Srilankan Newspapers on Sunday: Just Read it! - eNidhi India Travel Blog

Srilankan Newspapers on Sunday: Just Read it!

March 13 Major update: I read in Wikipedia that these two newspapers are indeed weekly ones. They are published only on Sundays.

Newspapers tell a lot about a country. When in Srilanka I picked up daily newspaper to read. On day 1, Saturday it was priced at 20 LKR.

On day 2, at Colombo Fort Station, I asked the newspaper vendor for 1 copy of a newspaper. He gave me a big bundle of it and I said “Give me just one copy, not one week’s”- He said “All this is today’s newspaper”. Apparently the newspapers on Sunday carry 300-400 pages and few of them easily add to a KG in weight.

Unlike in India where newspapers issue different supplements all through the week (like education on Monday, job opportunities on Wednesday etc) Srilankan newspapers seem to prefer overloading their readers with all the supplements on Sunday.

Let us take close look at two leading newspapers of Srilanka-

The Sunday Observer
The Sunday edition of Observer had full 272 pages in it and priced at LKR 40. This paper started operation way back in 1928. The Sunday Observer’s 272 pages comprised of following sections/supplements:
  1. The main newspaper:comprising 16 pages
  2. Sunday Observer Magazine- 32 pages
  3. Sunday Observer Extra- 16 pages
  4. Sunday Observer Employment- 48 pages
  5. Junior Observer: 16 pages
  6. Sunday Observer Finance: 8 Pages
  7. Sunday Observer Spectrum: 16 pages
  8. Sunday Observer Education: 16 pages
  9. Observer Adz Magazine: 104 Pages
For sure next Sunday will arrive by the time one finishes reading this Sunday’s newspaper! Couldn’t read through all the stuff. Few articles I randomly read were at par with one we’d read in India.

The newspaper report said Colombo-Tuticorin ferry service would start from 28th October, but 2 days later it was reported in Indian media that ferry service is postponed, as India has diverted the vessel to evacuate people from Libya. Once the service commences, 280kms, 12 hour journey would be a good experience.

A 15 words classified ad is priced at LKR 300. Most of the ads were related to buying and selling used cars.

Now let us look at the other newspaper-The Sunday Times. If you thought The Sunday Observer’s 272 pages were too much, the Sunday Times loads you with about 112 more pages, for LKR 10 more

The Sunday Times is priced at LKR 50 and has total of 384 pages in following sections/supplements:
  1. The main newspaper: 24 pages
  2. The Sunday Times Plus; 10 pages
  3. The Sunday Times Education Times: 12 pages
  4. The Sunday Times Business Times: 12 pages
  5. The Sunday Times For Better living: 4 pages
  6. The Sunday Times Save Your Money Wisely: 4 pages
  7. The Sunday Times Magazine: 16 pages
  8. Funday Times: 16 pages
  9. Study in Australia advertorial: 8 pages
  10. Employment Times: 6 Pages
  11. The Sunday Times 2 Late City Edition: 16 pages
  12. The Sunday Times Hit Ad Property: 60 pages
  13. The Sunday Times Hit Ad Classifieds: 196 pages
During a regular weekday, newspapers cost about LKR 20 to LKR 30 and has about 28 pages

Despite lesser number of pages, the Sunday Observer made more  sense in terms of quality of content and usefulness of articles.

In comparison, in India, TOI Sunday edition The Sunday Times will have about 55 pages. I do not know how much old papers cost in SL, but going by Indian rates, one can recover 50% of newspaper cost on Sunday just by selling it to old paper guy!

Just Read It!

More posts on Srilanka: Updates: Read Srilankan Trip Travelogue Part 1 * Ramboda Falls * Sunday Newspapers in SriLanka * Srilanka Trip FAQs

Other journalism related posts:
* My Early Journalism Experiences
* Indian Express selects my tweet as Tweet of the day

12 comments:

  1. wow! reading those newspapers would be heavy work indeed!

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  2. Interesting topic. I liked the detailed presentation.

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  3. Srilanka must be having huge supply of newsprint!

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  4. this is the trend in other countries and here we find even a 50 page Sunday section too much. Come to think of it, who reads so much? Interesting post.

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  5. 250 pages of just classifieds!! what a waste of resources!!

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  6. oh..this is more about Shrilankan 'english' newspapers.

    There also they are printing 'raddi' papers more than in India!

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  7. Thanks Anu, Indrani, Raveesh, Zephyr, Logesh, Prashanth and ವಿ.ರಾ.ಹೆ. for your comments

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  8. Idea is to buy only the sunday paper ha..ha..

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  9. I would like to know how the 'newspaper boys' carry the paper to subscribers? In Trucks??

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  10. Interesting. Would one be able to read all the suppliments on the same day?
    Probably people in SL do not like to go out anywhere on Sunday?

    Ram

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  11. Ram:
    No idea... I guess people will skip most of the pages and read only few sections which are relevant/useful for them...

    Sibi:
    May be.. They've got lot of Toyota Hilux double cabs and other SUVs

    Heminda: Good idea, but won't it be overdose of information on one day?

    ReplyDelete

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