Over quarter of regional media outlets in Ukraine operate without salaries, study shows

In Ukraine, 26% of editorial offices operate without paying salaries, relying solely on journalists’ enthusiasm, while most others have only limited financial resilience.

Source: a study by the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine

Details: Only 18.1% of the surveyed editorial offices stated they could continue operations for more than six months without external financial support. Meanwhile, 41% said their financial resilience would last only six months, 24.1% estimated it would last up to three months and 16.9% said they could only sustain operations for one more month.

The research shows that the vast majority of local media outlets (over 77%) operate with relatively modest monthly budgets – under UAH 100,000 (about US$2,450). This is often enough only to cover minimum salaries, printing and distribution costs, and utilities, leaving no room for development or content improvement.

The study found that as of January 2025, one-third of surveyed regional media outlets (33.3%, or 27 outlets) were receiving support from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The withdrawal of USAID support had serious consequences for some of the recipients:

• Some outlets were left with significant debts to printing houses (up to US$2,300);
• Unpaid salaries for January and February 2025;
• Unsettled payments to contractors for completed work;
• Major unreimbursed expenses (one newsroom reported about US$14,200 in unrecovered costs).

Crisis-response measures taken by affected editorial offices include:

• 46.8% are forced to reduce employee salaries;
• Over 40% plan to reduce their workforce;
• 36.4% have reduced content volumes;
• 35.1% have cancelled planned projects and initiatives;
• 16.9% have reduced the frequency of newspaper publications (from weekly to monthly).

Background: Ukraine's state-owned Multimedia Broadcasting Platform signed four contracts with TV channels in 2025 to produce content for the joint 24/7 national newscast with a total value of UAH 738 million (about US$18 million).

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