Home
+
Published : 23 Oct 2025, 09:23 AM
Bangladesh’s pioneering news publisher bdnews24.com will commemorate its 19th anniversary on Thursday with a gathering in Dhaka that blends celebration with a renewed public commitment to fast, standards-driven journalism as artificial intelligence (AI) forces another shift in the news business.
A spokesperson said the event will begin at 7pm in the Radisson Water Garden Hotel and be streamed live on bdnews24.com.
Policymakers and senior politicians, justices and lawyers, entrepreneurs and industrialists, litterateurs and journalists, cultural organisers and activists, sports stars, military and civilian officials – as well as other witnesses to Bangladesh’s many turning points – will share a single stage at the special gathering.
The programme will conclude with remarks from Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi.
As Bangladesh’s first digital news outlet, bdnews24.com set a new standard for rigorous, clean journalism – and, on its anniversary, Khalidi affirmed that the newsroom will stay the course.
Setting out the digital newsroom’s commitments, he said: “bdnews24.com intends to invest more in both investigative reporting and technology-driven journalism. We are working on different news formats, and that requires investment.”
Citing efforts to overcome a crisis at bdnews24.com triggered by pressure from powerful quarters, he said: “If we can overcome that phase, we will be able to invest more.”
“But whatever the cost, we want to keep delivering accurate news at speed and to keep practising clean journalism under internationally recognised rules of grammar.”
He expressed gratitude to those who have been with the organisation through its 19-year journey, and those who have not.
The newsroom traces its origins to the first half of 2005, when, like other agencies, “BDNEWS” supplied stories to media outlets, but did so via the internet rather than the teleprinters others relied on.
After a change in ownership and management in 2006, and under Khalidi’s leadership, the organisation was reshaped into the country’s first dot-com media company. On Oct 23 that year, bdnews24.com began 24/7 publishing, effectively ushering in Bangladesh’s digital news era.
Over the next 19 years, the outlet has curated a running chronicle of national events and repeatedly launched new services that others later adopted.
It added multimedia content to its website, pioneered mobile news delivery, and introduced breaking news and alert services in both Bangla and English. It has also built distinct sections to serve readers of all ages and interests.
In 2013, amid intense public interest in current affairs, Google Analytics recorded 4.3 million unique visitors for bdnews24.com, when the nearest competitor garnered a distant 2.1 million.
Since then, the metrics have swung up and down, prompting multiple efforts to retain the readership. On social media, audiences have had bdnews24.com with them around the clock. Its Facebook following grew from 76,257 during its fifth-anniversary celebrations in 2011 to well over 10 million over the following 14 years.
Throughout, bdnews24.com has offered free, round-the-clock access to the latest news in Bangla and English. The path has not always been smooth.
“When we started, technologies like the internet and smartphones were giving the world’s old structures a new shape,” a spokesperson said. “By staying with that change, bdnews24.com led from the front in Bangladesh’s digital transformation of news services.”
“Now the world faces another wave of technology that will change many things,” the spokesperson added. “bdnews24.com feels a responsibility to ensure those changes support, rather than destroy, journalism and news services.”
Holding a responsible editorial line “against so-called popular trends” has been a major challenge in recent years, the spokesperson said. “Keeping that commitment, bdnews24.com wants to remain with its readers on this journey of change.”
