Ternopil newspaper "Volya" closes down

On December 13, the Terebovlya newspaper "Volya" (Terebovlya being a former district center in the Ternopil oblast. – Auth.), which has been in print since 1992, released their last printed issue.

The editor-in-chief, Anatoliy Tkach, announced this on the newspaper's Facebook page.

As the editor noted, the newspaper managed to survive the Covid restrictions period, but the situation predictably worsened after February 24, 2022.

"A new serious trial for Volya was the Russian horde's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The income from advertising, announcements, greetings dropped by almost 8–10 times. In order to sustain the newspaper, "Volya" scaled down from eight pages to four starting in the spring of 2022. Our employees' salaries hit a critically low level, the editorial expenses were reduced to a minimum. But we, same as everybody, lived for the hope that victory was not far away, and that with the victory, the normal life would be restored," wrote the Volya editor.

According to him, the Ukrposhta reform was the final nail in the coffin for the newspaper.

"Volya's print run dropped by almost 30% in the second half of 2023. And subscriptions were the team's primary source of income during wartime. In such a critical situation, starting October we had to switch to issuing the newspaper twice a month instead of four times. Desperate, the team did not announce the 2024 Volya subscription. The spark of light at the end of the tunnel has gone out," explained the editor-in-chief.

In the future, the media outlet will continue to report on the news in the community on its Facebook page.

Earlier, the Ternopil Oblast representative of the NCTRB, Oksana Novoselska, reported the closure of several newspapers. According to her, this is the situation in the oblast's former district centers: Lanivtsy, Kozova, Berezhany, Husyatyn and Zbarazh.