Financing Independent Media in Ukraine 2023: Salaries and Trends

The share of commercial sources of financing decreased significantly in 2022 and remains a smaller source of funding for most of the media outlets studied, compared to donor support. Thus, in half of the national media outlets reviewed, the commercial component ranged from 5% to 35%, along with donor funding and audience support, and in two cases it was completely absent or at 5%.

In two cases, which are part of the largest media holdings in Ukraine, we saw the opposite trend of fairly effective commerce activity, despite the decreasing advertising market for the entire country since the start of the full-scale war. One of the editorial teams reported a 95% share of commerce in its business model (and 5% audience support), while noting that donor funding is also attracted and used for the development and support of investigative journalism and highly specialised products based on collaborating with experts.

The second case among the largest editorial teams showed that commercial marketing tools are used alongside donor funding. Despite the emphasis on a fairly effective commercial income generation, both large media outlets attracted grant support and recollected their organisations' crisis management experience during the period of critical decline in profitability in 2022 and the recovery period in 2023.

Crisis measures taken by the largest editorial teams in 2022 were as follows:

relinquish the review and increases of salaries,

cancel the bonuses payment,

vacating rented office space or reducing it, etc.

Medium and small editorial teams often had to delay salary payments for one to several months. It was common practice for employees to work remotely to save on office rent.

Therefore, the oldest and largest media outlets in terms of size, recognition and credibility belong to the cluster of organisations with a lower level of proneness to crisis and greater resilience in times of war, compared to medium and small media outlets with a much more complicated financial situation and greater dependence on donor support. However, one of the large media outlets in our sample, with 80% of its business model being based on donor funding, can be described as a media outlet with a well-established business model due to its longstanding cooperation with donors (since 2015).

Among the components of commerce, the media outlets studied mentioned the following tools:

contextual and banner advertising;

content syndication (simultaneous distribution of content on various resources/portals);

direct sales of native advertising;

partnership projects;

membership model based on paid access (membership/paywall);

other ways of monetising traffic.

Among the listed commercial sources, various types of advertising are the most widespread tools, while not all media outlets are ready to use advertising on their websites.

Partnership projects and content syndication (simultaneous distribution of content on various resources/portals) along with advertising were mentioned mainly by the largest online media outlets. Non-advertising partnerships were common among niche media, particularly in the field of culture.

At the same time, an important trend for the commercial component was an increase in 2023 compared to the first year of the full-scale war. This was stated by the heads of half of the surveyed editorial teams. Some of them predicted a further increase in the share of commercials in their financial support models for 2024. YouControl, a Ukrainian online analytical system for business analytics, competitive intelligence and counterparty verification, noted that the largest online media outlets in our sample, which formed a cluster of financially successful ones, increased their revenue by 110-130% in 2023 compared to 2022.

In terms of paid access (paywall or membership in a closed club), two of the eight media outlets surveyed identified it as a significant source of revenue (alongside other commercial sources), with one of the major media outlets indicating that it was ready to introduce a paywall on its website in 2024.

Summing up the key trends in the commercial components of media outlets’ business models, it is worth noting the critically high level of uncertainty regarding financial planning in times of war.

All of the medium, small and niche media outlets in Kyiv that were interviewed, which employed up to 50 people, did not have a financial plan for 2023. They relied on donor support and sought projects on a monthly basis, and were dependent on them. Among large media outlets (50 to 150 employees), the planning horizon was no more than one year in 2023 and one month in 2022.

Only 12% of local media outlets, out of 24 surveyed media outlets that described their models in detail, were funded by commercial activities in 2023. The share of commerce in such media outlets ranged from 75 to 90%, along with donor support and/or audience support. In 8% of local media outlets, the business model contained equal shares of donor support and commerce. Our sample shows that the local media outlets that effectively use commerce are mostly located in the west of Ukraine. Editorial teams from other regions indicated the share of advertising in their models ranging from 1% to 20% (editorial teams from the centre and south).

