Suspilne plans to hire over 50 hyperlocal correspondents in 15 regions

Suspilne Broadcasting plans to hire over 50 reporters in 15 regions in 2024 as part of their efforts to develop a hyperlocal correspondents network. The network will be built from scratch in 12 oblasts, and is to be further strengthened in three: Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv, according to the broadcaster's website.

In May to September 2025, the broadcaster's team will be meeting with active citizens in 82 communities across Ukraine to find journalists who will report on their cities on Suspilne platforms. Suspilne Broadcasting team plans to organize open in-person meetings in communities in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Zakarpattia, Zhytomyr, Volyn, Chernivtsi, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohradska, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.

"Become the Voice of the Community". Collage by Suspilne Broadcasting

At these meetings, media professionals will explain how the hyperlocal network works, what tasks its correspondents perform, and invite proactive members of the communities to register and take free online training in general journalism by completeng a Prometheus course. The best graduates will be employed and become Suspilne correspondents in their communities.

“We see how the hyperlocal network works: correspondents cover important topics, communities receive more high-quality information, and Suspilne expands our access to independent news in the regions. We see that for communities this means getting a voice in the media environment. So we continue to look for people who know what their city is going through, who notice what is important and are ready to talk about it,” says Suspilne manager Yevhenia Haifer, who is responsible for implementing the project.

It was reported in August 2024 that Suspilne Broadcasting is creating a training course in general journalism, which will be available on the online education platform Prometheus, as part of their plan to build a network of hyperlocal correspondents.