Commenting on the progress the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd. (ANCL), known as ‘Lake House’, has achieved under the new management, Mass Media and Parliamentary Reforms Minister GayanthaKarunathilake said, the company had earned a profit of Rs. 150 million so far this year. 

He said the management hoped to increase profit to Rs. 200 million by the end of this year – with newspapers sales looking promising, showing a 10% increase, and debt having reduced from Rs. 800 million to Rs. 300 million.

The Minister made these observations while commenting on Lake House during the Committee Stage debate of ‘Budget 2017’.

“Lake House has earned a profit of Rs. 150 million so far, and the management hopes to increase this to Rs. 200 million by the end of this year. Sales have seen a 10 % increase,” the Minister said.

“Over the past years, there have been many court cases against the institution on defamation. A total of Rs. 1.5 billion has been sought as compensation by way of these cases. We are happy to say that not a single defamation case has been filed against this institution after we assumed duties.”

“The salaries of employees have been increased by Rs. 3, 050  so far and another Rs. 300 will be added to the basic salary from next year,” he added.

“All pages of the Dinamina, Daily News and Sunday Observer are now printed in colour and a new email system has also been established,” he noted.

He also said the ‘Sarasavi’ awards ceremony, which had not been held the last eight years, would be held on December 15.