Case study · News portal & e-paper
Deshbani The voice of Buffalo’s Bangladeshi community.
An online news portal and an e-paper for Deshbani, the monthly Bengali newspaper of Buffalo’s Bangladeshi community — daily news on one site, every printed page on the other, linked together.
- Client
- Deshbani Inc.
- Sector
- News media · Bengali newspaper
- Location
- Buffalo, New York, USA
- Sites
- News portal + e-paper
- Our role
- Design & development
- Year
- 2021
Overview
One newspaper, two ways to read it.
Deshbani prints a monthly paper and publishes news every day. The portal carries the daily news; the e-paper puts each printed issue online, page by page — and each site links to the other.
The client
Deshbani is a monthly Bengali newspaper published by Deshbani Inc. on Broadway in Buffalo, New York, with Shahryar Mahmud as chief editor and publisher. It covers Bangladesh, America and the world for the Bangladeshi community in Buffalo and beyond.
What the two sites do
- Publishes daily news in categories, from Bangladesh to Buffalo
- Puts every printed issue online in the e-paper, page by page
- Keeps past issues available by month
- Adds DTV Live, a Buffalo weather forecast and a Bangla / English switch
Our role & approach
Design & development — the e-paper and the main site, from structure and visual design to build and launch.
Live since 2021.
Key features
What’s on the live site.
News by category
Bangladesh, Inside Buffalo, America, the world, immigration, business, sport and more — each with its own block down the homepage.
Breaking news ticker
A সর্বশেষ খবর ticker under the menu scrolls through the latest headlines.
Bangla & English
A BN / EN switch in the header, with English-language local stories beside the Bengali news.
Local to Buffalo
An Inside Buffalo section and a live five-day weather forecast for Buffalo on the homepage.
Video, photos & DTV Live
Video news and a photo gallery at the foot of the homepage, and a DTV Live link in the header.
Archive & e-paper
An archive of past news, and an ই-পেপার link in the header that opens the e-paper.
The e-paper
Every printed page, online.
The e-paper puts each monthly print issue online exactly as it was printed — all 40 pages, with every past issue a click away. It links back to the news portal, and the portal links to it.
- 40 pages per issueNumbered page buttons from ১ to ৪০ above the page, plus previous and next page links below it.
- This month’s paperA strip of page thumbnails for the current issue, so readers can jump straight to the page they want.
- Back issues by monthA পুরাতন সংখ্যা menu lists every issue by month, back to March 2025.
- Share a pageFacebook, X, Pinterest and LinkedIn buttons under each page.
- Advertising slots250 × 250 ad spaces down both sides, with a call to advertise in the header.
- Linked to the portalAn Online Version link in the menu takes readers back to the daily news site.
Inside the site
A closer look.
Sections from the live homepage, captured on desktop.
Responsive
Same story, every screen.
On a phone the news portal turns into one easy column, with the breaking news ticker and the BN / EN switch kept at the top.
Look & feel
Newsprint white, Deshbani green.
Colours sampled from the live site.
Bengali headlines set in Shurjo on the portal and SolaimanLipi on the e-paper, under the green and red masthead.
Results
News and print, both online.
Daily news and every printed issue now reach Buffalo’s Bangladeshi community, in Bangla and English.
- 2sites: news portal and page-by-page e-paper
- 2languages, switched from the header
- 10+news categories, Bangladesh to Buffalo
- Every issue, archivedPast print issues stay available by month in the e-paper.
- Local and liveInside Buffalo, a weather forecast and DTV Live keep it close to home.
- Breaking news firstA headline ticker under the menu shows the latest stories.
Client feedback
In the client’s own words.
Deshbani
A news portal and an e-paper in two languages is a lot to build. Cerrow planned it carefully, kept us involved, and delivered a fast, reliable site our readers in Buffalo use every day.
Next project
Coached by Caz
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