At recent meetings between members of the business and diplomatic communities, I have frequently heard concerns about Ukraine losing this information war against Russia, followed by appeals for Western governments to do more about it.
While I believe Western governments can and should help the truth prevail, everyone can do their part. Indeed, over the past months many organizations and talented individuals have come together to build the structures that provide an honest view of what is happening in Ukraine. Others have reached out to support those already in place, like the Kyiv Post, which has reported the truth about Ukraine for 19 years now.
From the beginning of the EuroMaidan protests, the Kyiv Post has been on the frontlines of the information war. With in-depth local knowledge, a presence on the ground from Simferopol to Sloviansk, and a commitment to the truth, not a particular side, the Kyiv Post has become the world’s go-to source for information on Ukraine.
Our list of subscribers has been bolstered by virtually every major news agency in the world, from The New York Times to Al Jazeera to France 24, and hundreds of stories have been linked by every publication from Foreign Affairs to BuzzFeed.
We are of course proud of this, and are thankful for all the letters of support we receive and recognition by other journalists. We would like to do more, whether it’s expanding our business coverage or putting more boots on the ground, but there is only so much that we can do with very limited resources.
Make no mistake the Kyiv Post is stronger than it has been for a long time. After years of red-stained budgets, we implemented deep changes last summer that allowed us to turn a small profit in September-December 2013 – our best result in more than four years. In the habitually tough first quarter of 2014, we cut losses to a small fraction of what they were in the previous year and we accomplished this while advertising and marketing budgets throughout Ukraine were cut to the bone!
There is no magic formula behind these results. Editorial budgets have been cut while journalists put in longer hours; administrative expenses, too, have been sliced. We diversified revenue streams as falling print ads put other publications out of business.
We sought out and received support from donor organizations, including the European Endowment for Democracy, to buy new equipment that simply wasn’t in the budget and would not have gotten purchased otherwise.
A group of donors, led by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but also including Internews, the international nongovernmental organization, as well as the German Network for Reporting on Eastern Europe and the Danish-funded SCOOP all helped the Kyiv Post cover travel costs. The money has allowed us to keep two teams of journalists – including a staff writer and photographer – traveling to the hot spots since Russia’s Crimean invasion on Feb. 27. Again, the travel would simply have not taken place otherwise because there simply was no budget for this emergency contingency.
In short, every part of the Kyiv Post’s operation has become leaner and more effective.
We are grateful to all of our print and online subscribers, those who helped us through donations, and all the businesses that choose to advertise with the Kyiv Post, whether it is because they appreciate the unique reach and value that we offer, support our work, or both. But there is much more that can be done.
The business community in particular has an interest in having a center of strong, fact-based reporting present in the country. The world needs to know the reality of what is happening here, and plans cannot be made on smears or wishes, only on cold, hard facts. Nor can government-based organizations do all the work. After all, Ukraine has suffered from too much political involvement, not too little.
Ukraine is facing a critical point in its history, and those who believe in it are in the same boat. By pulling our efforts together we can make it stronger, and help it achieve the freedom and prosperity it deserves.
Kyiv Post CEO Jakub Parusinski can be reached at [email protected]
