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Type of site | News |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Headquarters | Kyiv,Ukraine |
| Owner | Ruslan Kivan, operating as Bisnesgroupp LLC |
| Editor | Bohdan Nahaylo, Chief Editor |
| CEO | Luc Chénier |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Not required |
| Launched | October 18, 1995; 30 years ago (1995-10-18)[1][2] |
| Current status | Active |
| ISSN | 1563-6429 |
TheKyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and most prominent English-language newspaper. It was founded in 1995 in Kyiv by American businessman Jed Sunden.[3]
In 2018, the publication was acquired by prominent Ukrainian businessman Adnan Kivan, founder of KADORR Group.[4]
On November 11, 2021, Luc Chénier returned to Kyiv Post as its CEO to rebuild, with his first hire being Bohdan Nahaylo as its Chief Editor. Within two months, Kyiv Post had doubled its readership, with a clear emphasis on being Ukraine's global voice and by focusing on theUSA,Canadian,UK, andEuropean Union markets. By year 3, Kyiv Post had 97% of its readership outside Ukraine, with an combined websites and social media viewership of more than 6 million viewers per month. In October 2023, Kyiv Post was the first news organisations in Ukraine to be given a 100% content transparency and accuracy rating for journalism standards according to global rating platform News Guard (others with a perfect 100% included The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal).[5]
Following the passing of Adnan Kivan in 2024, ownership of the newspaper passed to his son, Ruslan Kivan, who continues to develop the media project while maintaining its editorial independence and expanding its international presence. The newspaper’s CEO is Luc Chénier, and the Chief Editor is Bohdan Nahaylo.
TheKyiv Post headquarters is located at 68 Zhylianska Street, Kyiv.
Currently, the website is updated seven days a week, approximately 10 hours a day, and includesKyiv Post exclusive content, news and photos from wire services and aggregated articles from other news sources about Ukraine.
American Jed Sunden founded theKyiv Post weekly newspaper on 18 October 1995 and later createdKP Media for his holdings.[2] The newspaper, which went online in 1997, serves Ukrainian and expatriate readers with a general interest mix of political, business and entertainment coverage.
Historically, the editorial policy has supported democracy, Western integration and free markets for Ukraine. It has published numerous investigative stories, including coverage of the 2000 murder of journalistGeorgiy Gongadze, in which ex-Ukrainian PresidentLeonid Kuchma is a prime suspect; the 2004Orange Revolution, in which a massive public uprising blockedViktor Yanukovych from taking power as president after the rigged presidential election of 26 November 2004; the 2013–14EuroMaidan Revolution that overthrew Yanukovych as president; theRussian invasion of Crimea; thewar in the Donbas region; and Oligarch Watch.[6]
On 8 November 2021, the paper's website published a statement by owner Adnan Kivan announcing the temporary halt in operations of the newspaper claiming "One day, we hope to reopen the newspaper bigger and better." Reporters at theKyiv Post replied in a joint statement that the sudden closure came on the heels of Kivan's attempt to "infringe" on their editorial independence.[7] Some of these reporters founded a new English-language publication namedThe Kyiv Independent, which is funded by donations and published its first newsletter on 26 November 2021,[8] and its website on December 2.[9][10] Kivan later stated he intended to make the newspaper more advertisement-friendly.[11]
On 11 November 2021, Luc Chénier, whose background is in advertisement, was appointed as new CEO on theKyiv Post.[12][11] On 24 December 2021, Bohdan Nahaylo was appointed as new editor and the paper resumed publication.[13]
In 2024 Following the passing of Adnan Kivan, ownership of the newspaper passed to his son, Ruslan Kivan, who continues to develop the media project while maintaining its editorial independence and expanding its international presence as Ukraine’s true global voice.
TheKyiv Post has only had three owners in its existence: Jed Sunden, an American;Mohammad Zahoor, a British businessman of Pakistani origin; andAdnan Kivan, a native ofSyria.[14] In October 2024, Adnan Kivan died, and his son, Ruslan Kivan, took over as the publisher of Kyiv Post as well as Kadorr Group.