Advertising remains the main commercial tool in the local media outlets. The outlets from the west stressed that the advertising market did not work in the first half of 2022, but began to recover in the second half of 2022. In an in-depth interview, one editorial team from the west indicated that advertisers' needs changed in 2023, with more demand for advertising on social media, primarily Telegram, as opposed to advertising on online media websites.

Donor support in times of war and financial crisis has helped independent editorial teams in Ukraine to survive. Our case studies focused on the role of donor support in the financial support of media outlets and remuneration in 2022-2023 and the conclusions drawn by the editorial teams based on their experience. Among the eight cases in our sample, four media outlets had their first experience of receiving grants in 2022, while the other four were fully or partially supported by grants before the outbreak of full-scale war. In 7 of the 8 media outlets studied, donor support brought them between 30% and 95% of their revenue in 2023. In general, all surveyed media outlets were working with donors as of 2023.

For some media outlets (4 out of 8 cases), the purpose of receiving donor support was to survive and meet basic needs, mainly ensuring salaries for staff. These teams often refused to make any other expenditures, such as office rent or equipment purchases, and experienced delays in paying salaries. The search for grant opportunities was constant, and the administrative burden of reporting and constant new commitments was high.

The other part of the media outlets in the dataset (2 out of 8 cases) had a little more stability in their work with donors. These editorial teams cooperated with donors from 2015-2018. The grants they received were more institutional than project-based, or a combination of both. At the same time, these media outlets were also constantly looking for new funding opportunities because of the increased costs of operating in a time of war.

The remaining editorial teams (2 out of 8) used donor support mainly for development purposes – partly to create an emergency salary fund, to develop areas of journalistic investigations (which are in high demand but require a lot of resources), for non-profit socio-political and economic projects, and for video production (which are also in high demand and resource-consuming).

The constant need to find new grants has become a regular agenda for most editorial teams we interviewed. For some of them, project grants aimed at implementing a specific project have become an opportunity to maintain their existence. Nonetheless, such grants impose additional administrative obligations on the teams and change existing priorities of work, or even suspend them altogether. Project grants were often combined with training and hiring new staff. It was also common for editorial teams to combine several projects at the same time. Completion of some projects meant the search for new ones and new editorial transformations. An issue reported by all media outlets with a high share of donor funding was the short-term nature of grants and the lack of institutional funding that could allow the media to develop integrally.

The full-scale war has left media outlets vulnerable in every Ukraine’s region. One of the media outlets we approached as part of this research was in the process of partially closing its production and laying off part of its staff because of a lack of funding. Military service draft and staffing issues, saving funds on office rent, introduction of remote work mode and the constant need for donor support have put some media outlets in what some have called a "war for funding". Some outlets noted that the workload on their teams was much greater than they could handle, primarily because of a lack of staff and the inability to plan long-term personnel policies and invest in the training and development of specialists involved in short-term projects. Some editorial teams also noted issues in assessing the real cost of projects.

All media outlets with a high level of donor support in their financial support models have noted the absolute need to attract donor support in the future and are looking for opportunities to receive institutional support.

Thus, donor assistance for media organisations has become both an opportunity and a challenge in the context of war. The multiple increase in supply has enabled more organisations to continue to exist. At the same time, the donor support market has changed compared to the period of 2014-2021. The dynamics and experience of media organisations during the full-scale war of 2022-2023 also changed. As of the end of 2023, there were clusters of media organisations that had the stable experience of working with donors, as well as those whose experience was chaotic. Our sample of national media outlets based in Kyiv also demonstrated greater difficulties in obtaining grants among niche media, particularly in the field of culture.

Similar to the national level, small local media outlets have critically increased their dependence on donor support because of the full-scale war and the consequences of a shrinking advertising market. A survey of 24 local media outlets showed that about 76% of online media outlets have between 70% and 100% donor funding in their models. Most media outlets noted their dependence on grant support after the outbreak of the full-scale war, primarily because of a critical shortage of resources for remuneration and low salaries.

