There’s a lot to be said about those who start something new and exciting, especially when it comes to newspapers. Having a twist or unique aspect is what separates the truly inspiring examples, from the ones that fall by the wayside. SriLankaNZ is certainly an example of the former, the newspaper is the brainchild of creators Harsha Weerakoon and CJ (Charith) Ekanayake and was formed to give the many Sri-Lankan expats living in New Zealand, a little slice of the homeland.
Releasing their first edition in 2020, they had many challenges in seeing their dream come to fruition. A worldwide pandemic on the cards, and the prospect of building a newspaper from the ground up was no easy task. However, they have come through with flying colours, and they made time to sit down and answer a few questions about the journey.
They both discuss the unique challenges of 2020, the importance of finding good writers, keeping culture as a focal point, and how they have adapted to a digital and physical format.
Hello, thanks for taking the time to speak with us today, let’s start at the beginning. What inspired you to start your newspaper?
Harsha – Since I left school, I have always associated with the newspaper industry in various roles and newspapers became part of my life. While working for Stuff New Zealand, I came across a lot of Ethnic community newspapers and thought, why not have our own newspaper for the Sri Lankan community? The Sri Lankan community is scattered around New Zealand with small groups in different cities. They have been doing lots of cultural, religious, social, and community activities within their cities that each other groups are not really aware of. So, I thought a community newspaper that can reach all the cities can be the link to those groups of Sri Lankan communities in different parts of New Zealand.
CJ – So, when Harsha and I discussed this, printing a newspaper for the Sri-Lankan community, I was thrilled and I always wanted to be a part of the community, share my passion. My passion is designing. I thought this could be the best way to express design ideas and thoughts and share it with the community. Then, the reason that we never had a printed paper as a Sri Lankan community was also a big motivation to start this project.
Were there any specific challenges you faced throughout the pandemic in getting it established?
Harsha – SrilankaNZ our community newspaper to start from scratch was the biggest challenge as this is a project that no other Sri Lankan group or organization has tried before. With about 18000 Sri Lankans scattered around New Zealand and with very few Sri Lankan businesses who could back this project with advertising and finding hidden talented writers within these cities was a very big challenge in the beginning.
While CJ was busy with setting up the design layout and our digital platforms, I was scouting the best writers to join the paper and looking for reliable distribution centres. And after about a few months of background work, we managed to produce the first issue in March 2020. That was the biggest moment of our journey and also the biggest challenge we have faced so far. Just after we printed our 1st issue, New Zealand went to full lockdown at the end of March and no one knew this was coming. Luckily, we distributed the copies before the Lockdown but we couldn’t reach the majority of the community with restricted access to places.
But with the pandemic and the lockdown gave us a boost in our online platforms as we could produce many psychological, spiritual-related articles and videos that had a big demand. We managed to deliver virtual religious ceremonies for all ages and art and craft exhibitions and competitions for children while they were locked inside because of the covid-19 pandemic.
Even many other established businesses and community projects had been impacted by the pandemic, for us, I think the pandemic and the lockdown gave us a good opportunity to reach the majority of Sri Lankans in New Zealand through our online platform as many had limited activities to do during the lockdown. Our presence was noticed by many from the start that otherwise would have taken a few months for us to achieve as a start-up.
CJ – Well, before we go into the pandemic-related challenges I’ll start with some challenges we faced when we had the first thought of starting a newspaper. Since this is the first attempt to create an actual newspaper, we had to do some research and gather a lot of information regarding how to design, print, and also distribute. First, we went to one of Harsha’s friends who had the knowledge of how to make the print correctly. Then with that knowledge, I made the first template which was ready to be printed. It was one of the challenges to get an accurate print-ready file. Then came the big thing choosing the right template and the cover page. After a few discussions, the team decided to go with the current layout. The reason to say that those were challenges as those small things could be the make or the break of this first newspaper.
When it comes to the pandemic situation, as Harsha mentioned, the first lockdown came soon after we printed the first Issue. But luckily Harsha managed to distribute all the newspapers to the desired centres at that time. So, because of the lockdown, all the main shops and restaurants closed. It was very difficult to get the physical paper to the public. Then we decided to go online with the same printed copy, online edition. Since we already had an online presence, it was not that much difficult to promote online.
In the meantime, especially because of the lockdown we launched our youtube channel to facilitate live programmes especially like Dhamma discussions, Pirith chanting, and so on. Even though it was a very challenging period, It gave us more time to prepare for the next issues and to organise more programmes for our online platforms.
Tell us a bit about the journey that led you to distributing your first issue?
Harsha – This is one of my dreams after settling in New Zealand. After seeing many other community newspapers get printed and distributed in my long career, I was thinking and planning to start our own community newspaper. But as you know, newspapers are not a one-off project, and once you have started you need a plan to sustain in the long run.
My first and the biggest challenge was finding the right working partner who could look after all the designing and online marketing sides of this project. Then I met CJ (Charith) who is the best multimedia specialist I came across and our ideas were put together and the SriLankaNZ community newspaper was born.