Sunden's KP Media sold the newspaper to British citizen Zahoor on July 28, 2009.[15][16] Zahoor owns the ISTIL Group and is a former steel mill owner inDonetsk.[17] Zahoor published the newspaper through his Public Media company. In an interview with theKyiv Post published on August 6, 2009, Zahoor pledged to revive the newspaper and adhere to its tradition of editorial independence.[18]
On 21 March 2018, Odesa-based businessman Adnan Kivan,[14] a Syrian native and Ukrainian citizen, purchased theKyiv Post from Zahoor for a selling price both said was more than $3.5 million. Kivan pledged editorial independence of journalists in an interview[19][20] withKyiv Post former Chief Editor Brian Bonner.[21] The newspaper is operated by his Businessgroup LLC. Kivan owns the KADORR Group of companies that specializes in construction and agriculture. His wife, Olga, and three children participate in his business. He used to be active in metals trading in the Black Sea port city from 1991-2007. In October 2024, Adnan Kivan suddenly passed away leaving the company to his son Ruslan Kivan to take over as CEO of Kyiv Post and Kadorr Group.
Sunden created the newspaper in the early years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, starting with $8,000 in capital, three computers and a staff of seven people working from a small flat inKyiv. The first 16-page issue was put out by an editorial staff of two people. Sunden built the newspaper into a profitable enterprise, one that served the needs of the expatriate community that then regarded Ukraine as a potential hotspot for investment. During Sunden's tenure, he held tolibertarian and anti-Communist views on the editorial and opinion pages, but established the business model of editorial independence on the news pages. He said the policy is good for business and news. Sunden was controversial for allowing paid "massage" advertisements from women engaging in ‘escort’ services.
After Zahoor bought the newspaper, he retained the entire editorial team. One of his first acts as publisher, however, was to eliminate the paid "massage" advertisements, saying he didn't want to own a newspaper that promoted ‘escort’ services. Zahoor sustained the policy of editorial independence, with limited exceptions. After the newspaper's editors endorsedYulia Tymoshenko overViktor Yanukovych for president in the2010 Ukrainian presidential election, the publisher issued a policy to forbid editorial endorsements of any political candidate or political party, saying the newspaper should remain non-partisan even on its opinion pages. Zahoor relaxed the policy during the May 25,2014 presidential election, when he and his wife, singer-actressKamaliya, came out publicly in strong support of billionaire Ukrainian businessmanPetro Poroshenko's election as president. While the newspaper was free to endorse any candidate for the election, its editorial board made no endorsement in the contest that Poroshenko easily won.
Zahoor's purchase and significant investment improved a newspaper that had been badly affected by theGreat Recession, a sharp downturn that struck theKyiv Post particularly hard in October–November 2008. TheKyiv Post lost advertising and cut costs, but still ended the year in the black, the last profitable year of its existence. In the last months under Sunden in 2009, the newspaper's editorial staff shrunk to 12 members, its page count to 16 and its print distribution to 6,000 copies.
Zahoor invested in journalists, increased distribution and improved newsprint. He boosted the page count—to 32 pages through much of 2010–2011, dropping back to 24 pages again through much of 2012-2013 and then to 16 or 24 pages since then. However, despite the investments, theKyiv Post never regained consistent profitability, despite further staff and cost cuts, as print advertising continued to shrink, especially in the once all-important sector of employment advertising. However, combined with Zahoor's subsidies, the newspaper has been able to minimize financial losses through special publications, such as the Legal Quarterly, Real Estate and Doing Business supplements, as well as special events, including the annual Tiger Conference[22] and others. The start of an affiliated nongovernmental organization, the Media Development Foundation,[23] also raises money for independent journalism.
Kivan's first six months as owner have also seen renewed investment as theKyiv Post hired three new foreign correspondents - Iryna Somer inBrussels,[24] Askold Krushelnycky, a former chief editor of theKyiv Post, in Washington, D.C.; and Olena Goncharova in Edmonton, Canada. Somer left her Brussels position at the end of 2018.
In 2024, following the passing of Adnan Kivan, ownership of the newspaper passed to his son, Ruslan Kivan, who continues to develop the media project while maintaining its editorial independence and expanding its international presence.
In 2013, theKyiv Post covered what became known as theEuromaidan, which began on November 21, 2013, triggered by then-PresidentViktor Yanukovych's broken promise to sign a political and economic association agreement with theEuropean Union. TheKyiv Post published hundreds of stories in print and online about the revolution, which ended in Yanukovych fleeing to Russia on February 21–22, 2014. The firstKyiv Post story about the revolution was published on November 22, 2013.[25]
After Yanukovych and many members of his government took up exile in Russia, theKyiv Post covered the formation of an interim Ukrainian government, the Russian annexation of Crimea on February 27, 2014, the start of thewar in the Donbas in April 2014 and the May 25, 2014, election ofPetro Poroshenko as independent Ukraine's fifth president after Yanukovych (2010–2014),Viktor Yushchenko (2005–2010),Leonid Kuchma (1994–2005) andLeonid Kravchuk (1991–1994).