Similarly to national-level media organisations, the war-related workload of professionals in the local media outlets did not decrease in 2023. The level of crisis remained high. At the regional level, donor support for most editorial teams has become the only way to ensure the level of salaries established in the regions. Media outlets are also unable to provide their employees with remuneration that is aligned with the complexity of the work they do. This also applies to those editorial offices that do not receive grant support and yet operate in the high danger zone in Ukraine’s east and provide access to information from these areas close to the combat actions.

All surveyed media outlets defined audience support broadly in the period of 2022-2023. It included two main sources: 1) regular readers – subscribers, members of clubs and membership programmes organised by the media, and 2) charitable contributions, both regular and one-off, including those received through crowdfunding campaigns using Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee, etc. platforms, as well as direct bank transfers. All 100% of the media outlets included in the case study had experience in these two areas.

There was a large-scale wave of support for Ukrainian media organisations from audiences in Ukraine and abroad in 2022. Some media outlets considered such support to be one of their main sources of income in the first year of the full-scale war. The share of audience support revenue reported by national media outlets ranged from 5% to 30% of revenue. The largest media outlets reported 5%, while smaller and medium-sized media outlets reported up to 30% (one small outlet working with English-speaking audiences reported 40% in the first year of the full-scale war). However, there was a critical decrease in this wave in 2023. For instance, one of the media outlets reported a decrease in the share of membership fees in revenues from 20% to 5%, while another reported a “several times” decrease.

Therefore, there was a change in the distribution of income sources for most of the surveyed media outlets in 2023 compared to 2022. This is a common characteristic that unites all editorial teams. Nevertheless, the plans of how to respond to the dynamics of change in the context of the war were different for the leaders of each of them.

It is worth noting that there are a variety of ways local media outlets raise funds, primarily through community outreach. Despite the fact that audience support in only 2 of the 32 media outlets that responded had a significant impact on the financial support of local media outlets (up to 20%), community outreach was a key characteristic of 2022-2023.

A large number of media outlets reported a share of audience support of 1-2% due to work with communities (from organising charity events and working with Patreon and Buy Me a Coffee). At the same time, during in-depth interviews, some local media outlets noted that they do not urge their audience to support them with contributions, but instead raise funds for the army.

Among the formats that media organisations have identified as priorities for 2024 are:

video content;

development of their own brand;

work with direct traffic to websites;

work with communities;

English-language content.

One of the surveyed media outlets identified its readiness to launch a paywall, while others did not see such an opportunity in the coming years. At the same time, most of our case studies indicated the intention to work more with communities and develop media clubs and membership subscriptions.

The specialists slated for potential hiring in 2024, or for whom vacancies have already been posted by surveyed national media, comprise PR specialists, media marketers, community managers, video content creation specialists, including multipurpose specialists who can combine the roles of producer, editor and journalist.

Similar to small and medium-sized editorial teams at the national level, most local media outlets have a reserve of resources that will be enough for them for a period of time ranging from 0 to 6 months. This reserve is mainly supported by short-term grants, and these outlets constantly seek out new funding opportunities. The resource reserve can be irrelevant for those media outlets that are self-sustaining. Within our regional-level sample, such media are those relying on commercial instruments for financial support (about 12% of local editorial teams). The staff shortage remains a problem for editorial teams at both the central and regional levels (MDF has analysed this phenomenon in detail in its annual study, The State of Local News in Ukraine 2023).

Local editorial teams have most frequently mentioned the following formats that they plan to develop for monetisation purposes:

video content;

formats adapted to various social networks;

working with communities and reader clubs of their media outlets.

Some regional editorial teams have faced challenges in financial planning regarding the future of their organisations.

