and something informative.