Photo credit: mgukraine.com
The “Media Group Ukraine” has suspended the print edition “Segodnya” daily, as it is
reported on its site.
The latest issue of the daily will be published on September 27.
In the future, according to media group, the editorial office will exist as online edition and in the television broadcasting news in 24/7 mode.
“… The printed press distribution system has been actually dismantled, the price for printing has increased in currency terms, and the upward trend will persist. Readers in the regions often get the news of yesterday (or even of a week ago). Lately, the situation is only getting worse, and that’s why we suspend printing of the daily and we concentrate our efforts on the development of the web-based edition and TV news under the “Segodnya”’s brand. <…> Today's brand continues to live on and evolve in the new digital world, ”said Yevgeny Bondarenko, Director of Media Group Ukraine.
According to Andriy Romanenko, CEO of “Segodnya Multimedia”, over the past nine years the average weekly outreach of newspapers (daily + weekly) has decreased by 52%. At the same time, Internet outreach has increased by 60%.
“In Ukraine, many newspapers and magazines have been closed, and the remaining players in the market are no longer able to maintain the infrastructure necessary for its existence. Entire segments of the market have ceased to exist: subscribing agencies turned bankrupt, periodicals distribution networks turned bankrupt. Especially this is problem for remote regions, little towns with a population of less than 50 thousand, where people were used to read the newspapers. There is no point in printing a newspaper and not being able to distribute it. So we decided to suspend the issuing of the daily newspaper and to focus our efforts on the development of the web-based edition and TV news, ” he said.
Romanenko assured that all employees would be offered employment opportunities within the group or would be provided with fair conditions of dismissal.
