Why is the financial support of the media so important?

On November 16, Svidomi turns 4 years old — for this day, the media launched a fundraising campaign, as part of which it collects one million hryvnias for further development. Anastasiia Bakulina, CEO of Svidomi, explains why it is necessary to support independent media.

On this day, exactly 4 years ago, I arranged a meeting with an acquaintance to share the idea of creating a blog. This idea had been bothering me for three months.

I had no journalistic experience. There was only one goal — to get young people interested in the social and political space of Ukraine and the world. That is why my first challenge was to interest the youth. To do this, I made a rather risky and maximalist (and what else could it be at the age of 20?) move — I created an Instagram page because that is where young people spent and still spend most of their time. Then, listening to the news from acquaintances and friends, I came up with a format: short and clear news and no more than five posts per day. This way Instagram did not block us, and young people were not afraid of the quantity.

For more than a year, Svidomi was considered a local product. Therefore, the second challenge was to build trust in us among a wider audience. It was a long game. Thanks to cooperation with public and cultural figures, more and more people learned about us. The first victory was the interest of readers in the topic of the Crimean Tatars. Thanks to the broadcasts, we were able to reach the youth and explain why the history of Crimea is a part of the history of Ukraine and why it is important to talk about Crimea.

When protests in support of Serhii Sternenko and Andrii Antonenko swept the country, Svidomi became the voice of civil society. The editors monitored the court hearings, were not afraid to make statements, and conducted interviews outside the courts. Trust in us has increased, which is one of our main values.

Let's talk more about this.

For more than three years, the editorial team worked on a volunteer basis. With the start of a full-scale invasion, the work changed radically. Our team grew to 26 people, we had to abandon the previous format, and the work went into expeditious mode.

All these factors made it clear that the work could no longer be on a volunteer basis. Currently, most of the financial support is in the form of grants. Next comes Patreon, then commercial collaborations. The ideal financial model for us looks this way: 70% — follower support, 25% — commercial collaborations, and 5% — grant support.

Now, like most media, we want to get wider support from our followers. Therefore, on November 1, we launched a fundraising campaign to collect 1,000,000 hryvnias.

We are a generation that is not used to paying for content. Our parents watched TV channels, most of which belonged to oligarchs (and they still do). At that time, we got familiar with torrents and VKontakte (let's be honest), where we could find movies, TV shows, and music for free. After the ban of "VKontakte" in Ukraine, some young people switched to Telegram and listened to music there. Neither we nor our parents understand why we should pay for content.

Let's start with something simple. When Netflix came to Ukraine, we understood the advantages of a paid subscription: high-quality subtitles, no ads and viewing restrictions, and high video quality. When I subscribed to Netflix, I realized that in this way, I was not only showing support and respect for the creators of the films but also respect for myself because I was aware of what I was spending money on — my comfort. Now I don't wait those miserable 30 seconds for the end of commercials and don't watch movies that are recorded in the cinema on someone's phone.

When it comes to media, there are more reasons for financial support. First of all, this is my way of thanking people for their work. I am a patron of several media outlets: Bihus.Info, Podkast Pidkast, Gogol Media, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. I support the Ukrainian media because I like their content and want them to develop further. As for the American media, it's more about accepting their terms: the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal only show a limited amount of material for free.

At the lectures, I am asked how to take care of my own information space. There is a simple recipe — choose three media that you trust and read them. Three media is not a lot, right? If you contribute $5 a month to each of them, the total cost in hryvnias will be approximately 590 hryvnias per month (depending on the exchange rate). I'm not going to compare it to a cup of coffee or a blouse. Instead, I ask you to consider this as a contribution to the development of the independent Ukrainian information space. We are already showing the world that we are worthy of your attention and that we have something to talk about. Many media outlets, like Svidomi, work for an English-speaking audience. We also receive requests to create content in other languages.

Your contribution is an opportunity for our editorial office to become financially sustainable. We transitioned from volunteering to paid work seven months ago. Our task now is to become stable. And you can help us with this.

One million hryvnias may seem scary, but if each of our readers (and there are already 165 thousand of them) sends at least 10 hryvnias, we will quickly fundraise this amount. Part of the funds will go to strategic planning and development, as our format has changed radically since the start of the full-scale war. We will also be able to develop a YouTube channel, and some of the money will cover salaries for a certain period.

The fundraising campaign is a one-time donation from you, thanks to which we will build our financial foundation.

4 years ago, a 20-year-old girl created a blog to make young people interested in news. Today, the 24-year-old girl is developing all-Ukrainian online media which is trusted by over 100,000 people. Thank you for your support!