How Ukrainian Regional Media is Surviving in the Coronacrisis I N T R O D U C T I O N The COVID-19 pandemic has delivered a serious blow to the world economy. Various countries forecast a GDP contraction of between 5% and 10%. Fields of activities that directly depend on interpersonal contact are the most vulnerable. Ukraine introduced a strict quarantine after conrming its rst cases. It has maintained it for several months, although has been softening the lockdown gradually. Transport communications between cities and regions have been limited or suspended; public transportation has often been suspended, public events have been cancelled, education institutions have closed, along with most retail shops, cafés, and restaurants. This has helped to limit expansion of the disease, but struck a huge blow to the economy. The drastic decrease in business revenues and person-to- person contacts has also affected media outlets, which depend on advertising budgets, investments, and distribution infrastructure. Ukrainian regional news services, often facing nancial difculties, have been especially vulnerable in the face of the pandemics and lockdown. Internews Ukraine has tried to understand how the corona crisis has inuenced the Ukrainian regional media - both the challenges it has brought and how regional media have responded. 1 We recently published a big overview of the Ukrainian regional media landscape, our Ukrainian Regional Media Guide. In this vast publication, we analyzed key trends and described the most popular regional media outlets in each Ukrainian region, as well as key players behind them. The study covers the whole territory of Ukraine, including the temporarily occupied territories. However, changes in the regional media are constantly taking place. In order to reect them, we are publishing regular thematic overviews. In the rst of these overviews, we are analyzing how regional media are managing during the quarantine, and how the corona crisis has affected them. We asked 39 journalists, editors, and media managers from various Ukrainian regions to share their experiences and reections with us. You can read the results of this overview „below. The pandemic has dealt a huge blow to the regional media Respondent from Odesa oblast 2 1. KEY PROBLEMS: suspension of work, dismissal of workers Every 4th respondent whom we asked said that he/she The newspaper Zamkova Hora from Kyiv Oblast also knows facts of closure or suspension of work of a reduced its circulation. media in their region. Supermarkets and distribution through Ukrposhta The Redaktsia media project was shut down in Odesa (Ukrainian national post ofce) have been the key Oblast; the online Hromadske TV: Cherkasy put its distribution channels of the regional print media. Press website “on pause.” stands have been practically shut down during the quarantine. Regional newspapers had to postpone publishing in print. For example, so did the newspaper Vremia in Luhansk Oblast, Nova kopijka and Tyzhden’ in Kyiv „ Up to 70% of local Oblast, Fermer Prydniprovia in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The same applies to the newspapers Nasha Druzhkivka media’s circulation from Donetsk Oblast, Halytskyi Korespondent and is through subscription Halychyna from Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. Some newspapers that have continued publishing in Respondent from print have tried to adapt to the new realities: they cut the Luhansk oblast circulation, narrowed down the volume of the newspaper or published it less often. For example, Due to quarantine, many regional editorial ofces Persha Miska Hazeta from Kropyvnytskyi is being have shifted temporarily to remote work. This was printed less regularly; the circulation for the latter “was done, for example, at the TV channels UA: Rivne and cut back by a third” after it went back to print. UA: Bukovyna, whose employees tested positive for COVID-19. UA: Bukovyna has since returned to work. 3 Dnipropetrovsk Oblast TV channel Pershyy Miskyy: Kryvyi Rih also began working remotely “due to the epidemiological situation.“ By mid-May, the channel had to suspend all live broadcasts. At the same time, during the quarantine, the TV channel changed ownership several times – from the former member of parliament Konstiantyn Usov to AGROSVIT-KR LLC, „ Since the topic is which is engaged in grain cultivation. extremely painful, More than 30% of our respondents said that they were our colleagues aware of cases of staff reductions in newsrooms. In learn about it only particular, the staff of the Chernivetskyy Promin TV channel in Bukovyna, the city website Mariupol from rumors and 0629.com.ua in Donetsk Oblast, media platform from posts on social “Informatsiina Vinnychchyna”, Lviv newsroom for Lux media like FM radio station were cut. Staff reductions also took place in Volyn, Odesa, Poltava, Kherson, Khmelnytsky, “Goodbye, editorial Ternopil and Chernihiv Oblasts. team, I was cut!