“Thanks to friends and the NUJU, it was possible to save the newspaper,” Pavlo Smovzh, editor of Ivankiv town Trybuna Pratsi newspaper

In the 46^th issue of the newspaper – the final one for the last year – I talked about the critical situation due to financial problems with its publishing. I even decided to stop publishing Trybuna Pratsi (a newspaper published in Ivankiv, Kyiv Region – Ed.). We could only hope for a miracle, as noted in the first version of the editor’s “farewell” blog.

And it [a miracle] has come… in clean and bright images of friends. Therefore, at the last moment – before sending the newspaper to the printer – it was necessary to formulate some paragraphs of the editor’s blog in a slightly different way. Which was written as a farewell…

And that’s why I made corrections to the previously written text.

First, one of our compatriots confirmed his intention to continue strongly supporting Trybuna Pratsi financially, for which I am very grateful! (But he asked not to mention his name. Good deeds, he says, are done quietly).

Secondly, again – I’ve lost count of times already! – Sergiy Tomilenko, the President of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), offered his reliable shoulder. It is precisely thanks to his help, as well as the assistance of the heads of the Academy of the Ukrainian Press, V. Ivanov, and A. Kovalenko, that the publication of the newspaper was financed almost all of last year. And so, in the last days of December, Serhii Antonovych [Tomilenko] put me in touch with the head of Ivano-Frankivsk TV and radio company RAI, Andrii Rusiniak, who provided Trybuna Pratsi with a one-time financial aid. The amount will allow to pay for printing services for four issues of the newspaper and, partially, the costs of their pre-press preparation. Thank you very much, colleagues!

By the way, thanks to the active and consistent position of the NUJU‘s President regarding the comprehensive support of local and regional newspapers in the front-line and de-occupied territories, more than 30 such publications in Ukraine have resumed their publishing and are regularly delivered to readers.

Thirdly, help came from where I did not expect it. Having learned about the problems of the Ivankiv newspaper, the wife of one of the hero-defenders of Ukraine, who was killed in Sloboda Kukharska in March 2023, transferred a certain amount for its support. A huge THANKS, dear Nataliya! (She also asked not to mention her last name).

In such a way, it became possible to talk about the publishing of Trybuna Pratsi during the first three months of 2024.

The opportunity to publish the most important and relevant local information in the newspaper will remain. It is also the opportunity to post remarks and announcements the population, enterprises, institutions, organizations, and private entrepreneurs of Ivankiv and neighboring communities need.

This is extremely important today when there is nowhere else to address such questions in the large metropolitan district, which is the Vyshhorod one.

Unfortunately, I have to repeat: the press has become unnecessary for today’s government at all levels. (Why? You can see why in your everyday life…). Therefore, considerable real and potential opportunities for print media are not properly used. In particular, both as a channel of communication between the government and society and its rallying to speed up the victory over the aggressor and as one of the tools of conducting an information war against the enemy. That is why journalists themselves have to take care of the survival of printed publications in Ukraine. Is this a normal situation?!

One of the examples of the participation of our newspaper in conveying the truth to its readers, informing them as fully as possible, can be seen and read on page 3 of the first issue of Trybuna Pratsi-2024. There will be a story about today’s situation on the border with Belarus.

NB: Proposals for financial assistance to continue the publication of Trybuna Pratsi in 2024 are accepted – both from citizens and business structures. That is, from everyone who understands the importance of preserving the printed edition in the Ivankiv district.

It is about the need to keep print media, which many people need “afloat,” and not about supporting some business projects. The newspaper business is now even more unprofitable for publishers. As Ukrainian realities show, today’s print mass media, especially in wartime conditions, cannot be self-sufficient for objective reasons for them.

Charitable contributions to the publishing of the newspaper are accepted into the following bank account:

IBAN UA193220010000026006330003828, EDRPOU 1882610999.

JSC UNIVERSAL BANK, MFI 322001, EDRPOU of the bank 21133352.

Pavlo Smovzh, Trybuna Pratsi editor-in-chief