![]() ![]() ![]() Something similar to a membership program, but without strategy and routine procedures, appeared on investigative site back in 2018. But it seems that only popular science magazine Kunsht and Lviv-based local media site Tvoe Misto tried to develop a membership program (We use readers’ club or just club as synonyms) before the pandemic. On the eve of the pandemic, digital subscription offerings were launched by business news site Mind.ua, Novoye Vremya (NV) magazine, and the local newspaper and site network RIA Media. At the English-language newspaper Kyiv Post for example, subscription revenues accounted for 16% of all editorial revenues in 2020, and exceeded revenue from native ads. Subsequently, even before the coronavirus pandemic, Ukrainian media business models did not look sustainable.A few Ukrainian media outlets have experimented with selling their content to readers before. And when advertising revenues in Ukraine fell, as in the rest of the world, newspapers had to look for new sources of income. These were either advertisers’ money or media owners’ money. Ukrainians have also not developed a habit of paying for content, partly due to weak copyright protection, and partly due to the fact that the first Ukrainian media on the Internet offered their content for free.A 2019 study by the Center for Journalism at the Kyiv School of Economics found that most publications relied on only one or two sources of income. Therefore, there are simply no newspapers in Ukraine that have been read from generation to generation. And the first independent online media appeared only 20 years ago - with the beginning of the Internet’s wide-spread use. It was born relatively recently - about 30 years ago, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. ![]() Yet despite the large population, the media market in Ukraine is underdeveloped. Freedom House rates Ukraine as a partially free country (60 out of 100 possible points in 2021), with an average level of press freedom. It has a parliamentary-presidential form of government and a multi-party system. Ukraine is an Eastern European country with a developing economy and a population of over 41 million people. However, the researcher independently chose to study these newsrooms - by criteria explained in the study - and MPP played no role in the research process It describes what membership looks like in a market where there are few mature examples to lead the way.Disclosure: The Membership Puzzle Project has supported two newsrooms mentioned in this study, ShoTam and The Ukrainians, through our Membership in News Fund. We at the Membership Puzzle Project and Media Development Investment Fund think this study by researcher Andrii Ianitskyi of Ukrainian membership models in their infancy will be of interest to any newsroom considering questions of how to launch membership to an audience unfamiliar with the concept. But the coronavirus pandemic has given fresh urgency to the need for newsrooms in the country to find alternative sources of revenue, and shone a light on the value of a two-way relationship with loyal readers.As a result, many Ukrainian newsrooms launched membership for the first time in 2020, or redoubled stalled membership efforts. Audience members have yet to develop the habit of contributing financially to digital news organizations. ![]() Ukraine has a relatively young media market. ![]()
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