If your journalism career has been anything like mine, you’re eager to hear inspirational stories about others in the news industry. I found one a few weeks ago, even as announcements were made that colleagues at my own newspaper, the Detroit Free Press, would lose their jobs.
I had lunch with Osama Siblani, editor and publisher of the Arab American News, at the Lava Java Cafe in Dearborn, Mich. I asked him to sponsor the Asian American Journalists Association‘s 2011 national convention in Detroit. A supporter of AAJA, he agreed.
He ordered food for us and showed me how to smoke fruit in a hookah. Between bites and puffs, he told me how he came to the United States from Beirut, Lebanon, and why he founded his own newspaper, which is 25 years old in September.
Siblani’s story, like so many great immigrant stories, begins with a one-way plane ticket. It also is a powerful reminder to me that the so-called good old days of journalism weren’t always that good and that the future of our industry — while uncertain — offers more opportunities for journalists than we may be able to imagine.
Siblani’s free weekly has had its share of struggles, but it now has a circulation of about 35,000 and annual revenues of about $1.3 million.
The youngest of 11 siblings, Siblani flew to the United States in 1976. He was 21 and, he said, had $185 in his pocket.
Siblani, now 54, came to America to escape political upheaval in his own country and to get an education. One of his brothers already had immigrated to Texas and helped pave Siblani’s way to Michigan. Siblani’s brother set him up with a student visa and a chance to study engineering.
“I had to go to school and find a job,” Siblani said, recalling his first days here. “I had three jobs: I parked cars. I delivered pizzas. And I pumped gas.”
Siblani graduated in 1979 from the University of Detroit with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering; and, like many who came to Detroit from other nations, he went to work for General Motors Corp.
“I was so ambitious,” Siblani said. “I wanted to be the president of the company the next day.” After six months, he quit GM and joined a Troy, Mich.-based import-export firm, Energy International Inc. that did business in the Middle East.
Siblani became a vice president at the company, and in 1982, he went back to Lebanon to visit his mother. While he was there, war broke out.
He boarded one of the last flights leaving the country, which took him to France. He was stranded for four days until he could return to the United States. He did not speak French and had difficulty getting news from Lebanon. This experience, he said, impressed upon him the value of good journalism.
In the United States, Siblani learned his mother’s home had been destroyed, but she was not injured.
He also realized, he said, that news can express a point of view. He said he began thinking about how he could help provide other Arab Americans in his community with information. He considered starting a radio station or a TV station, but decided to print a newspaper.
“There is no limit to what you can do with a newspaper,” Siblani said.
If he became a broadcaster, others might try to influence his content by restricting his access to the airwaves, he said. But with a newspaper, he would have far more freedom to publish news and his opinions, and he could deliver it many places.
“You can put a newspaper in an envelope and ship it anywhere in the United States — anywhere in the world,” he said.
In 1984, he founded the Arab American News, which publishes in English and Arabic. Still, starting a newspaper then was far more difficult than it is now. He had to import special typewriters — he could get only 10 — and spent $136,000 to buy and install typesetting equipment so he could publish in Arabic. The installation required a crane.
To get dispatches from the Middle East, he had a reporter call and dictate into a tape recorder and then someone else would transcribe the story later.
Of course, he doesn’t have to do that anymore, his reporters file via e-mail.
“There were challenges on every corner — every step of the way,” Siblani said. “But we never gave up. We always believed that things would be better.”
Supporting a newspaper — even in a more robust economy — is challenging, Siblani said. In 1994, he explained, his financial situation was so bad that he had to file for bankruptcy protection. Still, he endured. A year later, he bounced back.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, his newspaper has become an even stronger voice for the Arab-American community.
“Our community went into hiding,” Siblani said. “But, the newspaper kept coming out.” To many readers, he said, his newspaper is a comfort.
His 11 journalists in Dearborn and three journalists overseas provide information and a perspective that others don’t — and in a familiar language.
His publication, he said, gives Arab-American immigrants hope.
In some ways, Siblani said, journalists have much more opportunity now than they did a quarter-century ago.
They can publish on their own with a $500 laptop and an Internet connection, he said. A Web site, he added, has allowed him — and other journalists — to increase readership around the nation and globe.
And yet that has created new challenges, too.
The recession has taken its toll on his business, especially in the past four months, he said. Even as the demand for the news seems to be increasing, ad revenues are down significantly. And, like many editors and publishers Siblani has had to make choices.
He has reduced expenses and laid off three employees, including one journalist.
Does the uncertainty about the industry scare you? I asked him.
There is no reason to fear uncertainty, he said.
“We’re concerned about where journalism is headed,” he acknowledged. “But, we also see hope of a turnaround and better days ahead.”
“This,” he added, “is the American spirit.”