We researched many other community newspapers and looked out for talented writers within our community in New Zealand who could join us as journalists. After about two to three months of planning, we managed to produce a unique community newspaper that some say looks like a magazine.
CJ – After the initial discussion we decided to go with a name that we wanted to represent all Sri Lankans living in New Zealand. So the best name that came up was SriLankaNZ. Then the logo, after getting ideas from our friends and family we thought to go with SriLankaNZ which added a Sri Lankan touch to it. The website launched in November 2019 and started with a few articles we received at that time. Months went by and demand and inquiries were increasing and the news regarding this project spread out throughout the community. Then after a few months, we managed to gather a good number of articles that could be used in the printed paper. Then the first printed Newspaper came out in March 2020.
And I am taking this as an opportunity to thank all the contributors and the team of volunteers who helped to build this newspaper platform. A special thank you goes to Anu Weerakoon who’s helping this project as the Media Coordinator.
Is it important for you to have that element of Sri Lankan culture incorporated into your newspaper with New Zealand?
Harsha
Yes, SriLankaNZ newspaper and online media are an essential means for the Sri Lankan community to feel connected, share support, and receive information in their own language. Our multimedia platforms are especially helpful in providing useful information and networks to Sri Lankans who have newly arrived or relocated within New Zealand. They enhance the community’s ability to promote and support their culture and traditional values across New Zealand.
The newspaper, website, and social media content improve the community’s ability to ensure:
*New arrivals feel welcomed and included.
* Provide information to help Sri Lankans take part in New Zealand society including Te Ao Māori.
*Receive easily accessible information in their own language about physical and psychological health and wellbeing, public messaging, and community services
* Showcase the skills and businesses of other Sri Lankans in New Zealand
* Share cultural, creative, and religious material to enhance their feeling of identity and belonging.
What led you to go with a physical distribution platform for your newspaper in combination with the digital format?
Harsha – Historically, Sri Lankans are fond of physical newspapers back in our motherland and we knew a physical newspaper with our own language here in New Zealand would be a novelty then they would embrace it as their own.
But for most of the articles, stories and interviews having just a printed version is not enough as we have limited space and reach. So it is best to have digital platforms like a Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
For some articles and stories, we are able to add more related photos and videos in our digital formats and our interviews are more effective on YouTube videos that we could get the message across to a big audience. With our digital formats, we already reached many thousands of Sri Lankans living outside of New Zealand.
CJ -The print media seems to be old with years of digitalisation. Although adapting to the new normal is a positive outlook for the future, but there are some things that need to be maintained in order to maintain their originality. When thinking about digitalisation, the first thing that comes to my mind is the deterioration of print media. The nature of printed newspapers, magazines, and books are taken away with the motion of posting everything on the internet. Reading by physical copy rather than online provides a balanced experience. People of the 90’s and earlier generations would rather read from the printed copy because it can remind them of their beautiful memories. Luckily, the Sri Lankan living in NZ has that opportunity as we have acknowledged this demand of our users.
And I should say, the paper version is equally preferred by the elderly community and the young crowd. The online version is mainly more popular among the people who can not get the printed version.
What has been your proudest moment in the whole Sri LankaNZ journey? Does anything stand out?
Harsha – Seeing our 1st copies coming out from the printing press is the proudest moment in this journey. And the other similar moments are seeing one of our first writers to the paper B.Karasinghe Arachchi (K A B Karunarathna) later joined as our Editor of the paper and some other young writers joined our editorial team along the way. And also the very positive and encouraging feedback from the community is also a very highlighted moment of our journey so far.
So looking back now we are very proud of achieving our main goal of making our paper a platform to thrive our talented writers among the Sri Lankan community.
CJ – Well, There many moments in the newspaper journey to be proud of. Of Course, first the day we printed the newspaper and the 1st-anniversary meeting. And every time we get good feedback from the newspaper readers and the writers it acts as medicine and encourages us to move forward with passion to deliver more.
There seems to be a marriage of cultures in your work which is inspiring to say the least, has there been any challenge in finding the right balance in the newspaper?
Harsha – Yes as Sri Lanka is a diverse country just like New Zealand, we make sure we keep the balance on different religious, social, and political content in our respective publications. We even make sure to keep the balance between content coming from writers in different cities, different age groups, and different expertise’s to have a collective output and inclusiveness.
We’ll finish with what’s next for SriLankaNZ?
Harsha – Well, Increase the circulation and the frequency of the printed version. Improve our presence in the digital world to give our writers a bigger audience.
CJ – Yes definitely, more circulation of the printed newspaper, gather more contributors from NZ, SL and even other counties, spread the word about Sri Lankan culture and talents to the wider communities around New Zealand and around the world using our social media platforms and the website. I also have some ideas for adding features facilitating writers and the readers to use the website to build up a better rapport.
And thank you very much for giving us this opportunity. Thank You.
