The 20th Media Mobility Hub session ended with a discussion: “Why is it profitable to make quality content?” During the two weeks, the participants in the 20th MMH session did their internships in Kyiv’s leading media outlets.
The young journalists created pieces for convergent newsrooms, radio, TV, and social networks for Radio Liberty, Interfax Ukraine, Ukrinform, Channel 5, Hromadske Radio, UA:PBC and other media outlets in the capital.
During internships, the participants took part in a number of additional training workshops and events: in the media lunch “How journalists should stand up for their professional rights “, the expert discussion “Is digitization a panacea?”, the annual meeting of the Media Intern Association and participants in the Media Mobility Hub program, and the MediaChallenges2021 forum.
At the end of the program, a summary discussion was organized for the Hub participants – “Why is it profitable to make quality content?” – with the support of the National Press Club and the Independent Media Council.
Tamara Istomina, editor-in-chief of Kyiv Post, became a special guest of the discussion.
Kyiv Post is an English language media in print and online formats whose readership is both in Ukraine and worldwide.
According to Tamara Istomina, the media earns 70%, with 30% of costs being covered by the owner:
“We have editorial independence, transparency, and so we’re open in terms of funding. For Kyiv Post, standards mean more than anything else. Unfortunately, that’s not the case in many newsrooms. Ukraine does have a lot of quality media outlets but those aren’t always the outlets that earn money to be able to keep afloat. It’s a very sad story common not only in Ukraine. To boot, the media suffered grave losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic”.
The editor also noted that Ukrainian media keep developing despite the difficulties caused by the war, coronavirus pandemic, and the work of (pro)Russian propagandists. Journalistic standards are put first more often now and adhering to them brings about important changes in the minds of the audience and the country at large. Doing quality work also means self-improvement.
And today’s important task is to convey an understanding of quality content, encouraging the audience to fact-check information and pay for the product.
“We’re doing okay, even that we inherited Soviet propaganda, and the war is waged against us. We’ve got high-quality media doing their job and transmitting important ideas. Journalism is a prestigious occupation but it’s also very underestimated and difficult: you’ve got to be versatile, make content fast, be knowledgeable in oftentimes very complex and unexpected subjects. It is society’s task to support the media that do their job well,” added Toma Istomina.
After the discussion, the participants traditionally received their journalism internship certificates awarded to them by Kyiv Post’s editor together with the paper’s issue dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence.
The internship programs for graduate students of Bachelor’s and Master’s programs at the journalism departments of leading universities across Ukraine were conducted by Souspilnist Foundation jointly with Internews Ukraine and with the support of Detector Media.
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