I’ve been pouring through the Kyiv Post’s archives periodically through the year — reading, categorizing, summarizing, fixing mistakes — in a massive undertaking that is still far from over.
Observations:
• The newspaper has an impressive body of coverage from excellent journalists. It would be a dream newspaper if they all could still be here, making the Kyiv Post the “Washington Post” of Ukraine. On our many good days, we’ve clearly explained what’s happening in Ukraine to the English-speaking world and held the powerful to account. We did our job as journalists, and for that, we have thousands of people to thank — journalists, advertisers, subscribers, readers.
• The newspaper has periodically reinvented itself to keep up with the times, ditching wire-service copy and sports scores from America to become a more Ukraine-focused publication. We published escort advertisements for several years, then banned them from our pages in 2009 for ethical reasons. We retooled the print design at least four times and the website design countless times from its original launch in 1997.
• Despite all the changes in look and staff, the Kyiv Post has remained remarkably consistent in its editorial policy of independence and in its hopes for Ukraine to become a vibrant democracy that is fully integrated in the West.
• We collectively took poor care of our archives, the living history of English-language journalism in Ukraine.
Long love affair
I never thought I’d be here for the Kyiv Post’s 25th anniversary. My tenure as the chief editor has been long — 12 years in all. But, looked at another way, that means I’ve had nothing to do with the Kyiv Post’s successes or failures (except as a loyal reader) for most of the newspaper’s life.
My love affair with the newspaper started on my first visit to Ukraine in 1996 and deepened with a summer stint as chief editor in 1999. I left after the Russian economic crisis forced deep cutbacks on the Kyiv Post.
I returned eight years later, in 2008, because of my love for the nation, where I am a permanent resident, and because I knew the Kyiv Post, as good as it was, could be even better.
Bad timing economically
The timing couldn’t have been much worse economically.
Until the autumn of 2008, all was good: Ukraine was in a frothy economic boom, enjoying credit and a hryvnia at 5 to the dollar. The newspaper expanded staff, changed design, boosted its website, and even added sections like Employment under its founding publisher, American Jed Sunden.
Then the global economy fell off the cliff, and Ukraine’s economy went with it. The Kyiv Post limped to the end of 2008, finishing in the black for the last time in its history, turning upwards of a $320,000 net profit, if memory serves me correctly. Little did we know, we would never see profitability again.
By winter, the economic wheels came off. We cut staff and pay. We switched to cheaper newsprint and cut the number of pages. Sunden moved us to progressively smaller offices in his KP Media empire on 14a Bazhana St. on the left bank. He was worried. All of us were too.
1st sale of Kyiv Post
Then one day in the summer of 2009, Jim Phillipoff, a representative for Mohammad Zahoor, came to visit me and deputy chief editor Roman Olearchyk. Zahoor, a native of Pakistan who made a fortune making steel in Donetsk, wanted to buy the newspaper. The best part for us? A condition of the sale was that the staff remained intact. We were overjoyed when the $1.1 million transaction was made.
Zahoor for the next nine years proceeded to rehabilitate the newspaper. He got us off our deathbed. Everything went up — staff size and salaries, page count. We bought a much better quality newsprint. We became more engaged in the community with events.
Not everything we tried worked out. We made some poor website design changes and proceeded to mangle part of the archives and irritate readers in the process. For two years, we tried a Ukrainian/Russian language website that flopped commercially and with readers.
Kivan comes along
When Zahoor had enough, he sold us in March 2018 to our current owner, Adnan Kivan, for at least $3.5 million.
We didn’t know anything about this Syrian-born, Odesa businessman. Zahoor didn’t give us any warning about the sale. Instead, as the top executive, I signed a stack of documents transferring various items from one company to a new, unknown one. Colleagues had to look up the company to learn who owned it.
We got off to a bad start, for which I am to blame. Unable to reach Kivan, we carelessly included some false, scurrilous internet material about him and published it in our initial story about the sale without his response. I’ve apologized to him for not meeting our own standards and he has accepted the apology.
We quickly came to learn that Kivan is the best possible owner for the Kyiv Post and certainly one of the best businessmen in Ukraine.
New investment
We’ve never had it so good. Besides the initial purchase price, Kivan has already invested several million dollars in keeping the newspaper running — including a new 460-square meter office plus studio in his 23-story building on 68 Zhylianska St. in Kyiv.
The Kyiv Post’s eighth office (and I’ve worked in them all) is our best by far, and I hope it’s the last one.
Better yet, he’s the best owner for journalists. Growing up in Syria, Kivan has a deep commitment to promoting democracy, freedom of speech and a free press that’s been denied the people of his homeland.
Not only does he invest in the Kyiv Post, he lets us decide how to cover the news. Of course, every publisher has his interests, and Kivan is no exception, which is why we’ve paid more attention to events in Syria and Odesa.
News industry troubled
The Kyiv Post is proud that we usually earn 50% of what we spend and our budget — for everything from printing to equipment, and taxes and salaries for 50 people — remains a modest $1 million. But we should never kid ourselves. The newspaper’s fortunes depend on Kivan. Without his investment, we’d be half the size of everything — staff, salaries, and reach.
It’s pretty much the same dismal situation for many news organizations not only in Ukraine, but across the globe. Independent journalism should not depend on rich owners, as it does now in much of the world. Everyone should contribute for the sake of our democracies and societies.
So, while we’re doing well, we are well aware of the realities.
A dream world would be when I sit down with the owner and report to him that revenue from advertising, subscriptions, and events is so good that we need to decide how to invest the profits.
I’m not sure if that idyllic day will ever come, for me or most editors nowadays, but I think it must come if the Kyiv Post will live to see its 50th golden anniversary in the year 2045.
After all, there aren’t many Kivans in Ukraine.
So the answer of whether the Kyiv Post will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2045 depends on you: the readers, subscribers, and advertisers.
Brian Bonner is the executive director/chief editor of the Kyiv Post.
