Ukraine’s challenging economy has exacerbated what is already a tough market for the newspaper industry. This newspaper’s publisher, United Kingdom businessman Mohammad Zahoor, has since 2009 kept the Kyiv Post’s editorial team well-staffed. But his generous subsidy is coming to an end.
This means the Kyiv Post must stand on its own, paying for itself through print advertising, subscriptions, conferences, employment fairs and the like. The website paywall, which we started in March, is part of an industry trend and has helped us to learn who our friends are. The response has been gratifying, but we will need a few thousand subscribers rather than the few hundred we have today.
But whatever our staff size, the journalists here will adhere to the core ethical principles that have guided us in nearly 18 years: Independence, Community, Trust. This means that there is a clear separation between the editorial and commercial sides of the operation. There is also a clear divide between news articles and paid advertisements. We don’t disguise PR “advertorials” as news.
Journalists here have always made the final call on what news and opinion stories are published, except in limited cases such as risk of litigation. This publisher has also given us wide latitude in editorials, as long as we are non-partisan and don’t endorse candidates or parties in Ukrainian elections.
Chief editors, including the current one, have historically had direct labor agreements with the publisher and been in charge of editorial hiring and firing, as well as managing the publisher-approved editorial budget.
This group of editors and staff writers will uphold the principle of editorial independence, because it’s good business and good journalism. We follow the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of conduct as honest brokers of information. We strive to avoid conflicts of interest and disclose them when they exist. These principles brought success in the past and will in the future.