Studying the media at the national level, we put forward the question: "What is the lowest and highest salary a journalist can receive in your media organisation?" We requested an explanation of the job description of the journalists who receive the lowest and highest salaries. By doing so, we provided the media with an opportunity to define the concept of a journalist and their duties in editorial teams, as well as to explain the difference in salaries. Additionally, we comprehensively analysed the structure of the surveyed media.

Smaller organisations have generally offered significantly lower salaries than large media outlets. One of the cases we have studied was established during the war, with the journalists there mainly working as volunteers. They were paid UAH 5,000 monthly, while the editor-in-chief earned UAH 20,000.

The survey found that the lower salary threshold for small media outlets (up to 30 people) in Kyiv (the capital of Ukraine) is UAH 15,000, and the upper is UAH 30,000. Among the cases we have studied, the lowest salaries were paid to news reporters and journalists who cover breaking news without editing it. Experienced journalists who also perform editorial functions can receive a salary of up to UAH 30,000.

In medium-sized media outlets (30 to 100 employees) in Kyiv, the lower threshold for journalists' salaries starts at UAH 18,000, while the upper reaches UAH 50,000. Journalists working on the news feed, employees without editorial or other additional functions, earn the least. Investigative journalists (2 out of 8 of our cases had investigative departments), as well as videographers and drivers in investigative departments, earn UAH 40,000-50,000, as they work irregular hours.

In addition, war correspondents travelling to the front line from Kyiv receive a salary of around UAH 40,000. The expenses associated with the trips of national-level journalists to the front lines include insurance (up to UAH 20,000 per person), transport costs, paid overtime on business trips, and videographer and driver fees. Things are much different in the regional hubs in Ukraine's east, where journalists work close to the front line (see the description of regional salaries for more details).

The versatility of journalists was mentioned in each of the interviewed cases. Specifically, journalists who also perform the functions of producers received the upper end of the salary scale, as did journalists who combined editorial and managerial functions.

Working with video is also among the highest-paid jobs. One of the media outlets actively engaged in video content production outlined the critical responsibilities of all-rounder employees: production, producing, overseeing editing teams, drafting shot lists, and supervising the final video product after editing (Media No.1, Kyiv).

Some media outlets provided additional bonuses and benefits in 2023, especially given the complexity of the tasks. Most media outlets reported that all additional payments were suspended in 2022.

Some mid-sized media outlets tend to equalise salaries. One such media outlet has the following remuneration mechanism for journalists: their basic salary is UAH 20,000 for five articles per month (a portion is deducted if a text has not been produced). All heads of departments (editorial and production, communication, design, etc.) get an identical salary of UAH 25,000. The same equalisation also applied to salary raises.

Therefore, the prevailing trend is that journalists working on news feeds are paid the least, while jack-of-all-trades employees, investigative journalists and war correspondents at the national level are paid more. At the same time, all large and medium-sized media outlets noted the importance of increasing journalists' salaries.

Another notable characteristic of journalists who receive the highest salaries at the largest national media outlets is their network of connections. This is especially true for journalists working on business topics, where the remuneration is the highest.

In terms of remuneration for other specialists, which we identified based on conversations with media executives and whose responsibilities are relatively stable, the ranges (from and to) were quite wide. They show the wide gap between the remuneration of the same professionals in smaller and larger media outlets.

Sales managers stand out among the professionals shown in the graph, with their salaries often higher than those of editors-in-chief and media executives. For the latter, the large difference is attributed to the organisation's size.

The English-language pages of the surveyed media outlets' websites are most often staffed by translators (with their salaries ranging from UAH 15,000 to UAH 25,000), while a critical minority of media outlets employ native speakers, frequently on a volunteer basis, with salaries of up to UAH 35,000 (US$909 as of 20 February 2024). It should be noted that our sample does not include Ukrainian specialised English-language media outlets, and the situation may be different there.

There are two types of professionals whose salaries are least affected by the size of media organisations: SMM specialists (salary ranges from UAH 15,000 to UAH 35,000, with local editorial teams indicating an average of UAH 20,000 remuneration for SMM specialists) and newsfeed editors, whose salaries are the lowest among all media professionals.

