Khalkhis Gazeti Newspaper Equally Helps IDPs and the Authorities

Khalkhis Gazeti newspaper is one of the independent newspapers published in Gori. After the August 2008 War the newspaper as well as other regional media outlets experienced financial difficulties due to small advertising market and irregular distribution system; as a result the newspaper wasn't published regularly, its expenses exceeded its revenues and the newspaper was on the verge of closing down.

According to Editor-in-chief of Khalkhis Gazeti Rezo Okruashvili, the project funded by Open Society Georgia Foundation was a real lifesaver for the newspaper. Under the project titled Pressing Khalkhis Gazeti is brought to every household in Gori district in order to increase the newspaper's popularity. The one year project implies building of distribution network, increasing the newspaper's circulation and improving its quality as well as establishment of its advertising agency.

Subscribers will enjoy a few bonuses, for example they can publish announcements in the newspaper for free, enjoy discounts in shops, receive tickets for various cultural events etc. According to the editor-in-chief, Khalkhis Gazeti is disseminated among IDPs for free - all the unsold copies of the newspaper are sent to IDP settlements. That was not part of the project, but the management of the newspaper took into account the low level of awareness among the IDP population and launched that initiative of its own accord.

Gori has about 70,000 residents and only 6 or 7 newsstands, which is of course insufficient. Therefore, the head of Khalkhis Gazeti pays particular attention to subscriptions. However, the process is slow as due to general economic and social problems people often can't buy long-term subscriptions. As for short-term subscriptions, in this case the newspaper has to mobilize additional resources in order to renew the subscriptions frequently.

The Pressing project also implied improvement of the newspaper's visual image. Currently, Khalkhis Gazeti's first and last pages are colored. The 12 page newspaper is regularly published every week. The advertising service of the newspaper has been established under the project, the service had to start from scratch as according to the editor-in-chief, the advertising market in Gori was virtually dead. But, the activities of the advertising agency brought quite a lot of advertisements; those advertisements are mainly announcements of biddings and commercials of various organizations. It all contributed to relative improvement of the newspaper's financial situation. At the moment Khalkhis Gazeti's circulation is 1,000 copies, 90% of that amount is subscriptions.

Rezo Okruashvili says that due to the social hardship of the local population, the newspaper decided to lower its price from 50 tetris to 30 tetris. That amount is only sufficient for paying printing-house's expenses, but the advertising agency is starting to bring in small profits. The editor-in-chief says his goal is to be as close to readers as possible and to create conditions that would induce them to buy the newspaper. Besides, the readers can receive the newspaper on credit - in other words the distributors who bring the newspaper to subscribers allow the households to pay for four issues of the newspaper at the end of the month, the amount is 1,20 GEL.

Khalkhis Gazeti carries out monitoring of the budget expenses under the abovementioned project. Journalists of the newspaper pay particular attention to the expenses made under Village Assistance Program. Local journalists managed to uncover a number of violations. Recently, Khalkhis Gazeti conducted an original protest action because the budgeted organizations refuse to subscribe to the newspaper. According to Rezo Okruashvili regional administration and municipality independently decide what newspaper they want to subscribe to; but at lower levels there is certain pressuring that prevents those budgeted organizations to subscribe to the newspaper.

Regional administration and municipality regularly receive the newspaper; however, they haven't paid for the subscription yet, in order to protest against such attitude, all public institutions received the newspaper containing the following text: "We help IDPs and socially vulnerable individuals and since the authorities are also so poor we will help them too". Rezo Okruashvili says that action will be periodically repeated. He notes that journalists of Khalkhis Gazeti have no problems in obtaining public information from local authorities, but the situation is different in connection with Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Refugees.

Political parties show no particular interest in the newspaper in this pre-election period. The parties refrain from advertising their programs in the newspaper. The editor-in-chief is surprised by sluggishness of the opposition and calls them "white banner bearers". Journalists of the newspaper try to approach the political leaders themselves and take interviews from them in order to raise public awareness. The recent issue of the newspaper contained an interview with one of the leaders of oppositional Alliance for Georgia Tina Khidasheli.

Ten journalists of Khalkhis Gazeti have received accreditation in Gori district election commission; they will be covering the local elections. Up until recently the newspaper had only 3-4 journalists, but thanks to the project it was able to employ more correspondents. The project will be finished by the end of August this year, editor-in-chief thinks that the number of subscribers will increase by that time and the newspaper will be able to develop independently.