In this another part of the History of Online Media in Nepal Series, I present a page (copied and pasted) from history.
When The Kathmandu Post went online on September 7, 1995, it has a link called “General Info”.
This is the text of what contained in the page that was linked (the text is however taken from December, 1996 archive after it moved to Mercantile’s server from Rajendra Shrestha’s college webspace):
At Kantipur Publications Pvt. Ltd.
Mr.Pratik Pradhan the sub-editor of TheKathmandu Post and his team outlines which articles of the day’s Kathmandu Post will appear on the cyberspace version of the newspaper. Considering that the Internet bandwidth costs (read as telecom costs) are still very high in Nepal and keeping in mind all the additional work which has to be done at Mercantile, Pratik limits the articles to those which cover issues on Nepal and its immediate neighbours and/or articles which he considers important. The articles are then uploaded to the computer at Mercantile Communications.
At Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd.
The uploaded files are then processed by the the team of five (Madhusudan Kayastha, Gauri S. Dangol, Sharmilee Amatya ,Mary Shrestha and Shalini Shori) who convert and format the articles into ‘html’ files. These files are then uploaded by the same team to the server columbia.digiweb.com without making any material change to the content.
Note: Other than Mr. Pratik Pradhan, the sub-editor of the Kathmandu Post, no one exercises any editorial control over what appears on the cyberspace version of The Kathmandu Post. The contents of The Kathmandu Post are not changed or modified by Mercantile and Mercantile assumes no responsibility for the content of what appears in the Internet version of the Kathmandu Post.
P.N. The Kathmandu Post (TKP) on the net is not a commercial venture. Mercantile Comm. Pvt. Ltd. provides communication equipment, technical assistance plus communication link to TKP free of cost. Also note: The Kathmandu Post is not uploaded on Saturdays and other public holidays.
Back to the Kathmandu Post homepage
This makes Prateek Pradhan (he spells his name this way these days) the first online editor of Nepal though his editorial job was limited to selecting what would be published online from the print edition of the newspaper.
I had an opportunity to work under him when after studies in USA became the editor of The Kathmandu Post. He entrusted me with the responsibility of co-ordinating sports bureau. Later, when he left the newspaper to begin a new venture, he offered me the position of the online co-ordinator in yet to be published Republica.
Currently he is editor-in-chief of Nagarik daily.
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With thanks to Center for Media Research – Nepal