Some media outlets are actively looking for new team members and point to a staff crisis.

Some media outlets also revealed the salaries they are offering to reinforce their teams with new employees. The range is from UAH 20,000 (SEO specialists) to UAH 40,000 (website chief editor).

In two out of eight cases, media executives who also served as editors-in-chief indicated that they were the ones who did not receive salaries during the crisis.

Our sample has revealed a higher level of proneness to crisis and staff shortages at the regional level. Employee migration, military service draft and low salaries emerged as the main reasons for the staff outflow. Meanwhile, the workload of media professionals has increased many times over.

Over 50% of local editorial teams do not employ correspondents and reporters full-time. The salaries of these specialists vary greatly as in 11% of editorial teams, they are paid up to UAH 10,000, in 16% – from UAH 10,000 to 15,000, in 10% – from UAH 15,000 to 20,000, and in 8% – over UAH 20,000;

Editors earn between UAH 10,000 and 20,000 in 51% of media outlets , over UAH 20,000 in 21% of media outlets, and less than UAH 10,000 in 5%

Social media managers receive a salary in the range of UAH 10,000 to 20,000 in almost 60% of editorial teams;

SEO specialists are engaged as freelancers to perform one-time website audits (73% of surveyed editorial teams do not employ them full-time). Among those hired full-time, the most common salary is up to UAH 10,000 at the regional level (16%);

Video content creators mostly receive between UAH 10,000 and 15,000 (35%), while 32% of editorial teams do not employ video specialists on a full-time basis;

51% of editorial teams do not engage designers full-time. They are paid up to UAH 10,000 in 21% of editorial teams and UAH 10,000-15,000 in 16%;

56% of local editorial teams have advertising managers on staff, whose salaries are varied between the under UAH 10,000 and UAH 15,000-25,000 ranges;

Accountants in 30% of editorial teams earned up to UAH 10,000, and from UAH 10,000 to 20,000 in 41%;

Editors-in-chief in 27% of media outlets have salaries of between 15,000 and UAH 20,000, while 43% of media outlets pay them UAH 20,000 to 30,000;

The salaries of executives are distributed in similar proportions across all categories. Around 41% of media outlets have an editor-in-chief with a UAH 20,000-30,000 salary.

The graph does not reflect the editorial teams that have not answered the question about their employees' salaries.

We have also noted differences in the regional breakdown of salaries. A comparison of journalists'/authors' salaries by region, according to the editorial teams' location, revealed that Ukraine's west, east and south have lower average salaries than the centre and north.

The lowest freelance payment for a single task among the eight national media outlets was UAH 800 (short reviews). The highest minimum pay was reported at UAH 3,000. Such remuneration was offered for photos from the scene of events, audio transcription, brief reports or full-fledged stories of low complexity.

The most common response regarding the maximum remuneration for freelancers per assignment was between UAH 3,000 and 4,000 (3 out of 8 interviews). However, other media outlets may offer even higher amounts – ranging from UAH 5,000 to 15,000. Editorial teams are willing to pay such sums for major investigations or implementation of grant projects. Additionally, freelancers may receive this compensation for performing duties of the head of a film crew, carrying out trips related to this, and producing a story. Media executives also mentioned lawyers and accountants as freelancers who are engaged occasionally.

Notably, remuneration for materials for English-language websites is slightly higher than for those in Ukrainian. For example, one of the media outlets we surveyed offers UAH 1,200 for a piece in Ukrainian and UAH 3,000 for a similar assignment in English. Payments for commercial materials are also higher (spanning from UAH 4,000-6,000 to UAH 15,000 for native advertising and UAH 16,000 for targeted advertising, respectively, as stated by two media outlets).

