For me, the road to Jeddah and the Arab News editorial desk began in the rubble of war-torn Beirut. In 1976, when Arab News was in its second year, the newspaper recruited a small team of writer-editors and pressmen who were refugees from Beirut’s Daily Star, a respected English-language daily that had shut down in late 1975, a victim of the Lebanese Civil War.

The team was headed by Jihad Al-Khazen, who had been editor in chief of the Daily Star. Jihad went on to become a prominent editor, publisher and commentator in Arabic journalism.

Also on the team was Elias Haddad, a skilled desk editor and superb after-hours chef who eventually got smart and followed his dream of opening a restaurant in California.

As for me, I had spent three fascinating years in Beirut and had left amid the savagery and despair of the civil war at the end of 1975, filled with sadness and regret. It would be many years before the Lebanese capital was livable again, and a long time before the Daily Star was brought back to life. After about six months in London, assisting in the startup of a weekly Middle East news magazine, I opted to join Arab News in Jeddah on a two-year contract. I have to admit, those two years were quite an experience. I was in Jeddah during the boom years, when the city was growing fast, expanding its borders, building a new airport. People’s spirits were high.

Having lived in Lebanon and Egypt and visited a number of other Arab countries, I realized I had a lot to learn about Saudi Arabia, its venerable traditions, its remarkable oil industry and its hospitable people. I worked for the newspaper in Jeddah from 1976-78. I was a kind of jack-of-all-trades, assisting the editor in chief, writing editorials, putting together pages, and reporting from time to time. In 1978, I headed to Washington, D.C., where I worked for a few more years as bureau chief for Arab News and its sister publications.

Has Arab News changed much in the decades since I worked the editorial desk? Indeed it has. For one thing, in those days the paper wasn’t green — the outside pages were conventional black-and-white. It had far fewer pages, because advertising was still in its infancy. We had only a handful of reporters and generated little local coverage, apart from a weekend supplement called Saudi Business, which covered the local and national business scene.

Perhaps what sets off today’s Arab News most from its childhood years is its willingness to take on the tough topics, exploring the frontiers of social and economic change in the Kingdom and the region.

Over the past three decades, the Saudi press in general has grown, diversified and matured. Arab News and the other newspapers have become bolder and more inquisitive. And as a result, they have greatly increased their value to their readers. I anticipate even more growth — and more boldness — in the exciting years that lie ahead.

(Robert Lebling, after many years as a journalist in the Middle East and United States, now works in Dhahran, in the Public Relations Department of Saudi Aramco.)