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Cracking the media management puzzle through insights, solutions and data. ▪️Website — http://thefix.media ▪️Newsletter— http://bit.ly/2Tsr0M9 Reach out: @thefixmediabot
Ukrainian freelance journalists covering the war turned down staff jobs to tell Ukraine’s story their way – even as it means working without a safety net. Romain Chauvet spoke with Anastasia Rodi and Inna Varenytsia about the difficult work of covering the Russian invasion as freelancers.
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✌️ Good evening! Here is the recap of the stories we published this week:
📊 Five trends that defined 2024;
📝 A selection of ten of our best stories of 2024.
At the beginning of 2025, let’s take a moment to look back at five trends that defined news media in 2024 – and The Fix’s coverage of them.
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During his 23 years working for Gazeta Wyborcza, Vadim Makarenko held a lot of roles – everything from reporting on Warsaw police to leading a data journalism team to hosting a podcast. He then took his experience to lead a research team at Statista. We sat down with him last year to learn about his experience in media and beyond.
◼ In 2021, Makarenko left the paper – and the news media industry – to take a position as Director Research Digital at Statista. In this role he oversees four teams that produce research on different digital industries, from advertising and media to hardware and telecom.
◼ As Director Research Digital, Vadim Makarenko leads a department that produces research on digital industries. He oversees four teams which are responsible for different sets of industries – advertising; media; internet; technology & telecoms.
◼ Makarenko's job is primarily a managerial one; he leads the department and sets its agenda. He estimates that 70% of his time goes to management and administration: tasks like team coordination and working with the sales team to help support client requests. Editorial work – such as editing the outputs created by his department and participating in brainstorming sessions – takes the rest 30%.
◼ "It's not journalism", however. The business model and audience are different, and researchers led by Makarenko don't go out into the field to speak with people; they work with datasets and crunch numbers.
◼ Makarenko says that the biggest driver for him to make the leap was curiosity and the eagerness to try himself in other areas. "In journalism, there's a strong conviction that people are one-trick ponies… once a journalist, always a journalist"; for Makarenko it was a personal challenge to prove himself outside the news industry.
◼ A number of skills Makarenko learned working for Gazeta Wyborcza are applicable to his current position. The first set is data skills – "dealing with data, visualising data, cleaning data, all things you can do with data". The second one is project management, basic managerial skills like planning a project, setting milestones and getting the team to stick to it.
◼ Makarenko's advice for journalists looking to make a leap both outside and within the news media industry is just that – learning to work with data and get to know project management. Both skills are "in short supply in newsrooms", and they are a great addition to journalists' traditional skills as powerful storytellers.
◼ To take an outsider's look, Makarenko's career offers one more valuable insight – the benefits of changing a job within one's organisations even without venturing outside. Especially in big newsrooms like Gazeta Wyborcza, with the right combination of curiosity and proactiveness, there might be opportunities for journalists to try something else and gain new skills, whether it's editing, managing or dealing with clients.
📍 Learn more in the full article.
Harassment and sexism remain deeply embedded in Italy's journalism schools and internships. A major investigation by freelance journalists Francesca Candioli, Roberta Cavaglià, and Stefania Prandi uncovered alarming findings: half of their 200 respondents witnessed or experienced harassment, including verbal abuse, attempted violence, and blackmail. Alessandra Vescio analyses their findings in her latest article for The Fix.
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What's Inside The Fix Weekly Newsletter: The article, reimagined
▪️The articles featured pertain to a blueprint for child-friendly journalism, the woes of Italian journalists, and Google's experiment to remove European publishers' content.
▪️Interesting insights on findings from RSF's annual report, and revenue-sharing deals with AI companies for publishers from our colleagues at Reporters Without Borders, and A Media Operator;
▪️Great opportunities from UNESCO, Balkan Documentary Center, and The Fix.
📍 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more news on the European media space!
For a few weeks, Google is showing some of its users fewer news articles from European publishers. Romain Chauvet looked at the implications of this experiment in his latest article for The Fix.
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Italian journalists are navigating a broken system where six out of ten work as freelancers, earning an average of €15,641 per year. Many report stress, anxiety, burnout, and job insecurity. Grassroots efforts are building support networks, but major reforms are still needed. Read Alessandro Pilo’s article to understand the challenges and possible solutions.
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What's Inside The Fix Weekly Newsletter: News worth investing in
▪️The articles featured pertain to alternatives to X, the emergence of AI video avatars, and how press freedom is under threat in Georgia.
▪️Interesting insights on The Observer’s sale to Tortoise Media, and how major outlets are promoting vertical video from our colleagues at Financial Times, and Nieman Lab;
▪️Great opportunities from the REINFORCING project, Institute for Human Sciences, and Jnomics Media.
📍 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more news on the European media space!
Journalists in Georgia are increasingly facing physical, verbal, legal, and financial attacks. The Fix has spoken with people covering the most recent demonstrations on the ground.
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Can newsrooms automate video creation with AI avatars? Alberto Puliafito considers what AI avatars bring to the table for journalists and how to start using them in The Fix’s latest guide.