The majority of the surveyed local editorial teams regularly engage freelancers. Some cooperate with freelancers ad hoc, while others have never worked with them. Four of the seven media outlets interviewed for this report engaged freelancers regularly; two did so occasionally, and two did not at all. Of the 37 media outlets surveyed, 27 (73%) indicated working with freelancers. The areas where editorial teams engaged freelancers included longreads and news reporting, photography and video, legal services, and accounting. Some of the specific tasks for freelancers included maintaining office equipment, creating layouts for longreads, and producing complex video stories.

The average pay rate for a single story ranged from UAH 2,000 to 3,000 for more complex tasks, including analytical and investigative pieces and videos. Meanwhile, 22% of editorial teams paid more, from UAH 3,000 to UAH 11,000 (for large grant projects).

All but the two largest national media outlets reported spending between 70% and 100% of their revenues on staff salaries. The two largest and oldest national media outlets (shown first in the graph) reported shares of 50% and 30%, respectively.

On the regional level, 82% of editorial teams spend over 75% of their revenues on staff salaries, while 36% allocate more than 90%. The majority of media outlets indicated their intention to work to reduce the payroll burden on editorial team’s revenues.

We asked editorial teams about their subjective perception of the average salary of a journalist in Ukraine. The range of opinions varied from UAH 18,000 to UAH 50,000. The most frequently mentioned rates were UAH 25,000 (US$650), UAH 30,000 (US$780) and UAH 35,000 (US$910 as of 21 February 2024).

Responding to the question of whether the pay rates in the media organisation correspond to the level of the average market salary of a journalist, which they determined themselves, three out of seven national-level cases indicated that it "corresponded", two media outlets answered that it was "slightly lower", and two more said that it was "slightly higher". One of the two niche media within the cultural sector featured in our study indicated that their salaries aligned with the average market rates in the cultural sector (UAH 18,000-20,000) while emphasising that "it's impossible to live on such amounts" (Media No.7, Kyiv).

The subjective assessments made by the organisations' executives are consistent with the overall trends observed in the data we have gathered through in-depth case studies and surveys. However, it is essential to understand that media outlets that consider their salaries to be in line with or slightly higher than the market average have critically different actual salary figures, which can differ by as much as two times. This reflects the high level of market diversity at the national level, with organisations of different sizes standing in separate clusters. The cluster comprising the largest Ukrainian online media is critically distant from the clusters of all other media organisations. Similarly, clusters of media outlets in different areas are significantly far apart, with culture and business media being at opposite ends of the scale in terms of salaries and financial security.

The comments from media organisations also indicate that the correspondence of salaries to what respondents consider to be the average market level cannot be equated with satisfactory pay in journalism. It rather shows the range within which journalists and media organisations operate in the crisis environment.

At the same time, the challenge in times of crisis is to ensure the timely payment of salaries in line with the level set by the media market. Answering the question of what the media most often lack funds for, the most frequent answer was "salaries". This concerned all national-level media outlets employing up to 30 people, except for the cluster containing the largest outlets. Next to salaries, the items most often lacking in media are office spaces (some media outlets do not have any office space at all) and equipment.

The subjective assessment of salaries at the regional level ranges from UAH 10,000 to 40,000, with over 50% of organisations considering UAH 15-20,000 as the average market salary. 24% of editorial teams view UAH 10,000-15,000 as the average, while another 16% believe it to be UAH 20,000-25,000. 11% of editorial teams estimate that the average salary of a journalist is between UAH 20,000 and 30,000.

The comparison of the indicators of media organisations with their subjective assessment of the average salary in journalism reveals that 35% of media outlets consider their salaries to be market-based and in line with both the national and regional levels.

43% of local editorial teams consider salaries in their organisations slightly lower than the level across Ukraine, while 30% believe they are somewhat lower than the regional level. 19% of editorial teams view their salaries as significantly lower than the level across Ukraine and 8% – considerably lower than the regional level.

24% of editorial teams consider their salaries somewhat higher than the regional level, and 3% (1 organisation) – slightly higher than the level across Ukraine. 8% of editorial teams consider their salaries significantly higher than the regional level.

