In this part of the History of Online Media in Nepal Series, I present the news that was published in the front page of the The Kathmandu Post to announce the newspaper being available online. The Kathmandu Post was put online from September 1, 1995 but the announcement was only made on September 8’s edition of the newspaper through a front page news.
Also, the small notification on The Nepal Digest by Rajendra Shrestha to announce the beta release of the Kathmandu Post on September 4, 1995 and an advertisement published in The Kathmandu Post on September 9 and 11 announcing the feat of being ‘the first Asian daily to be available free of cost on Internet.
The Kathmandu Post available in cyberspace
By Prateek Pradhan
KATHMANDU – The Kathmandu Post, a national English language daily from Nepal has become the first Asian newspaper to be available free in the cyberspace.
All those around the globe who are hooked through their computers to the Internet, a collection of thousands of computer networks, are free to access the Post on the same day of publication.
This is a joint venture program of Kantipur Publications and Mercantile Communications Private Limited. The Post was first uploaded in the cyberspace on September 1st and it is available regularly from 7th September.
It is believed that thousands of people around the world are interested to know about the current happenings in Nepal, but until now the earliest they could achieve any Nepal newspaper through postal service was not earlier than seven days.
According to Sanjib Raj Bhandari, Executive Director of Mercantile Communications Pvt Ltd, thousands of Nepalese living abroad and having access to Internet will find this service very useful. All those who are interested to read The Kathmandu Post can get access to the newspaper by typing the address – http;//www.cen.uiuc.edu/~rshresth/Nepal.html
For the convenience of the readers the newspaper is now divided into five categories, they are: headlines, national news, editorial, business and flight schedule. All the information available in the newspaper will be saved in an achieves which facilitates readers to go back to all the issues of the Post from 1st September 1995.
Considering the fact that all the readers outside the country are overwhelmed by the world news, The Kathmandu Post is transmitting only the national news of the day into the cyberspace.
According to the group working on the uploading of the Post into the cyberspace, the readers can even send on-line letter to editor to the Post editor. Very soon, The Kathmandu Post will be providing an evaluation form for the Internet readers, which will cost no money for the senders. Readers around the globe can also contribute their articles through Internet. The newspaper is also available for the local Nepalese who are hooked to the Internet.
The Internet is a collection of thousands of computer networks, millions of computers and more than 30 millions users who share a compatible means for interacting with one another to exchange digital data. Mercantile communication is providing access to full Internet services in Nepal. Full Internet services provides not only email facilities but on-line access to wealth of information available in thousands of databases across the world. The Internet users can receive on line news, chat with another Internet user anywhere in the world, gather material for research papers or presentation by scanning the databases available on the Internet or download shareware programs.
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The advertisement published in The Kathmandu Post on September 9, 1995. Similar advertisement was also published on September 11, 1995.
Shyam Bahadur KC was the editor of The Kathmandu Post at that time.
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And finally, here a note by Rajendra Shrestha on The Nepal Digest on September 4, 1995.
The online version of Kathmandu Post, an English-language daily based in Kathmandu, is now availaible in the WWW through the joint efforts of Kantipur Publications and Mercantile Communications. You will need a WWW browser to access this online newspaper. The address to point your browser is http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~rshresth/ktmpost/news-home.html
With thanks to Prateek Pradhan / Center for Media Research – Nepal / Rajendra Shrestha for information.
