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Friday, March 29, 2024

From The Editor February, 2018

Dear readers,

As the editor of a magazine that goes by the masthead: Fintech, penning an anniversary editorial gives birth to a mixed set of feelings for me. But first and foremost, our readers—a big thanks to you. Without you, we are just pasted ink on dried papers; you give meanings to what we do and without your support and readership we wouldn’t be able to achieve what we have achieved so far. Our gratitude then goes to our advertisers who trusted us and made sure that we neither run out of ink, nor the journalists who can utilize it to create good quality content.

Now let me tell you why I have mixed feelings. As I write this editorial, I am getting my news from the news-ticker on my laptop and from my tweeter feeds. I get views and comments on those news in my Facebook wall and occasionally I catch a glimpse of the scrolls on the news channels to see what they scoop and run under the banner of a breaking news. The fact is—I am not surrounded by news; I am engulfed by it.

As you have noticed, I didn’t mention about any form of ‘print media’ while talking about news sources. Newspapers, magazines and their ilk are no longer the sole news purveyors that they once used to be in Bangladesh. The print media business is literally getting a run for its money from competitors outside the industry. So, before taking the role of the editor of ‘another new magazine’ exactly a year ago, the question that I asked myself: was: “Has the death-knell for print media – which the pundits and commoners have long been heralding as a part of the much-hyped but little understood ‘Digital Bangladesh’—come yet, or there are still scopes for a quality print media to survive?”

I took the risk of finding the answer by myself and to my pleasant surprise, I have found that it can not only survive but also can thrive if the right chords are played. We tried playing it right and the music—in the form of well researched news and features—that we presented in front of you was well received by you. So I am as happy as an editor could be on that front.

Yet I have a confession to make, which would explain to you why I said I have mixed feelings. I wanted Fintech, as the name suggests very boldly, being a magazine that talks and informs about the financial technology sector exclusively. Pardon me for being a puritan, but to become a trusted source of records and most importantly to become a trendsetter, you can’t and you shouldn’t lose your focus. In our case, we didn’t; but to my chagrin, we compromised and accommodated news and features from the sectors that don’t go well with the masthead we adhered to.

Primarily, we did it to survive and we might continue doing so in the upcoming year to reach to a point from where we can stay true to our focus. Let me remind you, in case you forget, that our focus is to be the primary record-keeper and the trendsetter of financial technology revolution of the country and, if possible, in the South Asia region.

From this year onward, we have started taking independent pitches from writers across the world. We also plan to revamp our website and to make it an online source of your daily fin-tech dose. Trust me, our small team of Fintech is constantly mulling over new ideas and ways to better inform you and to make Fintech an essential news staple in your increasingly busy life.

Editor in Chief- Md. Mizanur Rahman
Editor in Chief- Md. Mizanur Rahman

In addition, we are set to launch our Bangla website from this month. The website, scheduled to be inaugurated on February 21, will surely have a challenging task ahead in terms of presenting fintech related materials in Bangla, as the terminologies and jargons are difficult to translate in absence of a uniform framework, and because a language for this the field has not been developed in Bangla. But our goal will be to try contribute toward and ultimately help develop a legitimate way of expression for fintech in Bangla that can deliver intelligible and comprehensive textual resources.

On that note a happy first anniversary to our readers, advertisers and patrons. Keep reading us.

EDITOR
Md. Mizanur Rahman

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