Kantipur Media Group celebrated its 23rd anniversary amid a function at Subidhanagar in the Capital on Friday.

Addressing the programme, the group’s Chairman and Managing Director Kailash Sirohiya thanked all the employees for keeping Kantipur Publications operational despite the April 25 earthquake and the border blockade.

“We came to work despite the earthquake and brought out newspapers in such difficult times to show that we care for our readers,” he said. “We could not achieve all the targets that we set for ourselves last year but we managed to see through the troublesome year. This has given us strength in continuing our good work.”

Speaking at the function, Editor-in-Chief of The Kathmandu Post Akhilesh Upadhyay praised the character and resilience of Nepalis despite facing the worst natural disaster in our lifetime. “Now we have to focus on product development and organisational restructuring and change our traditional focus from print media to multimedia,” he said. “Our news portal ekantipur.com has become one of the most visited online news sites in the world and our presence in social media is equally strong.”

Also speaking at the programme, Kantipur daily’s Editor-in-Chief Sudheer Sharma said the crisis facing the nation last year also came as an opportunity. “The courage we displayed despite the adverse situation was reflected in our newsroom and we never stopped publishing our newspaper,” he said. “We have to move on now by changing the way we make news and have to shift our focus to multimedia.”

Editor-in-Chief of Nepal magazine Prashant Aryal said that the unfavourable condition of last year would provide strength to work better in the future. Kantipur Saptahik and Nari Editor-in-Chief Subash Dhakal said the publications should move ahead with a new approach by learning from the past.

On the occasion, staffers from various departments of the Kantipur Publications were awarded for their outstanding performance in the past year.

The Post’s Assistant Senior Sub-editor Sangam Prasain was honoured with the Best Performance Award. Likewise, Kantipur daily’s Krishna Acharya, Saptahik/Nari’s Upasna Ghimire, Nepal weekly’s Pradeep Bashyal, photography department’s Surbindra Kumar Pun were among others who got the Best Performance Award. Also honoured were Marketing Department’s Sagar KC, Finance Department’s Santosh Sharma, Kantipur’s Gorkha-based stringer Sudip Kaini and Birgunj-based Bhushan Yadav and IT Department’s Subash Maghiya.

Krishna Hari Subedi and Sishir Pandey of Circulation Department, Ram Kumar Thapa of Press Department and Rudra Bahadur Budhathoki of General Administration Department also got awards.

Thomson Nepal, Max Media and Media Basket were awarded as the best advertising agencies.