The bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich at O’Brien’s Irish Pub costs Hr 75. The Kyiv Post at O’Brien’s is free. Two large Stella Artois beers at Le Cosmopolite cost Hr 70. The Kyiv Post at Le Cosmopolite is free. The Kyiv Post online only costs Hr 50 a month…
Whoa. Wait a second, fellow. What do you mean by charging for the English-language edition of the Kyiv Post online? It’s always been free.
It is a serious consideration for now, and we would like your feedback. Several of you have already suggested we go to a pay wall to ensure quality coverage. Others of you have expressed shock and horror at the thought.
My philosophy is that a newspaper carries information, and information is currency that has value. As such, it should carry a cost. I have found many that disagree with that, inside and outside the Kyiv Post. This is why we are moving ever so gently.
We have a mission to put the Kyiv Post in a positive cash position by the end of the year, and we intend to do it. Sometimes this requires taking what I consider common sense steps, but actions unusual for this newspaper.
Already we have a stepped-up campaign to increase corporate subscriptions. A company receives up to 100 newspapers a week in a rack for about Hr 5,000 a year. Imagine: 5,000 newspapers for a hryvnia each and a definite convenience for employees.
The corporate subscription program is a bargain, and the early results are encouraging. Companies including Coca-Cola Bottling, Danone, Ernst & Young, Siemens, NIKO, Tetra Pak and a half-dozen others have signed on.
Additionally, we have added to our product. Kyiv Post Conferences, where we team with companies to co-produce conferences and seminars, are coming soon.
Kyiv Post Commercial Editorial Services provide professional writing or editing for companies, providing documents from newsletters and websites to legal documents.
As for our English-language site, we plan to put it on steroids. It will be juiced-up and totally redesigned, with more features you’ll find interesting. We plan a May launch for the site and will offer various mobile applications at the same time.
Early attempts to charge for online services met little success. However, as Bob Dylan wrote: “The times, they are a-changing.” Many newspapers today charge for online content, whether it is the porous pay wall of The New York Times or the locked-up, no line shall escape method of The Times of London. It is the trend.
The printed edition of the Kyiv Post will largely remain free, though we are going to experiment with “honesty boxes” whereby we encourage people to pay. Whether someone inserts money depends entirely on the honesty principle.
A few months ago we started charging a fee for inclusion in our “On the Move” feature, and we have opened up a sponsored column called “Business Advisor” where, for a fee, companies can put their best foot forward.
In some areas, we are going the other way. The listing of companies in the various Business Focus editions previously carried a cost. In my view, we end up with incomplete lists. We have eliminated these listings at the suggestion of advertisers.
The Kyiv Post represents an intellectual endeavor by well-educated journalists and editors to bring you the news in three formats: the Kyiv Post, KyivPost.com and KyivPost.ua.
The goal of the newspaper is always to present the truth, even if often it is painful or causes controversy. This is what the newspaper has stood for since its beginning more than 16 years ago. It sticks its neck out in the interest of others.
Since the dawn of time, publications – the printed variety – have cost the consumer money, though one could argue that in value it certainly beats the Blue Light special at Wal-Mart by a wide margin. Only the so-called “shoppers,” which carry little but promotional news and are chock full of advertisements, were free.
Though its cost has inched up to a hefty $5, I remember when The New York Times Sunday edition – carrying more news copy than there are words in the novel Gone With The Wind – cost a mere $1.25. The online version today is between $15 and $30 a month, depending on the level of service.
Now that’s real money.
When the internet came along, newspapers were slow to take advantage; but when they did, they offered free content, feeling that advertising would support the effort. By and large, considering the investment in news, it did not.
The choice is between offering a mediocre website or a fast-paced, attractive, informative product that fulfills the reader’s need for information about Ukraine. As of this writing, we believe we are leaning toward the right model.
At least that’s my bet.
Kyiv Post CEO Michael Willard can be reached at [email protected].
