Media as a bridge: how Belarusian journalists started an outlet in Poland to connect two nations

After moving to Poland in 2021, he started a YouTube channel interviewing ex-political prisoners and other Belarusians who fled the country. Later, Kulevich met other journalists who moved to Bia?ystok and didn’t have a job, so together they opened a coworking space with support from the local authorities and the Press Club Belarus organisation. Later they decided to start a new outlet with a launching team of seven people and a metaphorical slogan “It’s time to build bridges”.

“Initially, we planned to work for the Belarusian audience, but in May 2022, we were labelled as an extremist outlet. So, we began to focus more on the Belarusian diaspora in Poland. Bia?ystok is home to one of the strongest and largest diasporas in Poland, and we managed to become a mouthpiece of the Belarusian diaspora in the city. Now, we are not just a bridge between Belarusians, but a bridge between the diasporas in Poland as well,” Kulevich says.

New content, channels, and experiments: how Mostmedia worked throughout the year

The coworking space where the newsroom was located quickly became an attraction point for Belarusians in the city. Refugees visited Mostmedia to share their stories, activists asked to use the place for meetings, and the team organised weekly sessions of writing messages for political prisoners. Moreover, Kulevich shares that when the war started, people were coming to the newsroom to ask how they could help Ukrainians. Thus, the coworking became a temporary Belarusian hub in Bia?ystok until the local diaspora opened its hub later that year. 

At first, the content by Mostmedia was more focused on the news in Bia?ystok, but then the team expanded its focus on stories about Belarusians all around Poland. It also regularly publishes how-to guides on life in Poland, such as opening a bank account or renting a flat, because new migrants and people who plan to move to Poland are some of the primary audience groups of Mostmedia. 

Another big topic of the newsroom is history. Ruslan Kulevich explains that they tell stories about Belarusians in Poland or vice versa and look for historical figures who unite the two nations. He gives examples of Eliza Orzeszkowa, a Belarusian-Polish writer, and Ludwik Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto, who lived in both Hrodna and Bia?ystok. The team also searches for old photographs and stories from older people connected to these cities. Kulevich, with the team, works on a book about citizens of Hrodna who fled the USSR after WWII and could visit their homes only 50–60 years later. 

The team maintains the YouTube channel Kulevich started, but they also launched a new video project about businesses in Poland opened by Belarusians, like a pizza place or a car service station. “People got tired of politics, and we decided to add some positive content. This project is needed to show that Belarusians come here and not just work in factories or elsewhere, but they organise their lives and do something, and Poles visit their businesses,” Kulevich explains the motivation. 

Mostmedia also organised an offline course in journalism and got 11 alums from it. Four of them now work in the team in different roles. Two other women have a podcast on life in Poland, and a teenager started a podcast for young Belarusians whose families plan to relocate. 

Another new project the team is involved in is a YouTube channel of 71-year-old Aliaksandra Khanevich who moved to Poland for political reasons just a few years ago. The woman is known for her participation in the film about Belarusian migration by famous blogger Yury Dud. Kulevich says that they help Aliaksandra with tech issues, and he describes it as an experiment to try reaching out to elderly people in Belarus. “She will be able to tell them that Poles are not our enemies or that people at 70 can still build a new life abroad,” adds the editor-in-chief.

Audience numbers and plans to make money on ads

Elena Burmina, the marketing director, shares that the audience of Mostmedia is mainly Belarusians aged 25 to 45 who live in Poland or plan to move there. Only 15% of the traffic comes from Belarus, and the biggest part comes from big Polish cities. The number of monthly unique visitors has grown from about 80,000 at the end of 2022 to about 150,000 on average in 2023.

The outlet’s business model includes grant funding, ads, and membership, though the former accounts for the vast majority of income – about 87%. Membership takes up about 5% of revenue: Mostmedia launched Patreon in the summer of last year with four donation levels and now has 21 subscribers who contribute 784 z? (€165) monthly. However, some donors prefer to help the team through direct transfers instead of Patreon.

Ads sales bring Mostmedia between 2% and 8% of revenue monthly. Burmina explains that the team started doing ads only recently when they received business requests. In the last two months, the audience and the number of requests grew significantly, so the team decided to form a department responsible for negotiating and producing advertising. 

Additionally, the team tries to earn money on book sales by organising several events for local businesses. Though these are minor sources of income, the goal of Mostmedia now is to develop non-grant funding revenue streams, primarily donations and ads. 

At the moment, Mostmedia is mostly Russian-language, but Belarusian-speaking interviewees are always quoted in their language, and almost every day there is an article published in Belarusian as well. Kulevich says the team also plans to launch a Polish-language version of the website in 2024. Still, journalists are focused on learning how to earn money: “If we learn how to make money, we will be the first Belarusian media in exile to do that. Yes, it’s difficult, but we are on our way, and I think we will make it.”

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