Success Stories of IREX U-Media Program

Dankor Newpaper in Sumy expands the size of its adverstizement section: After participating in a set of IREX U-Media trainings devoted to newspaper management in July 2005, Dankor newspaper (Sumy) expanded the size of its "business review" insert. This insert, which consisted completely of advertising, was printed on 24 pages with dichromatic front and back pages. Now it has 36 pages, with polychromatic front and back pages. The newspaper also publishes commercial ads on its pages, and for now, overall, advertising takes up more than 90% of the space.

U-Media partner creates a new newspaper: On June 1, 2005, IREX U-Media partner RIA Corporation (Vinnytsia) launched a new daily newspaper “20 Minutes.” On  May 29, 2005, RIA corporation launched a large promotion campaign “Birthday of RIA and of YOUR daily newspaper”. More than 50,000 people took part in the RIA promotion campaign (the population of Vinnytsia is 350 000).  The concept of RIA Corporation’s daily newspaper was drafted under the supervision of IREX U-Media’s Oleg Khomenok.

Ukrainian Newspaper top managers learn to apply consumer-oriented approach to Media Business: as a result of a three-day IREX U-Media workshop in Feodosia (11-13 of April) devoted to identifying, occupying and holding a market niche, fifteen participants, primarily editors and deputy editors representing 14 local newspapers newspapers from  Ternopil, Khmelnitskiy, Rivne, Melitopol, Kramatorsk, Kremenchug, Ismaiyl Dniprozderzhinsk and Zaporizhzhia, participated in a training on conducting readership research and identifying their readers using quantitative and qualitative readership surveys, questionnaires for CATI research as well as ways to interpret survey data. As a result of the workshop conducted by Oleg Khomenok (U-Media trainer) and Iryna Prokopyuk (editor of “Kafa” newspapers, Feodosiya), participant- newspapers designed a strategic plan for their own readers’ surveys, based on local needs assessments, including results of GfK-USM.

U-Media targeted newspapers show tangible results after extensive participation in U-Media trainings.  As a result of participation in trainings provided by IREX U-Media, two targeted newspapers from Eastern Ukraine (RIA Corporation) and Kafa newspaper (Feodosiya, Crimea) improved their positions as regional media market leaders.  Kafa newspaper increased its circulation by 5,000 copies and reached 35,000. Advertising revenue showed a 135 % increase by March 2005. Kafa extended delivery routes in eastern Crimea and accessed new markets in the neighbouring city of Kerch as well as in a group of smaller villages. RIA Corporation’s (Vinnytsia) corporate advertising department achieved 10% growth.  Extensive training resulted in skyrocketing circulation:  from 24 000 copes to 36 000 copes this year.