It's here! It's here! Read all about it!

I am holding a proper newspaper in my hands: The National. I am so proud to work for this paper, a thick broadsheet with a 30-page A section, a 20-page Arts and Life section, 20 pages of business and a 23-page sports section, done in a smaller, tab-size (but not style) manner. The layout is gorgeous and so are the photos.

Check it out at www.thenational.ae

And if I, who has been here working on this startup for a mere two weeks, am excited, I can just imagine how the people who've been building it for the past many months must feel. Something like this does not happen anymore, in our world, and I am very glad to be part of it.

There was a fancy launch party at the mind-boggling Emirates Palace hotel yesterday. I am a bit sick - most people are when they get here - and did not go. But yesterday I was giggling as I worked away: a British camera crew was there filming the process, and the reporter was walking behind me doing his standup. "It's a huge operation, with a huge workforce and a huge amount of money behind it. But at the end of the day, this newspaper's success depends on you."

Of course he was talking about the television viewers, but I kept imagining he was pointing at me as I sat there, editing just one story out of all those pages.