SD Completes 10 Years

It is a momentous event for the Sunday Despatch this week. With this issue, the Weekly completes ten years of existence and enters its eleventh year. Right from the beginning, Sunday Despatch has had to struggle to survive. And in the many years since its birth in 1990, it has seen many changes, both in its editorial ranks and also in its physical structure. However, like a good wine, this weekly has also matured very well with age and at present, it is perhaps the best English language weekly in the country. This has been possible only through the tremendous hard work from the editorial staff. Though, on the other hand, it must also be admitted that the weekly has not always received similar support in the marketing and distribution sector. Started with the objective of being an informal but informative weekly, the Sunday Despatch suffered a major blow when the people behind its establishment had to quit in the very first stages of its actual publication. However, the weekly was fortunate that such a capable man like late Barun Shumsher Rana took over from where the founding editor had left. Late Rana, the first chief editor of The Rising Nepal, capably guided the weekly through a politically turbulent period, when the newspaper even saw a change in its physical appearance. From the tabloid size, the management decided to make it a broadsheet weekly. Then came a testing period, when Sunday Despatch was closed down for a few months, but it was again started in its original tabloid size in mid 1993. Credit for the new life given to the weekly must be given to the then Executive Chairman Purusottam Basnet. The paper has since then climbed newer heights with each year.

Yet, down to earth as all media people should be, the editorial staff of the Sunday Despatch fully believe that a newspaper can never reach perfection and constant efforts must be made even to just maintain the high level of standards that have already been achieved. To maintain such standards is already a challenging task. However it may be mentioned that this weekly has been very lucky by the fact that it has a team that works, coordinates and cooperates well. This is very important in every institution, more so, in a newspaper where every person’s contribution counts. Team work and cooperation has contributed significantly in taking through this weekly at some very difficult times. Of course there have been some bad apples here as well, but fortunately, they have left the team. Looking back, it has been a difficult road, but we are very happy to be where we are So at this momentous occasion for us, we would like to thank all our readers, advertisers and other well wishers for their untiring support throughout the years. We also pledge that we will do our best to make the Sunday Despatch an even better newspaper.