A group of Sri Lanka’s biggest news, sport and entertainment publishers has agreed to share a single reader identity system — the first arrangement of its kind in the country.
The platform, TruePass, was unveiled in Colombo on 17 September; the announcement was circulated to newsrooms including Colombo Gazette on 29 September. It was developed in Sri Lanka by AdStudio.cloud, whose chief executive is Jayomi Lokuliyana.
Who has signed up
The TruePass Media Alliance brings together Wijeya Newspapers Limited, Hiru News, NewsFirst, Ada Derana and Liberty Media, Virakesari – Express Newspapers Ltd, Papare.lk, Gossip Lanka and TodayNews.
Between them the group covers Sinhala, Tamil and English output across news, sport and entertainment. According to the announcement, it is the first time publishers spanning all three languages have connected through a common identity platform rather than each building such infrastructure alone — or going without it.
What it does
The premise is “authenticate once, access everywhere”: a reader establishes one verified profile and uses it across any participating publisher’s site.
For the publishers, the point is not the convenience of a shared login but what sits behind it. Most Sri Lankan news sites currently see their audience as anonymous traffic. An identity layer lets them convert some of that into authenticated readers with first-party data attached — the basis for personalisation, audience-based advertising and subscription or membership products.
Participating publishers continue to hold their own reader relationships; TruePass supplies the common authentication layer rather than pooling the audiences.
The announcement says readers stand to gain content tailored to their interests, continuity across devices and publications, early or exclusive access, and formats such as interactive features and member-only content — on terms it describes as consent-led and transparent.
Where it could go
The announcement indicates the platform could later extend beyond publishing to telecommunications, retail, financial services and loyalty partners, forming a broader first-party data ecosystem for Sri Lankan businesses and advertisers.
No detail was given on how reader consent will be collected or audited across participating sites, how data is shared between them, or what governance the Alliance operates under. The material circulated is a company announcement rather than independent reporting, and no verified newsroom had published its own account of the launch at the time of writing.
