The Daily Star Bangladesh Newspaper in English

By Andrew Harry | Updated on

The Daily Star, Bangladesh's most popular English daily, was launched in 1991. Transcom Group owns it, and Syed Mohammad Ali founded it. Mr. Mahfuz Anam, one of the best journalists in the country, is the editor and publisher of The Daily Star.

The slogan of this leading newspaper is "Journalism without Fear or Favour. The newspaper covers news in a wide range of news categories. In addition, the newspaper provides supplements and periodicals such as Shout and Star Showbiz. The Daily Star's headquarters is located at 64-65 Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, Dhaka-1215.

The Daily Star English Newspaper of Bangladesh updates 24/7 live online national international, latest breaking news and headlines. Read all Bangladesh news, entertainment, celebrity, showbiz, sports, business and lifestyle from one of the most trusted Bangladeshi English Newspaper. Daily Star BD is comparable to The New York Times in USA and The Independent in UK.

History

Mahfuz Anam and Syed Mohammad Ali hit a plan for a powerful English newspaper in Bangladesh in the late 1980s. Ali worked as the Editor of a popular newspaper, the Bangkok Post, published in Thailand. He also served as the editor of the Hong Kong Standard published in British Hong Kong. Anam was serving UNESCO when he and Ali decided to start a daily newspaper in Bangladesh. Leading Bangladeshi bankers such as A. S. Mahmud, Azimur Rahman, A. Rouf Chowdhury, Latifur Rahman, and Shamsur Rahman provided funds.

This daily newspaper was founded in 1991, coinciding with Bangladesh's comeback to parliamentary democracy following 15 years of military control and presidential rule. The Daily Star became well-known for its straightforward coverage of Bangladeshi politics, particularly the competition between the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). It quickly surpassed Weekly Holiday and The Bangladesh Observer as the country's most widely circulated English-language daily. It attracted a large audience. This paper has become widely popular among students, urban elites, business leaders, and diplomats.

The government stopped all tender notices and government advertisements in The Daily Star in 2015 as a pressure tactic since government advertisements produce a substantial portion of the newspaper's earnings; this suspension was eventually overturned. In 2021, Mahfuz Anam criticized army chief General Aziz Ahmed for his statements in which Aziz said that criticizing the army chief was equivalent to criticizing Sheikh Hasina.

Content

The Daily Star has online and printed publications. The paper is printed in broadsheet format. This newspaper publishes news in some regular and irregular categories including News, Opinion, Coronavirus, Sports, Business, Entertainment, Life and Living, Youth, Tech & Startup, Environment, and Feature news. Their news articles are very liberal.

Supplements and Features

The Daily Star is enriched with a plethora of special supplements and feature news. Their supplements and features cover a wide range of topics such as environment, Youth, Opinion, and many more. This newspaper publishes several magazines including The Star, Star Showbiz, and Shout.

Editions

The Daily Star offers an English edition in its print version. It does not publish Bengali news in the print version. But the Daily Star Online provides both English and Bengali editions. Both of the editions are equally popular among Bengali communities around the world. The Daily Star does not offer any overseas editions.

Competition

According to different estimates, the overall circulation of Bengali newspapers is approximately 1.5 million copies. The circulation of ten major national newspapers exceeds 90%. The circulation of English newspapers is relatively limited, at roughly 70,000 copies. English newspapers are read by students and highly educated people who know English well or who are trying to learn English through the newspaper. The Daily Star has 77 percent of the overall English newspapers' circulation.

The official website of the Daily Star ranks 45 in Bangladesh. In the News and Media Publishers Category in Bangladesh, this website ranks 6. As of December 2022, thedailystar.net had 4.4M visitors. According to Similarweb monthly visit data, dhakatribune.com is thedailystar.net's top rival in December 2022, with 1.5M visitors. With 4.9M visitors in December 2022, the second most comparable site is bdnews24.com, and daily-sun.com rounds out the top three with 158.6K.

The fourth most comparable site to thedailystar.net is jugantor.com, while the fifth is tbsnews.net. In December 2022, jugantor.com and tbsnews.net got 6.9M and 1.9M hits, respectively.

App Products

The Daily Star offers an official application for Android, iOS, and Windows as well. This is a light app with an excellent user interface. The app is well-designed. You can read the top news, today’s news, or category-based news. The app has a video section that offers news videos. You can customize the Homepage or change the font size. The application provides both English and Bengali editions for its users. So, you can get the complete news portal in one go.

Editors

Syed Mohammad Ali was the founding editor of the Daily Star. Mahfuz Anam started serving as the editor and publisher of this leading English newspaper following Ali's death. Anam is praised for ensuring the paper's editorial freedom. A six-member board of directors, including current chairman Rokeya Afzal Rahman, oversees financial issues.

Aasha Mehreen Amin is the new editor-in-chief of the Op-Ed section, which was formerly led by Zafar Sobhan. Amin, who formerly oversaw the Star magazine supplement for the daily, was elevated to Senior Deputy Editor. Amin has progressively taken control of the newspaper's editorial stance, which has been increasingly critical of the Awami League regime and sympathetic to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

Final Words

The Daily Star has become popular for its fearless reporting on politics, corruption, and foreign affairs. It is regarded as a newspaper of record. The newspaper is renowned for journalistic honesty and progressive viewpoints. You can claim that the Daily Star is the New York Times of Bangladesh.