After a one-and-a-half-year hiatus, the first issue of the Kramatorsk City’s newspaper, Technopolis, was printed at the Vinnytsia printing house with the financial support of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and its foreign partners. The Ukrposhta state postal service will deliver part of the circulation to last year’s subscribers; the rest will be distributed via the retail network.
“We work as information volunteers and do not count on profits. But we have remained an independent publication for all 31 years, and people supported us with a penny,” said the deputy editor-in-chief of Technopolis Vira Iliyina in a comment to the NUJU information service. “In addition, we would like our company to continue working, so we have to pay people at least a small salary, and the state – at least small taxes.”
Vira Iliyina added that the first issue already contains some ads: it was submitted as soon as the advertiser got to know about the newspaper’s resumption.
The issue was published in black and white format on eight pages; the recommended cost for distribution is UAH 10.
Although the newspaper’s newsroom was relocated to Ivano-Frankivsk, the editor-in-chief, Oleh Kubar, points out that it has its own correspondents in Kramatorsk. Hence, the news arrives straight from their authors there.
There were good reasons for the relocation: the newspaper’s newsroom was hit by shells three times. In 2014, the building was utterly destroyed, and the newsroom restored all its property on its own. In 2015, the office’s windows were totally shattered. And in 2023, an explosive wave blew out the windows; the property was significantly damaged.
“Now we feel great support from colleagues and benefactors,” says Vira Iliyina. “It seems to me that we are helped by everyone who can so that we remain in the profession and our readers receive full-fledged, professional information. Thanks to donors, we received computer equipment, and we have now published the first issue. We were also supported by media colleagues from Kramatorsk. It’s just fantastic! We must be reborn!”
The editors plan to release the next issue in two weeks.
NUJU Information Service
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