Ukrainian outlets innovate amid blackouts and bombings, deploy weapons of ‘information war’ against Russian disinformation
Originally published on My New Biz, May 23, 2024
The Kyiv Independent was launched in 2021 when a group of journalists at the Kyiv Post were fired for protesting editorial interference by the new owner.
Three years later, The Independent is the largest English language publication in Ukraine. Its international audience includes political and business decision makers who view it as the most trusted source of information about the war with Russia.
Source: Google Analytics stats of average numbers for June-August 2023.
In this conflict, information is a weapon, so The Independent has mobilized every tool in its arsenal (graphic above), including X (formerly Twitter) with 2.1 million followers, a newsletter with 55,000 subscribers, and Instagram with 98,300 followers, among others.
Zakhar Protsiuk, 25, chief operating officer of The Independent, explained the media strategy in an interview with Tara Kelly of the European Journalism Centre. He talked about how the team has developed a long-term strategy amid the daily stresses of war. I’ve edited his comments.
“News media are built and forged in moments of crisis, in times of brewing social movement. This is the moment when the media need to perform and excel at their highest.” — Zakhar Protsiuk
“Kyiv Independent got much bigger and got built during the full-scale invasion, in that moment of crisis,” Protsiuk told Kelly. “We were there to tackle that information need. And that increased the brand awareness. This is when people think about you consciously. That’s when people are looking for media they can trust that explain what is happening and why it is happening.”
Planning by candlelight
In 2022, in the midst of a blackout caused by Russian attacks on power stations in Kyiv, Protsiuk and the team at The Independent were planning long-term strategy. They couldn’t use computers or the internet. They were working by candlelight in a freezing office.
This lack of digital distractions might have helped them focus and develop some key strategies. Among them:
- A key to survival long-term is producing credible, trustworthy content unavailable anywhere else. “Trustworthy brands with unique content will win.”
- The key to doing that is attracting and keeping the best people. “Media is a talent-driven business. You have to keep the talent.” They had seen too many people leaving the journalism professionbecause they were at media in decline. Those media failed to innovate and adjust to a dynamic market. “Media have to adapt and pivot. Too many don’t pivot and then die, and the best people leave.”
- Distribution channels matter less. Now that search tools of artificial intelligence are making Google and Facebook less important as drivers of traffic and advertising, trustworthy brands are even more important, Protsiuk said.
If Protsiuk sounds like a media consultant, it’s because he is one. In addition to running The Independent, he is a co-founder and associate partner with the media consulting firm Jnomics (J for journalism plus economics), which is based in London and Ukraine. Its value proposition is “to help media become self-sustainable.”
A bit of history: three connected organizations
Protsiuk has been working closely for several years with Jakub Parusinski, a co-founder and key player in The Independent, Jnomics, and a third publication with Ukrainian roots called The Fix, a trade publication for European media managers.
All three organizations focus on producing trustworthy journalism in Ukraine and Europe, despite political crises and war.
- The media consultancy Jnomics was co-founded in 2019 by Protsiuk and Parusinski, who is currently senior partner. Previously a consultant with McKinsey & Co., Parusinski saw a business opportunity in helping media in Central and Eastern Europe to develop sustainable business models. (A year before the war, I interviewed Parusinski.)
- The Kyiv Independent was co-founded in 2021 by Jnomics and journalists who were fired from the Kyiv Post. Parusinski had served as the Kyiv Post’s CEO for several years before launching Jnomics. Zakhar Protsiuk became involved through Jnomics and is now the chief operating officer of The Kyiv Independent.
- The Fix is a trade journal for publishing executives in Europe, focused on “cracking the media management puzzle through insights, solutions and data.” It was co-founded in 2019 by a team that includes Parusinski and Zakhar Protsiuk. In 2022, Protsiuk’s brother, Anton, 26, who had freelanced for The Fix, came on board as senior editor.
Millions in support
The Independent’s team has grown from 18 to 50 people since the war began, largely on the strength of donations from organizations and readers totaling €1.8 million ($1.9 million).
Meanwhile, The Fix and its media partners have raised an additional €4.8 million ($5.2 million) to support Ukrainian colleagues at home and abroad.
The Fix has also received an investment from V-Ventures, an arm of the Netherlands-based foundation Vereniging Veronica. The Fix did not announce the value of the investment nor the percentage of the minority stake acquired. It “will enable The Fix to develop its research and advisory operations, which helps European media leaders with data-driven decision-making and strategic support.”
I interviewed Anton Protsiuk of The Fix via WhatsApp in late March. He also wears more than one hat. He does projects for Wikimedia Ukraine, an NGO supporting Wikipedia and “free knowledge.”
Living in a war zone
“On the one hand, you just go about your daily life,” Anton told me. “The full-scale war has been going on for more than two years, and the people have adapted. People go to work, we go to concerts. I’m speaking about Kyiv, which is a bit safer than the front line, which is hundreds of kilometers away. But at the same time we are in constant danger still from Russian attacks.
“Just yesterday we had a missile attack in Kyiv, and a couple of people were injured. Fortunately no one died from this attack.” (Reuters reported that air defenses shot down 26 of the 28 Russian drones.)
“It’s like a constant factor of our life, but we cannot just think about the war all the time.”
Conclusion and final thought
I asked Anton what people in the U.S. and Western Europe should know about this war.
“It is important to stop Russia in Ukraine, because if Russia is successful in its attempt to take over Ukraine, it will not stop in Ukraine. All the history of the 20th century and the 21st century shows that it will try to seize more territories, invade more countries.”
Readers of this newsletter know that I emphasize reasons for optimism when analyzing the crises in the media, the journalism profession, and democratic societies.
I’ve seen the danger of a pessimistic outlook. It’s the existential risk of saying to ourselves, “It’s hopeless. People are greedy, cruel, vicious, and selfish. The world is going to hell in a handbasket. We can’t do anything about it. What’s the point of trying.” I’m reminded of the hopeless response of the main characters in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot — “Nothing to be done.”
So, at the risk of being labeled a fool (I’m too old to worry about that), I emphasize the positive, with Ukraine being the latest example. Our tasks: recruiting people to the cause of free speech, looking for solutions, in spite of the day’s news. An optimistic outlook helps us get into action to make things better. It gives us confidence. We see the challenges but seek allies to help us overcome them. Collaboration, not competition.