TRN meets milestone of six decades in publication

Kathmandu, Dec. 16: The Rising Nepal (TRN), the first broadsheet English daily published from Nepal by the Gorkhapatra Corporation, has met the milestone of six decades in publication as it is turning 60 on Monday, December 16. It is the longest-running English daily in the country. 

The state-owned newspaper was launched in 1965 (1 Poush 2022 BS) with the aim of catering to the need of English readers within the country and inform foreigners about Nepal and its culture. The government also needed The Rising Nepal in broadsheet format as it had to reach out to the English newspapers published in India to publish advertisements in English. 

Still today, the newspaper is striving to cater to fulfill the information needs of its readers on a national and international scale with the national and public interest at the centre. The first editorial of TRN also mentioned that its objective was to inform the friends of Nepal across the globe about the correct perspective of Nepal and its people.

While the newspaper has not been successful in adopting all of the recent conceptual and technological changes in the print media industry, it still has relevance for all generations of people. "Although the digital media is convenient and handy, there isn't a need to panic about the future of the newspaper industry. This is because TRN is a gateway to get the government and public views without speculation and distortion," said Bijaya Lal Shrestha, former editor of The Rising Nepal. 

This newspaper also has a privilege of being the sister publication of Gorkhapatra daily, the first newspaper of the country which is in publication for 124 years. According to former editors, this daily also enjoyed greater editorial freedom compared to its sister publication.

"Fact-based journalism has been the hallmark of TRN although it couldn't have been critical in some of the issues. It is the medium that reported the events in straight-forward manner," said Shrestha. 

The restoration of democracy in 1990 paved the way for private media which thrived in the liberal environment while various English and vernacular newspapers attracted the readers with better design and content packaging but this state-owned newspaper retained its traditional design and look which got a facelift just about a decade ago.

The efforts in recent years put to revamp the design and content presentation have given a better design and readability with more liberty on using photos and graphics.

Former editor Jagadish Pokhrel, who also led the initiative, said that the aim was to diversify the content of the newspaper to meet the taste of a large variety of audiences. The Rising Nepal comes with pages for business, op-ed, international news, art and culture, sports, and a 4-page weekly supplement. 

Speaking on various occasions planned by TRN, former editors and contributors have suggested the daily to run in the model of the British Broadcasting Corporation. 

Shrestha suggested that the Gorkhapatra management should consider its publications as the main pillars of the organization, not just like some other departments.