| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Owner | Times of Ceylon Limited |
| Founded | 29 October 1947 |
| Language | Sinhala |
| City | Colombo |
| Country | Ceylon |
| Sister newspapers | |
Lankadeepa was a Sinhala language daily newspaper in Ceylon published by Times of Ceylon Limited (TOCL). [1] [2] It was founded on 29 October 1947 and was published from Colombo. [1] [2] [3] Initially an evening paper, it became a morning daily on 1 May 1949. [3] In 1966 it had an average net sales of 56,241. [4] It had an average circulation of 57,769 in 1970, 33,751 in 1973 and 14,000 in 1976. [5] [6] [7]
TOCL was nationalised by the Sri Lankan government in August 1977. [1] The state-run TOCL faced financial and labour problems and on 31 January 1985 it and its various publications closed down. [1] Ranjith Wijewardena, chairman of Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (ANCL) before it was nationalised in July 1973, bought the trade names and library of the TOCL publications in 1986. [1] [8] Wijewardena's company, Wijeya Newspapers, subsequently started various newspapers using the names of former TOCL publications. [1] Lankadeepa started publishing in 1991. [1]