Problems of the regional online media: It's hard to ‘find people who could write quality materials’

Lack of financial resources and shortage of staff are the main problems encountered by the regional online press, as reported by participants in a round table discussion organised on Friday, 17 August, by the Association of Independent Press, which had provided support to five media startups during one year. Representatives of these institutions - Buzz.md (Drochia), Reper.md (Balti), Ialovnews.md (Ialoveni), Feedback.md (Basarabeasca) and Nokta.md (Comrat) met to discuss the challenges and perspectives of this type of press and how they can be overcome in the future.

Mihail Sirkeli, coordinator of Nokta.md project in the Gagauz autonomy, says he is finding it difficult to recruit professional media staff. ‘Though Comrat, like Balti, is an intellectual center and has an university, it is very difficult to find people who could write quality journalistic materials’, Sirkeli said.
According to him, young reporters avoid political issues, and not all journalists can cope with trolls’ attacks after writing about certain dignitaries in their materials. ‘You need to be psychologically resistant to criticism’, underscored Sirkeli, adding that the Gagauz autonomy has plenty of online resources, only that they are created by representatives of authorities or businessmen and are not meant to inform, but rather to influence the local processes. Unfortunately, as stated by the journalist from Comrat, the funding of those sites is non-transparent and their beneficiary owners are not known.

The founder of Reper.md portal, Iana Cornilov, also spoke about the lack of human resources as ‘many young people want to build their career away from Balti, away from Moldova actually, and it is very difficult to motivate them to participate in local projects’. The journalist also complained about the attitude of local authorities, reminding that a reporter from Reper.md was assaulted by a municipal councilor of Balti.
Another participant in the round table discussions, journalist Veaceslav Aftene, founder of Ialovnews.md news portal, believes that the regional online media could earn money by selling advertising space to more local businesses at a lower price. ‘From my communication with local business people I know they cannot afford advertising on national TV stations, hence our sites would be an opportunity for them. Since I started promoting them both on our website and on the Facebook group, economic operators are seeking my services’, underscored Aftene. Veaceslav Aftene first created a Facebook group, which now has about 10,000 members, and only recently founded the website.
Executive Director of the Association of Independent Press, Petru Macovei, stressed the importance of developing the regional press, especially in the context of the forthcoming parliamentary elections that will be held under the mixed electoral system. He drew attention to the fact that there were still regions in Moldova that did not have any local media and this gap should be covered with quality press, able to provide accurate and balanced information.

The five regional online media startups were launched and/or received assistance in a project implemented by AIP, with the support of the UK Government. Throughout the year, editorial offices were trained and assisted by mentors who worked with them from designing the website concept to preparing their development strategies.