Today is the first anniversary of Daily Dazzling Dawn, the first and only Bangladeshi-owned English newspaper published in London. 

Our habit of reading while stuck on Reel, TikTok, and Facebook—our regular newspaper reading habit—is mostly now becoming a memory in our community. At the time, Google Analytics and similar web statistics showed that Daily Dazzling Dawn had an online-only readership of over a million in just one year.

When the sole proprietor of a media house in an expensive industry like a daily newspaper is a professional journalist who earns his wages from elsewhere, that reality depends on the person's tolerance. A birther can only feel the challenge of going through a newspaper every single hour, 365 days a year, both in print and online. 

Journalism can never be a product. I believe that the definition of professional journalism between TikTok and YouTubers is sky-deep. However, sometimes I look with my tired eyes, only for the online version and e-paper of my newspaper, taking professional programmers, designers, and developers. Just for the transformation and maintenance of PHP Laravel, a lot of money and time of sleep are also spent. Professional journalistic ethics may conflict with YouTubers simply holding a mobile phone and reading other people's news. But, believe me, that point of contention gives me hope. 

Nowadays, journalism has reached a new dimension. Twenty years ago, I was a root-level journalist from a small town who used to write new scripts by hand and send them over the  phone and now journalism changed drastically in 2024.

After two decades in professional Bengali journalism, my aim is now to bring the prospects, successes, crises, and dreams of the 1.6 million British Bangladeshi and Bangladeshi new immigrants living in the country to British policymakers and to the mainstream of the country.

The English mainstream is now essential. The absence of at least one full-fledged English speaker daily in the 150-year-old Bangladeshi community in the UK was disappointing. We are trying our best to fill the gap with our limitations.

Three days after coming to this country in 2011, I started working for the Bangla Times, the highest-circulation newspaper at the time. At that time, 12 Bengali newspapers were published in London alone. All but three newspapers were free then. Now only three are published there; the number of those is also negligible, and the publication of one is irregular. Many Bangla TV channels have been shut down in the last six years. The bigger problem is that 99% of my children's generation, British Bangladeshi children born in this country, do not know how to read or write Bengali. Our new generation cannot speak their own regional Sylhety language completely due to a lack of practice at home.

The pioneers who came from the country in the 1960s and 1980s were the main readers of Bengali newspapers. Corona has taken away many of them. To find a copy of the newspaper, our senior citizens used to come to the office even a century ago. 12 years ago, when a by-name lead story got a huge response in the community, senior journalists like the late Ishaq Kajal would come from their offices to congratulate. Our foremost people, the community we live in, are our elderly.

The golden days of Bengali journalism have passed. We are the last generation in this country to have done journalism in Bengali. Bangla Tribune Editor Respected Zulfiqer RussellBhai, The salary he paid to me for last 8 years many times more than that of the top print or online representatives of Bangladeshi newspapers.

The way to bring oneself from Bengali to English is also a challenge. After deciding to stay in journalism only, in the meantime, I am now in the third year of my graduation from the University of New Buckinghamshire.

Kamran Ahmed, our multimedia editor, owes Dazzling Dawn to the core who has been working except for sleep since the beginning of the journey to this unprecedented success. I have tried to cooperate with many young journalists in Moulvibazar, Dhaka, and London in the last 20 years. Among them, Kamran's sophisticated talent and honesty have inspired me.

I was never in any profession other than journalism in my life. journalism has given a lot to a person like me; it has become the path to gaining the love of millions of people.

The anchor of life is tied to the ethos of ethical journalism.

Today is the birthday of my only child, Johir Jamil Chowdhury. In the life of a man, there is a fascination with women, wealth, and fame; above all, undoubtedly, the best achievement is the childhood of son.

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Writer: Originator and Publisher-Daily Dazzling Dawn