Background
Wagner, who grew up in Sierra Madre, California, began his journalism career in 1974 at the now-defunct Monrovia Daily News-Post as a copy boy and later worked as sports editor for the Hollywood Daily Independent.
Wagner, who grew up in Sierra Madre, California, began his journalism career in 1974 at the now-defunct Monrovia Daily News-Post as a copy boy and later worked as sports editor for the Hollywood Daily Independent.
In 2015 he was the Saudi Arabia correspondent for the London-based The Arab Weekly newspaper. He previous served as managing editor of the Arab News, an English language daily newspaper based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi Gazette, a competitor of the Arab News. Wagner was also the top editor of Construction Week magazine in Dubai and is the author of numerous history books
During the 1980s and 1990s, he was a police and courts reporter for the Ontario, California Daily Report and San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
At the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (formerly the Daily Report) in Ontario, California, he was managing editors He also worked independently writing on legal affairs issues for the Los Angeles Daily Journal and true crime stories for True Detective magazine.
Wagner is married to Saudi journalist and educator Doctor Sabria Jawhar. Saudi Gazette and Arab News
In 2004, Wagner resigned as an editor at The Record (Stockton, California) to become the national editor of the Saudi Gazette, an English language daily newspaper based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
He later became the newspaper’s managing editors
As managing editor, he supervised the coverage of First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s bombing and shooting attacks of Westerners and Saudi government institutions, and Saudi Arabia’s 2005 municipal elections among other issues. He also taught journalism courses to Saudi university students. In 2008, he assumed the editorship of the Dubai-based Construction Week magazine to cover the building boom in the United Arab Emirates.
In 2012, he returned to Saudi Arabia to assume the post of managing editor at the Arab News.
Independent Reporting
As an independent journalist, Wagner primarily writes about Saudi and Islamic issues. He provides analysis on Saudi women's issues for Peace and Conflict Review, which is published by the University for Peace of Costa Rica.
Most recently, he reports for The Arab Weekly, a newspaper based in London that provides political and cultural analysis of the Middle East and North Africa regions. His articles for the Media Lincolnshire, a Middle East news website, has been syndicated to the Yemen Times, Kuwait Times, Daily News Egypt, Gulf News and the Arab News.