“There is a lot of support for content, for journalism, but local media need more help to become sustainable,” confirms Veselin Vačkov, director of the oldest and most prestigious Czech daily newspaper Lidové noviny, who has been working with the EU-funded OPEN Media Hub project, leading a series of media management workshops and master classes in Eastern Partnership countries, focused on increased organizational and financial management skills, and ways to maximize revenues from print and online, IPN reports, with reference to euneighbours.eu
Vačkov says the media he has worked with in Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine are aware of media ethics, and work very hard to be balanced and to produce quality work, “even by Western standards”. “But if you are dependent on state support, on the support of a local entrepreneur or oligarch, even on EU money, you soon find out that you are not entirely free.”
According to him, most of the challenges facing media in the Eastern Partner countries are very similar to those that have swept the media landscape in Western European countries in recent years. Among them, Veselin Vačkov lists the loss of circulation in the print media, compounded by the economic crisis, the transition from print to digital and the difficulties of raising revenue online, the need to invest in new technology, as well as the squeeze in advertising revenue. His media management training – which is also available as an online course – addresses all these issues and more. “We have had a very positive feedback,” says Vačkov. “Participants are really glad to have this support for a much healthier future.”
“We hear a lot about independence, but less about what independence really means. We think of independent opinion, of the journalists who investigate, who often face the most direct threats, but far less of the media managers in the offices behind them, ensuring that their stories can go to air or print, that wages and suppliers can be paid. It’s an issue of which the European Union is acutely aware,” says euneighbours.eu.
PRO TV in Chisinau has managed to step back from the brink with the help of the European Endowment for Democracy (EED), a foundation supported by the European Union, that provides grants to organizations promoting democracy and human rights. EED funding has helped PRO TV to develop four new shows, including ‘In PROfunzime’ a weekly political talk show that has become one of the most popular programs in Moldova, as well as popular entertainment shows.
Operating a successful media business in a small market is a challenge in itself, according to Lyudmila Chekina, CEO at TUT.BY, the leading online news portal in Belarus, employing more than 50 editorial staff and read by 42.9% of all Belarusian internet users. Though the company had grown from a start-up in 2000 to a major digital media player, its dependence on the brand advertising market in Belarus and increasing online competition, including from foreign players, meant TUT.BY needed to develop its organizational structure and introduce better operational processes to stay ahead of the game. To do so, it turned to the EU-funded Advice for Small Businesses programmer, implemented by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which connected TUT.BY with a team of international business consultants. As a result, earnings are up 20%.
On World Press Freedom Day marked on May 3, it’s a reminder that independent media need a sustainable business model to keep the stories coming out. “Running a media is not only writing articles,” Veselin Vačkov reminds participants in his media management workshops. “Sustainability is more of a challenge than quality. And the more the media is economically successful, the freer we are as journalists.”
The OPEN Media Hub is an EU-funded project supporting media professionals across the EU Neighborhood area. A total of 753 people have benefited from the project’s media management actions across the Neighborhood region, including 244 individual media managers, with follow-up in-house management consultations for selected independent media.
The European Endowment for Democracy (EED) is an independent grant-giving organization that supports actors of democratic change in the European Neighborhood and beyond. It is a joint initiative of EU member states and institutions, and receives EU funding to cover its operating costs. The EED assists pro-democratic civil society organizations, movements and individual activists acting in favor of a pluralistic multiparty system regardless of their size or formal status, as well as independent media and journalists. Support to independent media is a key area of EED work in the EU neighborhood. For applications, one can access this link.
