| Lankadeepa | |
| Type: | Daily newspaper |
| Owners: | Times of Ceylon Limited |
| Language: | Sinhala |
| Publishing Country: | Ceylon |
| Publishing City: | Colombo |
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]
. Electoral Politics in an Emergent State: The Ceylon General Election of May 1970. 2010. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-15311-9. 141. A. Jeyaratnam Wilson.