Awareness of the financial support of independent media organisations is a crucial component of media market transparency and institutional development in times of crisis. The period of 2022-2023 was both a challenge and an opportunity for Ukrainian editorial teams at the national and regional levels. An analysis of the financial support models of editorial teams and trends related to funding during a full-scale war has revealed that for small and medium-sized editorial teams at the central and regional levels, the biggest challenges are ensuring the remuneration of their employees, as well as the staff crisis associated with the departure of specialists, military service draft and low salaries, in particular in local media.

Donor support has enabled most editorial teams to retain their teams and continue working during the war. The demand for donor support remains critically high. The commercial component is effectively used in certain clusters, such as the largest and oldest Ukrainian media outlets and regions where the advertising market has been less affected by the crisis. The analysis of reader support showed a high level of community engagement and a variety of crowdfunding approaches to meet the needs of both editorial teams and Ukraine's Armed Forces through online media. Although reader support revenues were low, community engagement became a pivotal feature of 2022-2023.

Some of the main financial risks for certain editorial teams that we have identified as of November-December 2023 include:

limited opportunities to engage with the advertising market;

galvanised and chaotic development of media outlets due to the short-term nature and constant involvement of new grant projects;

exhaustion of staff members due to the constant pursuit of funding opportunities;

excessive administrative burden associated with grant support, particularly for small local media outlets;

lack of long-term institutional funding to enable long-term planning of activities;

low salaries among media professionals at the local level;

the expanding gap in remuneration between large national media outlets and smaller editorial teams;

shortage of staff due to the low levels of remuneration and other war-related factors

Most independent media outlets will prioritise addressing these risks, and their actions in response to them will shape the financial transformation of the independent online media market in 2024.

The research is based on data obtained through two priority methods: a survey and a case study. Their combination made it possible to comprehensively consider the financial support of media organisations and the factors that influenced the remuneration of journalists and other media workers in 2023.

The survey allowed us to measure the level of remuneration among professionals working in local media outlets, as well as to analyse financial opportunities and threats at the level of different regions of Ukraine.

The sample for the survey was based on the purposiveprinciple, which corresponds to the peculiarities of niche research (Neuman, 2014, p.273). The sample was selected on a non-randomised basis from independent local media outlets that cooperate with the Media Development Foundation. One of the key selection criteria for participating in MDF programmes is adherence to journalistic standards and independence of media organisations from external influences. MDF's research department determines the independence of media outlets by checking the beneficiaries and people involved in the media for political and business interests; assessing the amount and nature of tenders and public procurement with which the organisation works; and ensuring that media organisations adhere to professional standards.

The understanding of online media outlets in this research is the same as the definition contained in the Law on Media adopted in December 2022: "online media is a media that regularly spreads information in text, audio, audiovisual or other form in electronic (digital) form via the Internet on its own website [...]." Thus, the online media outlets included in our sample meet the legal definition of media, have their own website and regularly update it. Online media that interact with their audience only on social media (separate Telegram channels, Instagram accounts, Facebook pages, Youtube channels) are not represented in our sample.

In-depth semi-structured interviews with the heads of 7 local and 8 national independent media outlets allowed us to have a comprehensive look at the problem of financial support for independent media outlets in times of crisis. With an interest not only in the outcomes in terms of staff salaries but also in the decision making on financial plans and the factors behind them, we built an analysis of media financial support, looking at the following indicators:

shares of different sources of media funding and their characteristics;

factors behind decisions on remuneration of media professionals;

key changes that took place in 2022-2023;

salary budgets and their shares in annual financial plans;

plans for financial support models for 2024.

