Who are we? What are we doing?

The Sri Lankan press is almost dead. Journalism was murdered by death squads and now, less literally, by the internet, which strangled the newspaper business model.

Tiktok is no replacement. But if not social media, then what? The Examiner is the answer to that call. We’re a newspaper you’ll actually enjoy reading. Our writing is stylish and we triple check our facts. 

The Examiner has no party line: we have twice as many opinions as we have staff. Our writers aren’t afraid of stirring the pot -- or setting it on fire. Why? Because we don’t kowtow to advertisers or funders. You, dear subscriber, pay our bills. 

In return, every Friday afternoon, you’ll get impartial reporting, original perspectives, and a list of what’s on and what’s worth reading. Each issue will include, 

• the week’s headline topic dissected and analysed. We follow the story, not the noise. 
• an examination of all matters Sri Lankan. Reflective and rigorous long-form, covering stories too complex for the news cycle or Twitter. Think The Caravan, FT Big Read or London Review of Books, 
• a chart that confounds rather than confirms what you already know,
• a diary of what’s going on in Colombo and micro-summaries of papers, reports and other notabilia on Sri Lanka published that week.

We’re still experimenting, so you may get more, but never less.

The Examiners

Daniel Alphonsus, our CEO, led the fintech team at Daraz, Alibaba’s South Asian subsidiary. Before that he was an adviser to Sri Lanka’s finance and foreign ministries. He read philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University and public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Fulbright scholar. Scribblings published in Economic & Political Weekly, The Caravan, The Diplomat and Caixin. 

Mimi Alphonsus, our editorial director, was a reporter at The Sunday Times. She trained in history at Harvard University, focusing on Sri Lanka's contemporary migrations. Mimi has written for The Hindu, The Sunday Observer and NewLines Magazine. 

Pamodi Waravita, part of The Examiner’s founding team, worked for The Sunday Morning and The New York Times. She has also written for Himal Southasian, The Signal, Readme.LK and Roar. Pamodi read international relations at Ritsumeikan Asia-Pacific University, with a minor in cat studies. 

Say hello, share a lead, or slip a tip-off by writing to editor@examiner.media