Roman Olearchyk, who now writes about Ukraine for the British daily Financial Times, moved to Kyiv from the US in early autumn 1999 after backing out of plans to go to medical school. He was reading the Kyiv Post in Shevchenko Park and saw a job ad about the newspaper hiring native English speakers.
So he walked into the newsroom and Brian Bonner, chief editor of the Kyiv Post, started to give him test assignments. A week later, however, Bonner left the paper. There was a new chief editor, Greg Bloom, and a new reality.
“He said his budget was slashed 40% and that he could not afford to pay me. I offered to work for free in order to learn journalism. He accepted. I was so lucky,” Olearchyk recalls.
From that point, Olearchyk has step by step climbed his career ladder, becoming first a reporter, an editor, and then even the editor in chief for a short time.
For Olearchyk and for dozens of other journalists, the Kyiv Post has become a launch pad in their careers, allowing many of them to continue their journalistic work at giants like the CNN, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Financial Times.
Seven years after Olearchyk entered the Kyiv Post newsroom, in 2006, he started writing for the Financial Times, but continued editing for the Kyiv Post part-time until just before the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution that ended Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency.
Olearchyk left the Kyiv Post, returning only once to coordinate the Oligarch Watch project in 2016–2017, a series of stories about Ukraine’s notorious moguls.
From more than 10 years working at the Kyiv Post, Olearchyk says he “learned the best of what journalism can and should be.”
Over the years, the Kyiv Post has survived numerous attempts to impose censorship.
Olearchyk recalls that the Yanukovych regime tried to impose censorship on the Kyiv Post and get fired Bonner in 2011, just three years after he returned as chief editor from his summer of 1999 stint.
At the risk of their jobs, staff writers decided to go on strike, leading to Bonner’s return five days later after journalists reach an agreement with the owner.
Christopher Miller, an editor at the Kyiv Post in January 2013 – September 2014, faced other challenges while working long hours to finish his stories written during an immensely newsy period in Ukraine’s history.
“My memories of reporting on the EuroMaidan Revolution, the annexation of Crimea, and the early months of the war in the Donbas are seared in my mind,” Miller says. “There were countless nights spent reporting and editing stories with my Kyiv Post colleagues that will stick with me forever.”
In a year and a half, Miller wrote more than 200 stories, which he says helped him “break into the global journalism industry and lay the groundwork for (his) career.” Miller now works at U.S publication BuzzFeed News.
He also wrote stories about the post-Soviet world, including about Ukraine, for news website Mashable.
“While working at the Kyiv Post I was able to cut my teeth as a foreign correspondent, reporting on some of the biggest stories in the world at the time,” Miller recalls his work at the Kyiv Post. “I was able to hone my journalistic skills.”
James Marson, former Kyiv Post journalist and current correspondent at the Wall Street Journal, says his favorite memory about the newspaper is the warm relationships he had with many of his colleagues, which last to this day.
“I remember the arguments, the celebrations, and the striving every week to put out the best newspaper possible,” Marson says.
He started to write stories as a freelancer after his move to Kyiv in 2007. Marson had been a full-time employee — a reporter and later an editor — for four years since 2009.
“I learnt a lot from the other editors and reporters: about reporting, writing and fighting,” Marson says. “Most importantly, I learned that the people you can rely on most in tough situations are other journalists, particularly former colleagues.”
Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the Kyiv Post also celebrates the fact that, despite all challenges, the newspaper retains its high standards that, in turn, results in schooling some of the finest professionals.
“The paper produced many top-notch journalists and editors, and continues doing so to this day,” Olearchyk says. “It’s a rare and crucial institution for Ukraine.”
Besides Olearchyk, Miller and Marson, several Kyiv Post alumni, who served as staff writers and editors, dot the global journalistic landscape. They include:
Nathan Hodge
Hodge started his journalism career at the Kyiv Post. Today he works at CNN London. Previously, Hodge was Moscow bureau chief at CNN and the Wall Street Journal. Hodge also wrote a book called “Armed Humanitarians” and co-authored “A Nuclear Family Vacation.”
Jake Rudnitsky
Rudnitsky was a staff writer at the Kyiv Post before working as a journalist and translator in Moscow. Since 2011, he has worked as a finance reporter at Bloomberg.
Maryna Irkliyenko
Irkliyenko was a staff writer at the Kyiv Post from 2009 to 2013. Today, she is a London-based private equity reporter at Debtwire and Mergermarket.
Katya Gorchinskaya
Gorchinskaya is a former reporter and deputy chief editor of the Kyiv Post. After leaving the Kyiv Post in 2015, she worked as managing editor for investigative projects at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the CEO of Hromadske. She has also contributed to the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. Today she contributes to Forbes.com.
Vitaly Sych
Sych started his career as a journalist at the Kyiv Post in 1997. In 2000, he became an editor. In 2003, Sych took a job as the editor in chief of Korrespondent, another publication owned by KP Media at the time. Since 2014, he has been the editor in chief of weekly magazine Novoye Vremya.
Askold Krushelnycky
In 1998, Krushelnycky served as the chief editor of the Kyiv Post. Since May 2018 and until recently, he worked as the Kyiv Post correspondent in Washington, D.C. Over his long career as a foreign correspondent and journalist, he has served as the Sunday Times of London’s South Asia correspondent and chief correspondent of The European newspaper. He has also written for the Daily Mail, Foreign Policy, Politico and other prominent publications.
Mark Rachkevych
Rachkevych started reporting for the Kyiv Post in 2006, but joined full-time in 2009. Later, he became editor at large. He left the Kyiv Post in 2016. Rachkevych has written for the Financial Times, Bloomberg News, Associated Press, Irish Times, and Ukraine Business Insight, among other publications.
Greg Bloom
Bloom is a former editor at the Kyiv Post. Currently, he is an author at travel guide book publisher Lonely Planet, for which he has written about Russia, Southeast Asia, Cambodia and the Philippines.
Jaroslav Koshiw
Koshiw is a former deputy chief editor and is the author of three books “Beheaded: The Killing of a Journalist,” “Abuse of Power: Corruption in the office of the president,” and “MH17: The story of the shooting down of the Malaysian airliner.”
Vlad Lavrov
A senior editor covering the Baltics and Eastern Partnership region for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