TheKyiv Post launched its website in 1997 under Sunden.
TheKyiv Post launched an online paywall in March 2013. The erection of the paywall became financially necessary because of the decline in print advertising in the newspaper industry generally, including at theKyiv Post.[26] During times of intense national crisis, such as theEuromaidan Revolution and theRussian invasion of Ukraine, theKyiv Post has relaxed its paywall and made its coverage available freely for a limited amount of time. The website currently provides many categories of stories for free, including its aggregated content, its opinions and editorials and its multimedia offerings, including video, cartoons and photo galleries.
In October 2014, theKyiv Post started a Reform Watch project to track the progress under President Petro Poroshenko and Prime MinisterArseniy Yatsenyuk in eliminating corruption and bureaucratic obstacles to democratic progress and economic growth.
In November 2021 the online paywall was removed to allow more democratic access to all readers around the world and to help elevate its viewership at such a critical time in Ukraine’s history. This strategic move by Luc Chenier, CEO ofKyiv Post would help increaseKyiv Post’s digital revenue by focusing on western audiences where markets such as the USA generally pay more for views on a programmatic platform.
In June 2022 theUkrainian version of the site was launched.
In December 2022,Kyiv Post launched a completely redesigned website.
TheKyiv Post withstood numerous threats to its existence from 1995. According to audiotapes released by Mykola Melnychenko, bodyguard to ex-President Leonid Kuchma, then-tax inspectorMykola Azarov talked about conducting tax audits of the newspaper and other news outlets that criticized the administration. Azarov went on to become prime minister under President Viktor Yanukovych. He has since fled abroad and is now on Ukraine's wanted list on suspicion of massive corruption.
TheKyiv Post faced and overcame three distinct political threats to its survival during the administration of President Viktor Yanukovcyh (February 27, 2010 – February 22, 2014).
However, the biggest threat may be economic, not political. Many Central and Eastern European English-language newspapers, includingThe Moscow Times,The Prague Post andThe Sofia Echo, have ceased their print publications in light of falling advertising demand and changing readership patterns online. America media analyst Ken Doctor chronicled theKyiv Post's challenges in an April 17, 2014, article.[31]
TheKyiv Post also was featured in the September/October 2014 edition of theColumbia Journalism Review. Under the headline, the "Kyiv Post's unlikely success" author Oliver Bullough writes that:
The more you learn about theKyiv Post, the more you realize how remarkable it is that it holds its own against these [other media] behemoths. Its newsroom budget is less than $25,000 a month. It has but 19 editorial staff; it has faced repeated attacks from regime-allied oligarchs. The fact its reporting survives at all, let alone flourishes, comes down to the unlikeliest of pairings: a journalist from Minnesota and an Anglo-Pakistani billionaire. Each has his own reasons for loving Ukraine, and the Post brought them together.[32]
On 8 November 2021, the newspaper was temporarily shut down after the editorial staff's disagreement with planned changes to the outlet led to the owner firing all reporters,[7][33] many of whom then joined the newly-foundedKyiv Independent. On 11 November, Luc Chénier was announced as the new CEO ofKyiv Post.[34][35][11]
On December 8, 2021,Kyiv Post resumed its digital operations and publication following a 1-month pause.
TheKyiv Post is also a center forinvestigative journalism. Bonner, besides serving as chief editor, was also the regional coordinator of the Objective Investigative Journalism Project, funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from 2013-2017 along withOlga Rudenko, theKyiv Post's deputy chief editor since Oct. 6, 2017. Stories were published at various news outlets. Ex-Kyiv Post staff writer Vlad Lavrov, meanwhile, is the regional coordinator for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, whose donors include the U.S. Agency for International Development.
A group ofKyiv Post journalists in 2013 launched the Media Development Foundation, a nongovernmental organization that has raised $865,000 in the last five years to support independent journalism in three ways:
TheKyiv Post was one of the media outlets that participated in the2016 Panama Papers investigation.
Kyiv Post employees also launched a second nongovernmental organization, the Free Press Foundation, to support independent journalism projects.[citation needed]
TheKyiv Post has had 15 chief editors since its first edition on October 18, 1995. They include Andrea Faiad, Igor Greenwald, Askold Krushelnycky, Tom Warner, Greg Bloom, Diana Elliott, Scott Lewis, Paul Miazga, Andrey Slivka, Roman Olearchyk, John Marone, Stephan Ladanaj, Zenon Zawada and Jakub Parusinski.
