–written by Polina Zabolotna and Yana Shekeriak
On November 23rd journalists and students from Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, Germany, Belarus, and Ukraine visited the Lviv online media Zaxid.net. The meeting took place within the third day of the project “Media Dialogue 2021 – for Conflict Sensitivity and Research”. Oleg Onysko, editor-in-chief of the “Zaxid.net”, talked about the specific work of regional media and outlined the current situation in the media area in Ukraine.
About Zahid.net:
Zaxid.net is part of the large media holding Lux TV and Radio Company. This company also includes Lux FM (Lviv), Lux FM (Kyiv), Radio 24, Football 24, TV Channel 24, and the Lux advertising agency. In total, the holding serves about 500 people in Kyiv and Lviv. Every media in holding has its own audience and specific work. But all of them have one common technical support department and advertising agency.
Zahid.net is an online sociopolitical media platform that specializes in information materials about the Lviv region. But journalists don’t write only about political and social areas. In recent years, the editorial board has begun to develop entertainment and informative content in the form of tips for readers. Zaxid.net publishes about a hundred articles a day and collects five million views on the site.
Zaxid.net has already had a big audience in the Lviv region. So it also has its own correspondents in other western regions of Ukraine. They were hired to reach a wider audience.
All of the news gathered from different regions is written by local journalists.
“We have specifically hired journalists from different cities because it is a great misconception, that a person from Lviv could write about life in Ivano-Frankivsk whilst living another city,” Oleg Onysko said about working in other regions. A separate editor in Lviv only manages materials coming in from other regions.
He stressed that the company is not interested in copying local news from other media sites. However, Zaxid.net republishes the main national Ukrainian and world news. The editor-in-chief of the “Zaxid.net” also says that the journalists’ department which works with information from the Lviv region is twice as big as the Ukrainian news department.
Social networks
Zaxid.net has dedicated employees running their social networks. The media outlet is present Twitter, Telegram, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. The media holding Lux TV and Radio Company holding has a central social media marketing office in Kyiv, but there is a separate person for a particular social network.
If we talk about the monetization of social networks, YouTube does bring in little profit, almost insignificant to the entire holding. Facebook is used to promote the main site where advertising is concentrated. Zaxid.net collects 100-150 thousand additional visits to the site from this social network.
The code of ethics for journalists
According to Onysko the Journalists’ Code is important for Zaxid.net. It is used as a tool to build trust between the media and the audience. According to Oleg Onysko journalists of Zaxid.net may not always fully adhere to the code, but it is important for them.
The Commission on Journalistic Ethics, in Ukraine, considers complaints against journalists or particular materials. But it can be viewed as not being very effective, since the Commission can only reprimand violators without the ability to fine or penalize them in other ways.
Cases of aggression against journalists
Two years ago, the Zaxid.net editorial office was attacked for covering corruption schemes to provide land plots to anti-terrorist operation veterans and its subsequent transfer to businessmen. The attack took place after threats had been spread on social networks.
After that, the company hired armed security for the editor-in-chief and a journalist who wrote about the issue. Police carried out explanatory work with the protesters, and they stopped the attacks. In general, Zaxid.net journalists try not to provoke aggression at work, but they do not receive special training in combating pressure.
Revenue and advertising
The main source of income of the holding is advertising, for which a separate advertising agency “Lux” is responsible. It controls the advertising area of all media in holding and has been operating for over 25 years. The customer determines which media he wants to work with and applies to the agency in Kyiv.
The Lux agency sells advertising not only in its own channels but also in competing media. There is a production team within theholding producing media especially to sell it to other media platforms. All this brings profit to the holding.
Politics and media
Media Holding TRK Lux is legally owned by Kateryna Kit-Sadova, the wife of Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy, and by Roman Andreyko, who is the long-term business partner of Andriy Sadovy.
Oleg Onysko said that the owner does not interfere in the work of Zaxid.net. It is important to him that the media is profitable, but it does not affect the content.
“We always pay attention to who our owner is, but this has never prevented us from writing about violations in the city hall. The point is that we should write such articles with strong evidence. We have learned to work with our owner and over the years, he has realized that effective media is free media, ” Oleh Onysko said.
Other politicians influence journalists in the form of devaluing their work. They call fake news everything that they don’t like. Politicians may also exert administrative pressure by depriving the media of their work licenses. The direct influence of politicians on media was only in 1994-2005 when the President of Ukraine was Leonid Kuchma.
