The Ceylonese

The Ceylonese was an English-language newspaper in Ceylon founded by P. Ramanathan and other leading figures.^[1][2] The newspaper started on 5 March 1913 with Americans H. H. Marcus as manager and Tom Wright as editor.^[3] The paper was based at Tichborne Hall, Tichborne Avenue in Maradana, Colombo.^[2] The paper's other directors included Hector Alfred Jayewardene and Francis de Zoysa.^[4] The paper was editorially nationalistic and was run like an American newspaper, a contrast to other Ceylonese papers which were run according to the British model.^[5][6]

Ramanthan used the paper to promote his candidature for the Educated Ceylonese seat in the Legislative Council of Ceylon.^[7] During the 1911 election the de Soysa family had used their paper, The Morning Leader, to attack Ramanthan so that their relative Marcus Fernando would win the election.^[8] This tactic failed with Ramanthan defeating Fernando by 1,645 votes to 981 votes.^[9][10]

After some time differences arose between the paper's directors and Ramanathan resigned from the board of directors.^[5] The remaining directors and shareholders continued to use the paper to promote their own interests.^[11] World War I also impacted on the paper - there was war-time censorship and the cost of newsprint, ink, types and machinery soared.^[11] The paper faced serious financial problems - it was making a loss and had large debts.^[11] F. R. Senanayake issued a writ to auction the paper's assets in order to recover a Rs. 21,000 loan.^[2][6] As a result, the paper ceased publication in late 1917.^[4][12]

D. R. Wijewardena saw The Ceylonese's demise as an opportunity to grow his fledgling media empire.^[13] The auction for the paper's assets took place in December 1917.^[6] At the auction Senanayake and his brother D. S. Senanayake asked Wijewardena to make a bid of Rs. 21,000, the amount of the writ, but bidding was slow.^[6] Wijewardena was able to buy the paper's plant and goodwill with a bid of Rs. 16,000.^[6][13] He also paid off the remainder of mortgage held by F. R. Senanayake.^[6] Wijewardena subsequently started the Ceylon Daily News on 3 January 1918 using The Ceylonese assets.^[1][14]

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