EDITORIAL: The complex answer (10/10/99)

EDITORIAL

The complex answer

Last week in this space, we attempted to provide the simple answer to the question of why The Ukrainian Weekly is experiencing financial difficulties. To recap, those reasons include: a drastic cut in the subsidy traditionally provided by our publisher, the Ukrainian National Association; a lack of advertisers; and a radical hike in the subscription price that resulted in a dramatic decline in the number of subscribers, from which we never fully recovered. This week, we will attempt to provide the complex answer to the same question.

For the past three years, The Ukrainian Weekly has been shouldering the costs of free subscriptions to this newspaper provided for all members of the U.S. Congress (plus, until very recently, select members of the Canadian Parliament). In 1996 the UNA stopped paying for these complimentary subscriptions, whereas previously, in accordance with a 1987 decision by the UNA Supreme Assembly, it was the UNA that covered these costs in an effort to keep legislators abreast of the Ukrainian community's concerns and developments in Ukraine. What does this mean? That the cost of these subscriptions for Congress, approximately $27,000 (calculated at a price of $50 per subscription), now comes out of The Weekly's budget - not the UNA's. The Weekly could easily cut that sum out of our expenses by halting this freebie - if we believed that was the thing to do. But we don't. The staff continues to feel strongly that The Ukrainian Weekly is an important vehicle for providing decision-makers with pertinent information that is not available elsewhere.
Returning to the issue of advertising, readers may notice that there are between four and six pages of paid advertisements in each week's issue of The Weekly. Now, contrast that with the situation of the Svoboda weekly. In any issue of Svoboda there are now between eight and 10 pages of ads - roughly double what appears in The Weekly. Why? We've asked ourselves that question and have come up with only one hypothesis: the public is simply used to advertising in Svoboda because that paper was once a daily. This is reflected, in particular, in the placement of memorial advertisements and community events ads in Svoboda. Given the choice between advertising in a weekly or something more immediate, most organizations, institutions and individuals went for the immediate; therefore, they chose the Svoboda daily and thus a habit was created. Furthermore, Svoboda charges for paid advertisements of community events, while The Weekly would give free listings in Preview of Events. Yes, we at The Weekly were doing a community service, but ultimately we suffered for it. As long as the UNA combined revenues and expenses for all its publications, where an advertiser chose to place his/her ad did not much matter. But, now that the Svoboda and Weekly budgeting have been largely separated, it does.
The way our accounting is done at the UNA, we at The Weekly get no credit (much less payment) for all the ads we run for the UNA or any of its subsidiaries (e.g., Soyuzivka). In 1995 we had calculated the amount of space devoted to the UNA in ads, publicity and UNA Forum pages and concluded that the UNA "owed" The Weekly more than $81,000 for that space for one year. If we were credited for the free advertising given the UNA, our balance sheet would look much better. Another example is our annual UNA Scholarships issue. It is prepared by The Weekly staff and published by The Weekly at a cost of an additional several thousand dollars - even though this is a promotional issue for the UNA. (The UNA treasurer insists that the cost of office space rental, for which The Weekly is not charged, cancels out the cost of UNA materials published in The Weekly. Frankly, we'd rather have an accurate internal accounting of these, and other, costs and credits.)
As regards funding for our Kyiv Press Bureau - an operation that now costs us approximately $25,000 per year, not counting our full-time correspondent's salary - perhaps some of our readers and many UNA'ers will recall that funding for that operation originally came from the UNA Fund for the Rebirth of Ukraine. Where did contributions to the fund come from? Primarily from UNA'ers who donated their annual dividends back to the UNA to support that special fund. In addition, profits from UNA Christmas cards originally went to the Fund for Rebirth. In 1994 contributions to the Rebirth Fund hit a high of $417,906. However, in 1995, when the UNA stopped paying dividends to members, and soon thereafter, when the decision was made to earmark the Christmas card profits for the newly created Ukrainian National Foundation, revenues for the UNA Fund for the Rebirth of Ukraine dried up. No new sources of funding were provided, and our Kyiv Press Bureau was left in the lurch. [Our treasurer advises us that readers still can support the Kyiv Press Bureau's work by donating to the UNA Fund for the Rebirth of Ukraine, donations to which are tax-deductible as contributions for educational activity under IRC Code Sec. 170 (b) (1) (B).]
About our Toronto Press Bureau, well, readers can see for themselves that it has become a victim of financial difficulties. (See story on the left.) It was Toronto, or should we say our Toronto correspondent, that was let go because Canada was our weakest link. The Weekly has less than 700 subscribers in all of Canada, and we have a problem gaining or keeping subscribers there due to the absolutely awful postal delivery of our newspaper.
And then there is the topic of the newspaper press funds. Most folks in the Ukrainian American community remember that there used to be one Svoboda Press Fund. This was because there was an entity called Svoboda Press that published both the Svoboda daily and The Ukrainian Weekly. To put it bluntly, there was only one kitty for the whole publishing operation, which included books, Veselka and diverse printing jobs, as well as the newspapers. Now, however, with the progressive dismantling of the publishing operation, there remain just two newspapers, whose accounts to a large degree have been separated. However, people are not aware of this and continue, out of habit, to donate to the Svoboda Press Fund as they have done for decades, assuming that these contributions go to support all publishing efforts. In fact, donations to the Svoboda Press Fund support only the Svoboda newspaper. A press fund has been set up for The Ukrainian Weekly, donations to which support only this paper. Let there be no mistake: donations to the "Svoboda Press Fund" no longer support The Ukrainian Weekly. We must mention that members of The Weekly staff also donate to our newspaper's press fund. It is The Weekly staff that at this point fully funds the newspaper's official website. Thus far, in a little more than a year, we have contributed more than $1,000 to that endeavor.

All of the above brings us to where we are today.

We have been burdened with expenses that previously were covered by the UNA, while at the same time traditional sources of revenue have been reduced. Furthermore, we believe there is an inequitable method of accounting to allocate expenses.

The Ukrainian Weekly now has a reduced staff of 3.5 editors, one of whom works out of our Kyiv Press Bureau. Add to that our colleague in Toronto who has graciously agreed to work part-time for the time being. We also have a production staff of two, and we share a four-person administrative staff (which includes the advertising and circulation operations) with Svoboda. It is a bare-bones operation - there's just no other way to describe it. And yet, working harder than we've ever worked (and more hours than we can keep track of), we continue our commitment to serve our community and our nation. Quite simply, we believe that what we do matters.

So, Dear Readers, we humbly ask for your support. If you value The Ukrainian Weekly, please contribute to The Ukrainian Weekly press fund and the UNA Fund for the Rebirth of Ukraine (with the notation "for Kyiv Press Bureau"); help find other funds to underwrite major expenses, such as subscriptions for members of Congress; advertise your services and events; buy your friends and family gift subscriptions; and, in general, promote our community newspaper. With your help we can envision a bright future for the little newspaper born 66 years ago in Jersey City that today is one of the most important assets of Ukrainian community life in North America.

| Home Page |