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Are there any exciting places left in the world of social media? Let’s look at three platforms that look interesting at the moment.
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An uncommented nature program broadcasted live to show elks crossing the Ångerman River. That is the pitch of “The Great Elk Trek”, a TV program which SVT, the Swedish public television, launched in 2019. What started as a bet became a cultural phenomenon. The Fix looked at how the program became successful and gathered a fan community that even goes beyond Scandinavia.
◼ Since 2019, when spring comes it's the same procedure as every year for Swedish SVT: For three weeks, from mid April to early May, the nature program “The Great Elk Trek” steals the show. Every day, the program is live streamed on SVT Play, the channel's streaming platform, where the fans can join the dedicated community chat.
◼ According to Stefan Edlund, the producer, this is exactly what explains the success behind it: "The Great Elk Trek is much more than elks, it's Swedish nature deluxe!".
◼ Despite the simplicity of the concept, broadcasting an uncommented nature program requires a lot of preparation, including 32 cameras and 36 microphones which are automated to follow the elks.
◼ Over the years, The Great Elk Trek became a popular program, with a viewer base that is growing from year to year. 2024 was the best year to date, with 9 million starters, an increase of 30% compared to the previous year.
◼ Community building and mediation have been two pillars in the development strategy of the program. The production team realised early on how crucial it was to reach out to the viewers and be transparent. Different approaches were combined: SVT started an "elk chat" where viewers can comment on the broadcast live, and a collaboration with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences initiated to answer their questions.
◼ Given the success of the program, it seems that the Great Elk Trek is here to stay. This year's edition was broadcasted in both Finland and Germany as well, and SVT already announced the program is coming back next year.
◼ Stefan Edlund's advice to colleagues interested in working with nature programs and slow TV? "You never know what might happen, the next minute might be absolutely unique. The most challenging part is having a dramaturgy, because just setting up the cameras and filming is not enough, you need some storytelling that creates suspense. And most of all, you need good timing, because it's what creates impact."
📍 Learn more about the unexpected success of this program in the full article.
How are regional media houses in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland turning readers into loyal digital subscribers? dpa’s DRIVE initiative combines AI, data analytics, and tailored strategies to transform the industry.
Discover how these insights are reshaping the future of regional journalism from experienced strategist Meinolf Ellers.
Bluesky has seen a spectacular boom in the weeks after Donald Trump's victory, reaching over 20 million users as people flee X over Elon Musk's ties to the incoming administration. But can the rival platform sustain momentum long-term? Romain Chauvet explores.
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The Fix's New Year’s resolution
December and early January is the time for ubiquitous coverage of year-in-review trends and year-ahead predictions. We at The Fix have done our fair share and have more in plans. But – forgive the pun – predictions tend to be extremely predictable. Barring black swan events like the pandemic or the launch of ChatGPT, trends unfold slowly over multiple years. Our year-old piece on 2024 trends could very well be today’s piece on 2025 trends.
So, our New Year’s resolution is highlighting more fresh ideas and undercovered stories from outlets from across Europe (and sometimes beyond).
Who’s building the next big media company in Bulgaria or Austria? Who’s figured out a sustainable business model for a small outlet in Lithuania or Norway? Who’s successfully monetising in-person events in Ukraine?
We have some ideas, and we’ll bring them to you in the coming weeks and months. But we’d also love to hear from you. We’re open to story ideas and guest columns from industry practitioners. If you’d like to tell us more about your work or suggest an idea, just email us at newsroom@thefix.media
Let’s take a moment to revisit some of The Fix’s standout stories from 2024 that you may have missed.
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✌️ Good evening! Here is the recap of the stories we published this week:
🆕 The article reimagined;
🇮🇹 Harassment in Italian journalism;
🏙 Media-related accounts to follow on BlueSky.
BlueSky is quickly becoming the go-to platform for journalists, media experts, and news enthusiasts seeking fresh perspectives and innovative conversations. If you're exploring this decentralised network, we've compiled a list of nine influential media-related accounts to follow.
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The static web article is overdue for reinvention. That’s why TIME's AI experiment with its Person of the Year announcement stands out – far more than the actual Person of the Year choice.
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✌️ Good evening! Here is the recap of the stories we published this week:
👧 A blueprint for child-friendly journalism;
🇮🇹 The woes of Italian journalists;
🇪🇺 Google's experiment to remove European publishers' content.
Head of Audience Development is an important role at the intersection between the editorial and all other teams in the organisation. This person is managing a team responsible for creating a distribution strategy across multiple platforms – SEO, social media, newsletters, and more – to grow the product's audience.
◼ In late 2022, we spoke with Sebastian Katthöver, Head of Audience Development at German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, who has a team of seven specialists and two student interns, to learn about his experience in this position.
◼ His team works across all 32 DW languages. As Head of Audience Development, Katthöver optimises the strategy on all the platforms his team works with, including journalists' personal social media accounts. His team's main task is to bring audience growth to the organisation's editorial team.