Similarly to the survey, the sampling for the case studies was based on the purposive principle (Neuman, 2014, p.273). Independent local and national media outlets that cooperate with the Media Development Foundation were selected in a non-randomised manner. In the case of case study sampling, an important factor was the outlet’s consent to an open and confidential discussion of the financial performance of their editorial team. Some of the outlets contacted by MDF researchers declined to discuss this range of topics. Thus, the media outlets included in the case study sample include:

Ukraine's largest and oldest national-level online media outlets with a high level of financial stability;

medium-sized and financially stable national media outlets;

niche national media outlets;

local media outlets from Ukraine’s west, centre, north, south and east.

Nonetheless, our research focuses not on organisations, but on people – journalists and other specialists, who face challenges that are growing not only because of changes in the media market in Ukraine and the war but also due to global media transformation trend.

The key variable of our research – a journalist's salary – was operationalised and analysed using elements of the positioning theory, borrowed from social psychology. In particular, we paid attention to the self-positioning of our respondents: how they define their positions, what words they use to describe their role and their capabilities in the media market (first-order positioning). Positioning theory also offers an insight into how self-positioning changes under the influence of interactions with other individuals and groups in the social environment – second-order positioning (Hirvonen, 2016). Therefore, the behaviour of media organisations in terms of remuneration is the result of the interaction of at least two orders of self-positioning. Salaries are seen not only as a constant value in this research (like remuneration for the work performed by an employee) but also as part of the dynamic self-positioning of editorial teams in the media market during the crisis.

In the questions aimed at measuring the level of salaries, we asked our respondents – media executives – to indicate not only the range of salaries, but also to describe in detail the types of work performed by different specialists, as well as to explain the structure of media organisations and the factors that influence the formation of salaries. We were able to identify two important indicators – the lowest and highest salary threshold for online media journalists and explain the difference between them.

At the same time, we outlined the range of understandings of the journalist's professional responsibilities among the respondents in our sample. One of the key challenges of this research was the tendency towards universalisation of professional roles, the dynamics of new specialisations, the combination of several professional roles into one and the blurring of differences in the work of different employees. Therefore, an important component of the research is the self-positioning of editorial teams and explanation of salaries in terms of the responsibilities assigned to different team members. Given that the same type of work in different media organisations can be performed by professionals with different positions and different self-identifications, we asked our respondents to outline the responsibilities of different positions in the teams and their level of remuneration. We also asked our respondents to provide their subjective assessment of the average salary of a journalist in Ukraine, which helped us to understand how the media perceive the financial circumstances for themselves and other media in the Ukrainian media market.

When conducting in-depth interviews, we used grounded theory, which allows us to build interviews dynamically, in particular, to add questions based on the answers the researcher has already received from respondents (Folei et al, 2021). We also used the principle of saturation, which allows us to determine the number of interviews needed based on an analysis of the richness of the data already obtained and an understanding of the added value of each subsequent interview (Hennink et al). The interviews lasted 40-80 minutes. The researchers used semi-structured guides to find out the specifics of financial support for each media outlet and at the same time compare the cases included in our sample. It was the case study method that made it possible to identify the diversity of approaches to financial support for editorial teams at different levels and the range of factors behind the financial decisions of media organisations. At the same time, we were able to trace the dynamics of 2022-2023 thanks to the openness of our respondents about their experience during the full-scale war.

Research limitations

This research should not be considered representative of all independent local and national online media outlets. There is no comprehensive database of such media outlets in Ukraine that is available to the public at the moment. Therefore, it is impossible to build a representative sample. The sample includes media outlets from the Media Development Foundation network, while editorial teams that do not cooperate with relevant NGOs are not represented in this research. It can be assumed that the situation in such media outlets is even more complicated than in those that cooperate with MDF and other media organisations.

Given the sensitivity of the topic of financial support, we ensure the anonymity of the media organisations in our sample, so we do not reveal an open list of the editorial teams we spoke to and that filled out our survey.

Nevertheless, the research methodology allows us to explore the approaches and methods used by Ukrainian media outlets at the local and national levels to financially sustain their existence during the full-scale war. Based on this understanding, the methodology lets measure and explain the formation of salaries among journalists and other media professionals.

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