The Sofia Globe and Patreon
For The Sofia Globe, there was a life before Covid-19; now the daunting challenge is to ensure that there is a life beyond it. One response is the Globe’s Patreon account.
Since its founding in June 2012, The Sofia Globe has kept to our Editorial Charter. We have no ties to any political party, business grouping or other media group, in Bulgaria or anywhere else.
Since day one, I have been, and remain, the sole owner of 100 per cent of the company’s capital. To refer to that Bulgarian phrase, no one “stands behind” me. That is the way of true journalistic independence, but also an extremely tenuous existence.
Over the eight years since the Globe was founded, and at a time when we now have close to 19 000 stories online, advertising has been our staple income. Our audience always has been a good bet for advertisers – one small example is how, compared with just two years ago, our daily views have increased fivefold.
The onset of the Covid-19 crisis, as it did with media across the globe (pun intended), had a devastating effect on revenue. Yet even as we have sat day and night, seven days a week, putting out the most reliable and accurate information about new coronavirus in Bulgaria, even amid the strain, we made one vow to ourselves – to carry on, somehow, not to let the efforts of eight years come to naught. A vow made even as we watched our Facebook and Twitter follower numbers soar as people discovered The Sofia Globe’s new coronavirus coverage.
Thus March 2020 brought the opening of The Sofia Globe’s Patreon account. For those not familiar with the Patreon platform, it enables patrons to support a content creator through small monthly sums – the options are three euro (about 5.86 leva), nine euro or 25 euro – again, once a month. I liked our supporter who said that it was the equivalent of paying a tiny sum for a daily newspaper – three euro a month means about 10 euro cents a day.
Becoming a Patreon supporter of The Sofia Globe has two dimensions. Whenever we can, we post exclusive content available only to subscribers – comment, background, analysis. Once a week on Sundays, there is a regular roundup of the most important news of the week in Bulgaria. The second dimension is, indeed, keeping your daily online newspaper going.
Yes, keeping going a Sofia Globe that is independent, professional, committed to serving nothing other than the interests of our readers, providing you with the most relevant and accurate stories and not bothering you with nonsense, speculation and trivia (we rather pride ourselves on the latter).
For The Sofia Globe, there was a life before Covid-19; our vow is that there should be a life beyond it. To join us in keeping that vow, please click on the orange button below.
