By Modnath Dhakal
Kathmandu, Dec. 16: On December 16, 1965, Nepal saw the publication of the first English broadsheet daily. It was The Rising Nepal. Although it was the third English newspaper to be published in the country, it was the first full-size newspaper which attracted the attention of many.
With its continuous publication for about 55 years, it has become the paper that survived the longest, partly because it was the state-funded medium. Its English predecessors ‘Motherland’ and ‘The Commoner’ are not in publication now.
The Rising Nepal was the need of the time then. The government wanted it as it had to send all advertisements in English to India for publication which would take many days. “There was dependence on Indian newspapers for English media and information. Although English reading audience was small then, it was the need of the time,” said Shyam Bahadur KC, former Editor-in-Chief of The Rising Nepal.
KC was working with the Motherland and said he didn’t like the publication of TRN which many considered as the competitor of the former. “I actually didn’t like it in the beginning since it was the competitor of my paper but it was a full-size newspaper in the country which drew the attention of many,” he said.
The former TRN journalists said that it had more leeway compared to its sister publication Gorkhapatra daily due to its small audience while the government also wanted to present it as a liberal media.
With the restoration of democracy in 1990 and subsequent opening of the economy created a fertile ground for the growth of private sector media, including broadsheet dailies, television channels and FM radios.
While the private sector newspapers adopted the latest design and presentation to attract readers, TRN continued with its traditional look and design. However, since a decade ago, efforts were put to make the paper more attractive and readable.
As a result, the paper has more liberal design and photo presentation. Its content has been diversified with the publication of special pages, editions and pull-outs. It has been trying to address the audience from political and business elite to school children.
It made a major departure with the addition of four colour pages to its publication early this year which had allowed space to include more information of diverse areas. However, the COVID-19 pandemic created hurdles to the efforts for progress.
“The paper must regain the achievements it made before the outbreak of the pandemic. With the diversity of content, it will surely cater to the broader range of audience,” said Jagadish Pokharel, former Editor-in-Chief.
KC also emphasises on diversity of content. “When I was the editor, I allocated a whole page for sports but we had a hard time filling the space with domestic information as there were few competitions and activities,” he said.
There are also preparations for the publication of TRN in all seven provinces. The paper has begun in-depth reporting on social and economic issues. “The government should give more autonomy to Gorkhapatra Sansthan and its publications in line with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC),” said KC.
According to him, owners do have some interest behind running media outlets but state media should be allowed to make reasonable criticism of the government.