Rupang

About Rupang

Rupang is a Khasi-language daily newspaper published from Shillong, Meghalaya, and one of the most influential titles in the Khasi press. It was started in 1988 by R. M. Shabong as a weekly newspaper and converted into a daily in 1992. The paper celebrated its silver jubilee in November 2012, with the inaugural function attended by minister Prestone Tynsong. Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under number 40906/88, its publisher and editor is R. M. Shabong of Jaiaw Langsning, Shillong-793002. The paper is printed at the Riwar Offset Press in Sawmer, Shillong, and carries a cover price of three rupees. It is described as particularly influential in the East Khasi Hills district.

Founded by R. M. Shabong in 1988

Rupang was started in 1988 by R. M. Shabong, who founded the paper as a weekly before converting it into a daily in 1992. The trajectory from weekly to daily is the classic growth path of successful Indian newspapers: a weekly establishes the brand, builds a readership and proves the commercial model, and the conversion to daily — with its far greater demands on reporting staff, production and distribution — marks the paper's arrival as a serious publication. Shabong's decision to make Rupang a daily in 1992 committed the paper to the relentless discipline of daily journalism, a commitment it has honoured for more than three decades since.

Humble beginnings: a typewriter and a Guwahati press

In its early days, Rupang was produced with an electric typewriter and printed in Guwahati, the nearest city with the printing infrastructure a fledgling paper required. This detail captures the material realities of starting a newspaper in Shillong in the late 1980s: without local presses capable of handling a daily, the paper's pages had to travel to the Assam plains for printing and back to the hills for distribution. The progression from an electric typewriter in Shillong to the paper's own arrangements at the Riwar Offset Press in Sawmer traces the arc of the publication's growth from a shoestring weekly to an established daily with its own production base.

Silver jubilee in 2012

Rupang celebrated its silver jubilee in November 2012, marking twenty-five years since its founding, with the inaugural function of the celebrations attended by Prestone Tynsong, then a minister in the Meghalaya government. A silver jubilee is a significant milestone for any newspaper, but particularly for a Khasi daily that began on a typewriter: it represents a quarter-century of never missing the daily deadline, of building and retaining a readership, and of sustaining the commercial operation through political upheavals and economic cycles. The ministerial presence at the celebrations recognised the paper's status as an institution of Khasi public life.

Registration, publisher and printing

According to Registrar of Newspapers for India records, Rupang is registered as a daily newspaper under number 40906/88, consistent with its 1988 founding. The RNI record names R. M. Shabong of Jaiaw Langsning, Shillong-793002, as both publisher and editor. The paper is printed at the Riwar Offset Press in Sawmer, Shillong, and its cover price is three rupees. These particulars establish Rupang as a Shillong-published Khasi daily under the continuous proprietor-editorship of its founder — a stability of ownership that is itself a factor in the paper's longevity.

Influence in the East Khasi Hills

Rupang is described as particularly influential in the East Khasi Hills district, the district containing Shillong and the demographic and political heart of the Khasi people. Influence for a Khasi daily means shaping the conversation in the Dorbar Shnong, the District Council, the churches and the colleges — the institutions through which Khasi society governs itself and debates its future. A paper that has published daily since 1992 accumulates an authority that newer titles cannot quickly replicate: its editorials are anticipated, its reports are cited, and its positions move opinion within the community it serves.

The Khasi press tradition

Rupang belongs to the distinguished tradition of the Khasi press, which includes U Nongsain Hima — launched on 6 December 1960 by Professor G. G. Swell as the voice of the Hill State Movement — and Mawphor, which became the first Khasi daily on 1 July 1989. A 2025 paper in Quest Journals on Khasi newspaper headlines profiled these titles alongside Rupang and U Peitngor, confirming Rupang's place in the canon of the Khasi press studied by scholars. Within this tradition, Rupang represents the generation that professionalised Khasi daily journalism in the 1990s, building on the foundations laid by the movement papers.

Covering Khasi society

As a Khasi daily, Rupang's journalism is embedded in the institutions of Khasi life: the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council, the Syiemships and traditional governance, the powerful churches, the educational institutions, and the cultural organisations that sustain Khasi identity. Reporting these beats in Khasi, day after day, is the paper's core function and the source of its influence. The paper's longevity means that its archives constitute a daily record of the Khasi Hills' modern history — a resource for the community's memory and for scholars of the region.

Sustaining a Khasi daily

Publishing a Khasi daily from Shillong for over three decades requires navigating the economics of the tribal-language press: modest circulations by national standards, advertising markets limited to the hills, and competition from both Khasi rivals and the dominant English dailies. Rupang's survival and influence demonstrate that these challenges can be met with consistent journalism, community trust and disciplined management. From an electric typewriter in 1988 to a silver jubilee in 2012 to continued daily publication today, R. M. Shabong's paper has traced one of the most successful trajectories in the history of the Khasi press.

Rupang's newsroom and the daily grind

Behind Rupang's influence lies the unglamorous machinery of daily newspaper production: reporters covering the District Council, the courts, the police and the municipal board; sub-editors shaping copy in Khasi through the evening; press operators running the Riwar Offset Press through the night; and distribution agents fanning out across the East Khasi Hills before dawn. This routine, repeated without fail since 1992, is the real substance of the paper's achievement. Readers experience only the finished product on their doorsteps; the organisational discipline that produces it — staffing, training, quality control, logistics — is the invisible foundation of three decades of daily publication.

The founder-editor's imprint

R. M. Shabong's continuous proprietor-editorship since 1988 has given Rupang an unusual stability of vision. Founder-editors imprint their papers with their own journalistic philosophy, community relationships and standards, and when they remain at the helm for decades, the paper becomes an extension of their personality and principles. Shabong's journey from an electric typewriter to a silver jubilee is the story of Khasi entrepreneurial journalism in miniature: starting with minimal capital, building through credibility and hard work, and arriving at institutional status. His name on the RNI record as both publisher and editor formalises what Khasi readers have long known — that Rupang is, in the deepest sense, his paper.

Rupang in the digital age

Like all Khasi dailies, Rupang faces the challenge of serving a new generation of readers who consume news on smartphones while retaining the print readership that sustains its business. The paper's deep archives — a daily record of the Khasi Hills since 1992 — represent an invaluable asset in the digital age, potentially forming the basis of searchable historical resources for the community. Whatever digital strategies the paper pursues, its core strength remains what it has always been: authoritative, Khasi-language daily journalism rooted in the East Khasi Hills, produced by a newsroom that has earned its readers' trust over more than thirty years.