You're reading: Brooke takes over as Kyiv Post CEO

Jim Brooke, a veteran journalist who has worked for the New York Times, the Voice of America and other news organizations, has been named CEO of the Kyiv Post, Ukraine’s leading English-language news source.

Kyiv Post publisher Mohammad Zahoor hired Brooke to replace Nataliya Bugayova, who served as CEO since August 2014.

“The Kyiv Post CEO job offers me a real opportunity to help Ukraine at a time when, I believe, Europe’s largest nation finds itself at one hour before dawn,” Brooke, 60, said. “At the helm of the Kyiv Post, my goal is to expand its readership, strengthen its finances and to help it better play its role as defender and promoter of the free-market, pro-Western path for Ukraine.”

Bugayova leaves

Bugayova, 26, has relocated to Washington, D.C., and will join the staff of the Institute for the Study of War as the non-profit organization’s development director.

She called her time as CEO as “the most challenging yet rewarding” experience of her career.

Bugayova, a former Kyiv Post staff writer, helped to offset declines in print advertising by diversifying the newspaper’s revenue base through greater emphasis on events, such as conferences and employment fairs, as well as special supplements. During her tenure, the Kyiv Post celebrated its 20th year in business and launched its first “Doing Business in Ukraine” and “Ukraine’s Success Stories” supplements.

Additionally, under Bugayova’s tenure, the Kyiv Post revamped its website and digital strategy through upgrades and the hiring of two digital specialists. The newspaper launched a paywall in 2013, becoming the first Ukrainian news organization to do so, to help offset financial losses.

However, the news media industry remains under financial stress in Ukraine, with advertising on the decline and ownership dominated by billionaire oligarchs who heavily financially subsidize their media outlets. Media monitors say that many owners interfere in the news content of their organizations.

Editorial independence

The Kyiv Post, by contrast, follows a longstanding policy of editorial independence — adhered to by its two publishers throughout the life of the publication — and the clear separation of news from paid advertising content.

The newspaper and its affiliated non-profit Media Development Foundation currently employ 35 people, including 23 editorial employees and another 12 in the commercial division.

The newspaper increased its international readership substantially following last year’s EuroMaidan Revolution and Russia’s war against Ukraine, ending 2014 with 65 million page views. Most online readers live abroad, with the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany among the top countries. The weekly publication is distributed on Fridays, mostly in Kyiv, with more than 11,000 copies printed. The newspaper has more than 74,000 Twitter followers.

The Kyiv Post was founded on Oct. 18, 1995 by American Jed Sunden and has been owned by Zahoor, a British citizen, since July 28, 2009.