Succeeding in Challenging Environment: Fojo’s Conference for Eastern Europe

Hem/News/Succeeding in Challenging Environment: Fojo’s Conference for Eastern Europe

To increase your website’s traffic by 89% through meticulous work with analytics.
To report from remote villages in the mountains – and make people’s life better through public interest.
To struggle with falling subscription – but keep your local newspaper running and delivering quality journalism.

These are just some of the stories that were told at the Second Annual Experience Exchange Conference “Successful and Failed Cases in Media” organised by Fojo in Tbilisi, Georgia, in the end of September. 

Increasingly complex geopolitical situation, struggling economy, and attacks against the freedom of the press are the daily realities for media in Eastern Europe. Yet, as one participant of the conference puts it, “hard times and increasing competitiveness also means that we are looking for new tools and models, we are becoming more innovative, we set even higher standards on our journalism”. During the conference in Tbilisi, more than 60 media representatives from Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Georgia, Poland, Latvia, and Sweden gathered to share their best practices of surviving and succeeding as independent local media outlets.

Monetisation, native advertising, social media, and personal data – these were the topics that spurred the hottest discussions between the participants. At the same time, information about practical tools and tips found a grateful audience.

“There were so many practical and useful ideas that I was taking pictures all the time and recording some of the presentations. I actually started sending this material back to our editorial staff right away, so we could discuss and implement new tools immediately”, said one of the participants.