The longest-serving chief editor is Brian Bonner, an American citizen who became the editor in the summer of 1999 and returned on June 9, 2008. He continued to serve until Nov. 19, 2021.
After Zahoor's purchase on July 28, 2009, he has had six chief executive officers, including American James Phillipoff (July 2009-July 2011), Michael Willard (July 2011-August 2013), Jakub Parusinski (September 2013-August 2014), Nataliya Bugayova (August 2014-December 2015) and Luc Chenier (August 2016 – March 1, 2018). Bugayova was the former chief of staff to Economy MinisterPavel Sheremeta before becoming the first Ukrainian and first woman to be CEO of the Kyiv Post. Bugayova resigned to relocate and take a new job as the director of development for the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, D.C. Bugayova wrote her farewell column "Kyiv Post's values are made for new Ukraine"[36] in the December 18, 2015, edition of theKyiv Post. Commercial director Alyona Nevmerzhytska became acting chief executive officer in March 2016 until Chenier took over in August 2016. After Chenier's departure on March 1, 2018, Brian Bonner took over the duties of the CEO but retained his title as chief editor amid the transfer to Kivan's ownership.
On 11 November, the new CEO ofKyiv Post was announced, Luc Chénier.[34] On 24 December 2021, Bohdan Nahaylo was appointed as a Chief Editor of theKyiv Post.
TheKyiv Post's longtime motto on its masthead was "Independence. Community. Trust." meant to underscore its commitment to high journalistic standards and ethical practices, in contrast to many Ukrainian news outlets where publishers and owners dictate editorial policy and advertising is disguised as news stories through the purchase of space known as "jeansa" or advertorials.
The newspaper changed its official motto to "Ukraine's Global Voice" in February 2018, when the slogan appeared in the first print edition and on the website home page under the masthead as per Luc Chenier’s suggestion while on his first assignment as CEO to better representKyiv Post’s global reach and impact.
In 2014, theKyiv Post staff won theUniversity of Missouri Journalism School's prestigious Medal of Honor for Distinguished Service in Journalism. The award was given to chief editor Brian Bonner and then-deputy chief editor Katya Gorchinskaya, who held the position from 2008–2015, at a ceremony at the journalism school inColumbia, Missouri, on October 28, 2014.[37][38]
Also in 2014, Moscow-based AGT Communications Company released the findings of its survey from November 21, 2013 to May 21, 2014, that found theKyiv Post is the most-quoted Ukrainian source of news by American and European news organizations and the second-most quoted in Ukraine and Russia, after Russia's Kommersant. The findings were based on citations in Factiva, the Dow Jones research database.[39]
FiveKyiv Post journalists have also won six-month fellowships through the Alfred Friendly Press Partners program, administrated by the University of Missouri's School of Journalism. They were Anastasia Forina, who worked at the Chicago Tribune in 2014; Oksana Grytsenko, who worked at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2015; Olena Goncharova, who worked at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2016; Yulianna Romanyshyn, who worked at the Chicago Tribune in 2017; and Anna Yakutenko, who started her fellowship in March 2018. She was assigned to KCUR, the National Public Radio affiliate in Kansas City, Missouri.
In June 2022,Anna Myroniuk and Andrei Ciurcanu were runners up in theEuropean Press Prize's Investigative Reporting Award for a story published in theKyiv Post. The story revealed how Chinese Tobacco manufacturers were supplying smugglers of millions of cigarettes into Ukraine.[40]
In October 2023,Kyiv Post was the first news organisations in Ukraine to be given a 100% content transparency and accuracy rating for journalism standards according to global rating platform News Guard (others with a perfect 100% included The Washington Post,The New York Times andThe Wall Street Journal).[5]
TheKyiv Post's print circulation was 10,000 copies per week until Nov 11, 2021 where Luc Chénier, CEO of Kyiv Post made the decision to cease publishing the physical version of the news due to realistic economic reasoning such as a long need move to digital to reach a wider audience, the war in Ukraine and most importantly that its audience had shifted to the international market and was no longer in Ukraine itself. As well, Chénier made the decision to take down the paywall for online reading to make its content more democratic and freely accessible to the all audiences around the world to help promote and inform the world about Ukraine without having them to pay for access.
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