Agora has earned its reputation as one of Moldova’s most prominent independent media outlets. It employs 21 people, including 12 who focus on creating content, such as journalism, filming, and video editing.

Originally focusing solely on news, Agora has diversified its content over the years, embracing long reads and feature stories. However, the team is currently shifting its focus back to news. The goal is to enrich the audience’s experience not just with content but with interactive experience, says Head of Strategic Development at Agora Vasile Galușca.

Agora’s efforts have led to a significant increase in website users, with over 250,000 visitors in November alone. (Moldova has a population of over 3,3 million people). 

The growth is attributed to the platform’s mobile responsiveness and engaging features, which have doubled visitor numbers in just eight months before November 2023. 

Revenue streams

Over 50% of Agora’s revenue comes from grant funding by international and local organisations. Advertising accounts for around 40% of its revenue, with a notable shift towards native content creation over traditional banners. “We earn much more from [a] single [piece of] native content… compared to banners,” Galușca notes. Additional revenue streams include subscriptions and merchandise sales on their website.

How to make the website more engaging for users: case study 

Case study: covering elections

In 2023, in time for local elections, Agora created a new way for voters and candidates to interact by setting up a special page on their site.

Here, people could ask questions to candidates. Others could vote these questions up or down, making sure the most important ones got noticed. This way, the questions showed what people wanted to know.

The top questions were sent to the candidates, who then answered them on Agora’s site. This turned the site into a place where voters could directly chat with candidates, closing the gap between them.

Agora also added live charts to the page, so readers could see election results as they came in. They linked their site directly to the election system to get this data fast and show it right away. “This made our site much better for users, giving them quick updates and results,” says Galușca. On election day, after the polls were closed, they placed charts with auto-completing data regarding who was leading and even included real-time calculations for local council seats for each party.

On election day, a lot more people visited the site – three to four times more than usual. And they didn’t just come and go; they stuck around, diving into what was happening and using Agora as their main source for election news.

Case study: learning from social media 

Agora has launched some interactive features from social media onto their website: emojis and stickers. Stickers typically have local context. “Foreign visitors might not grasp the unique context of our stickers, but that’s fine. Our focus is on serving locals who are in tune with Moldova’s happenings,” explains Galușca.

How do they look?

• “Fericiun Crăcit” was uttered by one of our Russian-speaking politicians. It was intended to be “Craciun Fericit,” which means “Merry Christmas.” However, she mixed up the endings of the words and ended up with nonsense. “Cracit” means bow-legged. The idea is that the Russian-speaking politicians try to present themselves as polyglots and inclusive with the native language – but fail in doing so due to their lack of substance.

• “Bem ceai și nu ne diorgăim” was said by former socialist president of Moldova, Igor Dodon. Once he won the elections and became president, a famous journalist asked him a provocative question. The answer can be translated as: “Drink tea and don’t bother.” It was a very rude answer from a freshly elected President. The team turned it around and changed its meaning. Now, it means: “We’ll drink tea and we will not bother,” indicating “we’ll wait for the right reaction”.

• “Hai să ne înțelegem”. It was the name of one of Agora’s anti-corruption podcasts. It is a typical question a person would ask if they wanted to offer a bribe but in a funny and joyful way. It means: “Let’s have a deal.”

Agora also plans to include polls, quizzes, and comments.

Key lessons on engagement and innovation

• Know your audience

Every newsroom should identify and take into account the preferences of its readers. In Moldova, for example, some newsrooms specialise in investigative reporting or feature stories. The lesson here is clear: know why your audience chooses you. “Our experience shows that sometimes, readers are drawn to our site by the compelling stories of specific authors,” says Galușca. 

Right now, they keep an eye on the usual things like pageviews and time spent on the site. “But what’s special is that we also track which journalists get the most attention compared to the content they create based on pageviews per content ratio. This helps us see who generates the best content,” explains Galușca. 

• Embrace innovation

Galușca says that to him innovation starts with a simple question: What kind of website would I want to visit every day? Their journey into innovating the website was inspired by the engaging features of social media platforms that keep users coming back. “We aimed to integrate similar engaging elements into our site to make it more appealing and personal to our audience,” says Galușca. 

Innovation is not a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s about finding what resonates with your audience and your team. It involves continuous experimentation and adaptation. The essence of innovation lies in developing a website that not only you would love to visit but also one that speaks directly to the needs and interests of your audience. 

Source of the cover photo: courtesy of Agora

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