Daily News pioneers ‘Business’ news in Sri lanka | Daily News

Daily News pioneers ‘Business’ news in Sri lanka

With the open economy being introduced in 1977, Sri Lankan enterprises started to open up to the world and new lines of enterprises and entrepreneurs were created. With the closed economy being something of the past, the exports sector started to open up and more aggressively imports started to boom which resulted in the expansion of the corporate sector.

It was during this backdrop that the Daily News which commenced publishing on January 3, 1918, decided to publish Sri Lanka’s only dedicated ‘Business’ section in early 1980s under the then Editor Manik De Silva who is considered the father of business journalism in Sri Lanka.

The pages were first published every Tuesday and soon a Thursday edition too was introduced making Daily News Business the first business section in the history of Sri Lankan journalism.

Mohan Samarsinghe, Chithra Weerasighe, Elmo Leonard and Preethi Kodagoda were among the first contributors to the Business section. The first business editorial was written by Arjuna Ranawana who was also a one-time Daily News Editor.

Later the Business section became a daily pull out and it was headed by Nishtar Cassim, Chandani Jayatillike, Ravi Ladduwahetty, Lionel Yodasinghe, Channa Kathurisinghe, Shirajiv Sirimane (present), Anjana Samarasinghe and Lynn Ockersz. Some of the longest serving sub editors in the Business section with over 10 years at the desk were Dudley Jansz and Pravin Mendis.

Today the Daily News Business section is published from Monday to Friday. The present team includes Shirajiv Sirimane (Editor), Fizel Jabir, Indunil Hewage, Sandra Thalgahagoda, Diresh Jayasuriya, Anusha Wickramasekara and Manuela Motha. 


Add new comment