We live in troubled times for newsmaking — media organisations face declining revenues, rising polarisation and frequent workforce shortages. It is not easy to keep a passion project alive and well in such an environment. Yet idea-driven newsrooms keep on finding sustainable ways and motivation to deliver news to the communities they are serving. How do they do it?

We asked four media managers how they turned their passion projects into working ones – and what they wished they had known before starting the business journey.

You will have to find your niche

Irina Shlaeva worked at legacy media organisations in Moldova before starting LIK TV in her native town of Rybnitsa, within the disputed territory of Transnistria. The region is not internationally recognised as an independent state, so local enterprises can barely rely on outside funding. Despite fluctuating income levels, the modest newsroom of 2 to 3 multitasking journalists has found enough support to be putting out content for 10 years now and boasts 24,700 subscribers on YouTube – more than half of the town’s population of almost 48,000.

*Irina Shlaeva and Oleg Slobodyanyuk of LIK TV covering a community event in Rybnitsa, May 2023. Courtesy of Irina Shlaeva*

That’s because the newsroom fulfils an essential role of providing local news in an environment where no one else does it, Shlaeva told The Fix.

“People here are interested in small things,” she said. “A neighbourhood without electricity or a trash can that’s turned over and unusable.” By assuming an essential role, Shalaeva manages to monetise the need for news production and collaborate with community organisations in Moldova.

Similarly, Gianluca Liva, an experienced Italian journalist, saw the lack of climate coverage in the country and leaped to take the spot with RADAR Magazine, an online outlet covering the climate crisis, the environment and social justice in Italy and neighbouring countries.

*Screen grab of an investigative piece from RADAR Magazine about PFAS pollution in Venice. Courtesy of Marta Frigeiro*

Radar Magazine started out by applying to smaller local grants to build credibility within Italy. Emboldened with that his team then approached publications in Germany and France and landed joint investigative projects on environmental hazards. With niche reporting, the magazine now has 50,000 visitors per month and consistently keeps page read rates at four minutes.

“You need to decide, precisely, what your main objective is and where you want to be in a couple of years,” Marta Frigerio, the current editor-in-chief of RADAR Magazine said about the process. “And you have to prepare everything before jumping in.”

It is not only about journalistic skills

Despite prior experience and preparation however, Liva admits RADAR Magazine started as a naive passion project. He had a team of experienced journalists but they were not prepared for non-journalistic aspects of making a business work.

“What we missed was the entrepreneurial side,” Liva said. “And after three weeks, we realised that maybe we have to learn something about economics, or how to deal with your accountant and the invoices you receive – all practical, really practical things.”

Results won’t be instant

Ervin Gűth already had a steady job and savings before starting Mecseki Müzli, a Hungarian newsletter providing a “healthy diet” of verified local news combatting government propaganda. Despite being small – with about 700 subscribers – the newsletter enjoys an 80% open rate for paid readers. The free version sees a consistent open rate of 60%. Yet, finding a loyal reader base took longer than Gűth expected.

“I started this project without any external funding, only my money and my time was the investment,” he told The Fix. “My initial idea was that growth would be a bit faster.” For 1.5 years he worked alone and only managed to pay off his own expenses.

After receiving external grants Mecseki Müzli could afford to hire two trainees. Now Gűth is taking his time to onboard them and share his editorial views.

“Onboarding a team also took longer than expected,” he said. But this time he knows patience will pay off. Instead of focusing on quick numbers, the team is willing to perfect the newsletter and keep the loyal readership engaged for months to come.

Not all platforms will work for you

When first tackling the question of growth, Mecseki Müzli realised there was no recipe for success on social media.

“In Hungary, easy growth on social media was possible two or three years ago, but you can’t do it now.” Gűth told The Fix. “You can’t compete with government spending on advertising.”

So the newsletter decided to save funds on ads and switch to word of mouth promotion. Gűth asks subscribers to spread the word and does call outs at community events in his hometown. The approach might attract less traffic than a social media campaign, but Gűth says he prefers to see organic growth, as visitors tend to come back and “stick with the newsletter.”

Alternatively, LIK TV credits its growth to Facebook exposure. Shlaeva remembers that she was first reluctant to move away from the YouTube channel and post on the social platform. Yet the compromise brought her real growth over time.

“If we knew that a simple photo could be content, we would have done it earlier,” Shlaeva told The Fix. With regular presence on Facebook she managed to drive viewers to the YouTube channel and increase views from 50 to a thousand a day.

You will need to keep the team spirit up

Zsofi Borsi started Lazy Women during the COVID-19 lockdown, when she and her friends at the Central European University were looking for meaningful ways to stay productive. The small venture turned into an online feminist platform with a reach of 20,000 per month and 65 volunteer contributors from across Europe and Central Asia – suddenly, Borsi found herself managing a big team.

At first Borsi tried to maintain “a fully horizontal” management style with no strict deadlines and an open workflow. But she quickly found that she could not be too lax with contributors.

“You need some elements of the organised work culture,” Borsi said. Lazy Women established work groups and gave certain members more executive and overseeing responsibilities.

Working fully online, team engagement was another challenge. Borsi used Slack channels that were not work-related and encouraged team members to get to know each other. Then, she set regular office hours.

“As a founder you have the role to keep the team active and motivated, you need to energise them.” Borsi said. “I wish I knew from the start how important it is to check in with contributors individually.”

Now Lazy Women is adjusting to the post-pandemic reality. Team members interact mostly virtually, but have opportunities to get together for community events across Europe to foster a sense of belonging.

It won’t always be fun and games

Turning an idea into a working project will be a sobering experience – all four media managers told The Fix how they reconsidered management styles, tools or editorial approaches they were using. Despite different locations and missions they all had a theme in common – work in today’s media is not straightforward and one can’t cover all the bases.

“Put like this it sounds like a failure,” said Marta Frigerio of RADAR Magazine. “But we wanted to be very honest, because you read those success stories of start-ups and might think it was really easy. No, it has been difficult.”

“You have all those ideas, but then you will have to be realistic,” Zsofi Barsi of Lazy Women agreed. “But you don’t have to deal with everything on your own. Find the right people and empower them to become responsible instead of managing everything and everyone alone. That’s what will make you sustainable in the long run.”

Editor’s note: this article was corrected to note that Mecseki Müzli has 700 subscribers, not 700 paid subscribers.

Source of the cover photo: Team of Lazy Women at Pride Budapest 2023, by Kinga Gárdonyi, Courtesy of Zsofi Borsi

venturing

Latest in venturing

7 challenges to consider before venturing into the media business in Europe