◼ "My role is to be the hinge between all the different teams in a media company. I try to be the problem solver when things are stuck; I try to talk to the parties involved and try to find a solution," shares Katthöver.
◼ He explains the difference between Audience Development and Audience Engagement: "Our role is to advise and to network with them. We bring them together, try to convey knowledge, and they are the ones who actually bring it into the product".
◼ Asked about the most exciting part of the job, Katthöver replies, "Every day is different". The environment is unstable with "Elon Musk tweeting and something about X (Twitter) changing every 15 minutes".
◼ The hardest part is reaching the last 20% or 30% of the goal. Things like changing the strategy of an account are difficult, but necessary to achieve a 100% result.
◼ For those seeking a job in Audience Development, Katthöver recommends trying internships, including internal ones, which are common in big organisations like DW.
◼ Another tip is to stay open to what data tells. "We try to make every recommendation to editorial teams based on certain data. It shouldn't be a gut feeling," says Katthöver.
◼ Katthöver also advises finding newsletters covering your region or language and subscribing to people you find inspiring, who work "in digital products or digital product management who are driving digitally first publications".
📍 Learn more about the role in the full article.
Dr. Sonja Merljak Zdovc shared with The Fix four ways media publishers can include children as news consumers with lessons from the Slovenian online newspaper Časoris.
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✌️ Good evening! Here is a recap of the stories we published this week:
🐦 Alternatives to X;
🧠 Introducing AI video avatars;
🇬🇪 Press freedom under threat in Georgia.
Newsletters are an effective way to establish direct contact with your audience, unmitigated by the whims of social media algorithms. Publishers have invested in the medium, and it's also a low-barrier point of entry for individual news creators.
◼ One project has succeeded in turning untold stories into a profitable newsletter, is Sham Jaff's “what happened last week” (whlw). Started in 2014, Jaff's newsletter delivers interesting stories from Asia, Africa and the Americas to your inbox every Monday. It's filled with unique yet underrepresented stories from the Global South in an easy-to-follow style. A few months ago we spoke with Jaff to learn more about her experience.
◼ "I wanted to highlight the stories and perspectives that I thought were missing from Asia, Africa and the Americas. I also noticed that I knew so little about those places even though I was studying Political Science. So I decided to create whlw as a way to curate voices and perspectives and to get acquainted with those countries," she recalls.
◼ Operating weekly since the last decade, whlw has amassed 21,000 readers from the ages of 26 and 44. Most of its readers come from Western countries, with the bulk coming from Germany, the US and the UK. Of the total subscribers, whlw has 1,000 vip readers. The paid version, whlw vip, costs €9 monthly and €79 yearly, except for students who get discounts.
◼ How to make newsletters profitable, according to Sham Jaff?
1️⃣ Find a niche
People are more likely to pay for newsletters that are original yet specific. Hence, finding a niche will help the audience recognise your newsletter's worth and pay for it.
2️⃣ Gathering a dedicated audience
Jaff has been penning her newsletter since 2014. Since then she has amassed a dedicated audience for herself. A major reason behind this is Jaff's willingness to incorporate the reader's feedback.
3️⃣ Something free, something paid
With 17% of the audience currently paying for subscriptions, according to Reuters, only 2% are willing to pay the full price. This is why many publishers are likely to release a 'lite' version of their products.
📍 Find more tips in the full article.
What's Inside The Fix Weekly Newsletter: Is news avoidance overrated?
▪️The articles featured pertain to BlueSky's potential turning point, tips on how to grow digital subscribers, and disinformation amid floods in Spain.
▪️Interesting insights on Schibsted’s initiatives to reimagine the future of news, and Canada's major news organisations suing OpenAI for copyright violations from our colleagues at Newsroom Robots, and The Guardian;
▪️Great opportunities from Journalismfund Europe, Global Investigative Journalism Network, and Contexte.
📍 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more news on the European media space!
✌️ Good evening! Here is the recap of the stories we published this week:
🐦 BlueSky's turning point;
↗️ Tips on how to grow digital subscribers;
🇪🇸 Disinformation in Spain.
The worst natural disaster in Spain’s history created a fertile ground for misinformation. What can we learn, and what is the role of the news media? Romain Chauvet looks into the disinformation spread amid the catastrophe and how to combat it in his latest article for The Fix.
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What's Inside The Fix Weekly Newsletter: SEO’s next frontier; Italian media’s flop
▪️The articles featured pertain to how Italian media fails climate coverage, optimising news content for AI search, and how European public broadcasters combat Russian disinformation;
▪️Interesting insights on DMG Media's acquisition of a stake in a generative AI company, and redundancies at AP from our colleagues at Financial Times, and The New York Times;
▪️Great opportunities from Sphera Network, and Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
📍 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more news on the European media space!
✌️ Good evening! Here is the recap of the stories we published this week:
🇮🇹 How Italian media fails climate coverage;
🧠 Optimising news content for AI search;
🇪🇺 How European public broadcasters combat Russian disinformation.