The print crisis – caused, it seems, by the digitization and transformation of digital media – is one of the problems of contemporary journalism. For this reason, over the past three years, the circulation of the printed press in Ukraine has sharply decreased (by 3 million copies, ie 27%). The most difficult situation is that of local media, which since 2016 have gradually been transformed into private ownership by the authorities. The delayed reform has led to a situation where publishing houses with no experience in business are going through a serious recession: some have already closed, some have barely survived under modern market conditions. The convergence of the media carries the risk of marginalization of smaller publishers and, consequently, of their recipients, whose voices will not be heard. This is already the case with the central press, as the most powerful print media belong to the largest companies: Star Light Media, UMH Group, Inter Media Group, 1 + 1 Media and Media Group Ukraine, whose owners are involved in Ukrainian politics. On the other hand, support for the local independent press is refused. Ukraine can follow the path of many other European countries following the „circular spiral” theory. According to her, the highest circulation newspapers receive more advertising funds and subscriptions, while smaller titles receive state aid in order to maintain pluralism of thought, prevent the disappearance of small publications and avoid excessive media concentration. This project was developed in 2016, but it was not approved by the government as it maintained the news-papers' dependence on public authorities and a corrupt model of fund distribution. The situation of uncertainty is beneficial for the authorities as it allows publishers to be influenced, especially during elections. During a financial recession, publishing houses easily succumb to politicians' suggestions and make abuses consisting in releasing materials designed to support their image. Media researchers recorded 28.1% of such publications in the regional press. The media sector is also negatively affected by the steady increase in the postal tariff for delivering the press and the reduction of Ukrposzta's stationary branches, which are also in the financial recession. Another problem is the lack of regulation on the status of electronic media, which is often involved in piracy of intellectual property, which negatively affects the print media. Young and middle-aged audiences are seldom readers of newspapers, so they need to transform their content into online material. The press is looking for additional channels, attracting readers' attention on the Internet, using websites, social networks, video hosts, various convergence models, various technologies. Central media – as opposed to smaller, regional ones – quickly adapted to the prevailing trends. More than half of the local media still doesn’t have a website. Due to the low tabloidization of printed media, it is of little use to create popular news channels such as infotainment. Only in isolated cases do publishers make an effort to shift from traditional information to communicating with readers, and editors try to use crowdsourcing and croudfunding models to generate content and raise funds to support and develop new ideas. Since 2017, the Local Media Support Agency has been teaching how to create modern content and profit on advertisements - the result is 23 agency websites with 1,307,000 users and 6,200,000 views (2018). Despite the crisis, the need for information has not diminished, so time will show the format in which the Ukrainian press will exist. It is possible that – as in Poland – it will be primarily an online newspaper.
Współczesne media lokalne jako przedmiot refleksji medioznawczej
