Business. Zaporizhzhia is the only media outlet in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region that focuses on local business and the economy, producing exclusive news, practical insights and inspiring stories. During the New Media Incubator, the project grew from an Instagram page into a fully fledged media outlet with its own website and team.
Successfully engaging local niche audiences
The Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine is partially occupied and located near the front line. Despite this, entrepreneurs are actively working there, new businesses are being opened, and companies are expanding. Business.Zaporizhzhia’s mission is to serve local businesses that have suffered from Russia’s full-scale invasion, help restore their communication channels to customer bases, provide access to larger audiences, and offer new opportunities for promotion. The outlet is part of Vidbudova. Zaporizhzhia, a publication that reflects on various aspects of the region’s reconstruction.
Over the course of the Incubator, the team learned how to tap into their niche and build a local audience that not only engages with their content but truly values it. By using a new content rubric and investing in a systematic video strategy, they achieved a major growth in readership: their channels now engage 53,000 unique users monthly on a steady flow of over 20 posts and 100 stories. In the past month, they reached 200,000 views – a five-fold increase from where the team started. As one of their major goals during the Incubator, Business Zaporizhzhia developed a standalone website to publish more in-depth articles and exclusive news besides their social media content. Since the launch in September, they have published over 300 pieces of website content.
Sustainability and community involvement beyond promotion
The newly launched website quickly became an essential channel for the outlet’s financial sustainability: after fine-tuning commercial formats and systematising work with advertisers, ad requests increased by four times and the number of ads sold doubled. With this solidified revenue stream and IPI’s grant support, the team grew from four to seven members, hiring a news editor, a social media marketing manager and a grant writer.
As a local media tied to a niche audience, Business.Zaporizhzhia established informational and promotional partnerships with local business communities. During the Incubator, they managed to close deals with several event organisers and community partners, including the local craftsmanship community and business clubs. This community involvement goes beyond promotional aims – it ties back to the outlet’s mission to recreate the image of the region and foster public participation in reconstruction and revival.
As for next steps, the team is planning to increase their commercial revenue and start attracting reader donations, integrate AI and automation into their workflows and scale their project into other regions of Ukraine.
The New Media Incubator is part of the Media Innovation Europe programme (MIE), made possible with the support of the European Union.
