Today marks a year since Neatkarīgā stopped coming out in a paper format and switched to purely digital format. During the year, 1,549,438 readers read Neatkarīgā's articles in Latvian, of which 88 percent live in Latvia. Neatkarīgā is also read by Latvians living in the USA, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, etc. In total, during the year, Neatkarīgā's articles have been read 11,405,899 times.
Just a year ago, while the newspaper was published in paper format, only a few articles were posted on the website nra.lv, as posting all articles online would create undesirable consequences for the sales and subscription of the paper edition of the newspaper. Thus, a year ago, for most articles, it was not known how many readers were interested in all articles, which topics are the most interesting for readers, which topics are hardly read. When switching from a paper edition to a digital format, statistics on the number of unique readings, etc. have become available for each article. Such working conditions pose entirely new challenges in maintaining a balance between the societal importance of certain topics and the interest in increasing readings and readership. Unfortunately, many socially vital and important topics that are relevant to small and vulnerable groups of the population (rare diseases, disability issues, etc.) will have a predictably low, relatively small number of readers. On the other hand, there are topics whose public significance and impact on the future of Latvia may not be significant, but which are of great interest to readers (vaccination process, events in the sea eagle's nest, etc.). Therefore, the biggest challenge in the digital switchover was to find a balance between those topics that are of great general interest to readers and those that are of public importance, so that we do not abandon the standards of a quality daily press even in the digital switchover. By moving to a digital format, we've managed to maintain and even increase our total readership, as well as continue to work with advertisers in the new format. This, in turn, freed up resources for new challenges, and since October Neatkarīgā has been releasing the English version. As we were no longer dependent on press suppliers, we could ensure that the newspaper is published on Saturdays and, if necessary, on Sundays. In this mode, we published a digital newspaper during the extraordinary elections of the Riga City Council in August 2020.
In the transition to digital, we have most directly faced the challenges posed by a number of major digital giants, such as Google and Facebook, which have gained enormous market power in the digital environment. We began to point out the censorship of technology giants even before many of Latvia's political leaders realized the seriousness of the problem. We published several examples, but the most glaring example was when Facebook refused to even publish Neatkarīgā's advertisement, in which Lithuanian and Estonian English readers were invited to read Neatkarīgā's interview with the President of Latvia Egils Levits, which was connected with the Proclamation Day of the Republic of Latvia - November 18. When, at the beginning of March, Facebook censorship erased the poet Māra Zālīte's thoughts on Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš, Latvia's leading politicians also began to "notice" the problems posed by the omnipotence of technology giants and their enormous market power.
Unfortunately, those operating in the digital environment have to comply with the rules dictated by both Facebook and Google for all market participants. However, the winds of change have begun to blow. Australia has already passed legislative changes to reduce the market power of the technology giants. A similar movement has begun in the European Union. To a large extent, it is the rules of the game imposed on all by the big technology giants that stimulate companies in the field of information to look for and develop alternatives.
Regardless of the desire of technology giants to censor content, we also continue to communicate with our readers on Facebook in Latvian and English, Telegram in Latvian and English, Instagram, Signal in Latvian and English, Youtube.
Readers who want to receive Neatkarīgā by e-mail can subscribe here.
Just as all Neatkarīgā's articles are free to read, receiving Neatkarīgā in your e-mail is free as well.
Thanks to all readers of Neatkarīgā who have been with us for the first year in digital format! Together with you, we can build Neatkarīgā as a quality newspaper that protects the interests of our readers and the Latvian society.
*****
Be the first to read interesting news from Latvia and the world by joining our Telegram and Signal channels.