“ Respondents noted that sometimes people have been laid off only on paper, but in fact, they continue to work Respondent from and receive informal wages. On the other hand, Poltava oblast journalists from Ivano-Frankivsk and Odesa Oblasts noticed isolated cases of unofcial furlough and salary reductions (up to 50–70%). Employees of some newsrooms were also forced to look for side work for the period of quarantine. 4 2. FINANCING: drastic decreases in advertising; searching for new nancial resources 30 out of 39 respondents say that the media in their regions has suffered serious nancial losses during the „ My advertising pandemic. A majority of them have seen a radical decrease in advertising, as well as the annulment or manager complains delay of partner contracts as key reasons for these that the current losses. It is also related to contracts with authorities: situation is worse public funds initially aimed to support media production were often re-directed to the ght against the than the 2008 crisis: coronavirus. Media owners also cut their investments, I regularly call our according to testimonies from our respondents from partners, but nobody Volynska, Luhanska, Poltavska and Chernivetska Oblasts. wants to place ads Respondent from „ Poltava oblast Advertising revenues have fallen by 70% on our Our respondents also say that regional media in their TV channel. But now the majority do not have signicant experience in nding advertising is gradually new nancial resources. Despite this, some outlets have coming back started optimizing work processes and budgets. Examples of this include Google advertising, fundraising and grants for content creation, institutional Respondent from development, and monetization. Ivano-Frankivsk oblast 5 There have also been changes in the state funding of media. For example, the Ukrainian government unblocked funding of ATR TV channel, the key Crimean Tatar channel in Ukraine, on May 6th. This has solved the channel’s nancial difculties which arose in early 2020, when the channel almost had to stop broadcasting because of a lack of nancial support from Ukraine’s state budget. In addition to nancial difculties, the channel has faced security problems in Crimea. On March 11th, Russian “security forces” in occupied Crimea made house-checks of the channel’s anchorman Seytumer Seytumerov and of a number of citizen journalists of the Crimean Solidarity initiative. On May 6th the pressure continued: the prosecutor’s ofce of the Russian occupation authorities indicted ATR owner Lenur Islamov on several charges, including „“public calls to violate Russia’s territorial integrity.” It turns out that media outlets’ budgets can be easily cut by 20% Respondent from Poltava oblast 6 3. CONTENT: human stories and education During the quarantine, important changes have taken At the same time, respondents also noted that the rapid place in content production the thematic focus of local growth of audience interest in coronavirus-related topics media. 46% of interviewed journalists and media was short-lived. In order to diversify content, some managers said there was a lack of information to editorial teams focused on stories about people and report. However, almost every respondent reported that storytelling. For instance, a series of documentaries since the beginning of quarantine, coverage of topics called Za Okruzhnoyu (Outside the Ring Road) appeared related to COVID-19 has completely or partially on UA: Kharkiv talking about the lives of people in compensated for the lack of traditional newsworthy different districts of Kharkiv Oblast during quarantine. events. During the quarantine, audiences have been Dom aired a video blog from journalist Oleksiy Matsuka most interested in morbidity rates, the situation in about life in the occupied territories of Donbas. hospitals, volunteer help, and national high school exams. „ Since distance learning was introduced, many regional There was so much TV channels have begun broadcasting video lessons. information about This has not been limited to the local branches of Suspilne, Ukraine’s public broadcaster. The TV channel coronavirus that Tsentralnyi (Central) in Poltava and the TV channel Kyiv people got tired of also lmed video lessons in cooperation with their local it faster than they education departments and teachers. Schoolchildren in the temporarily occupied territories of Donbass and did from the war Crimea were also able to watch these educational programs on the Dom TV channel. Respondent from Chernihiv oblast 7 During the quarantine, dozens of regional TV channels acted in solidarity with each other by sharing their content