Journalists of Kazakhstan count on online journalism and choose Instagram as the key platform. A large number of followers on Instagram allows one to make money by attracting advertisers. But to make a media outlet profitable, one should gain popularity and respect in society. How one can do it without money at the very beginning?
Popularity attracts money
Last summer, journalist based in Ust-Kamenogorsk (administrative centre of East Kazakhstan region) Daryn Nursapar received a certificate of media outlet registration and opened an account on Instagram named bizdin_oskemen. He posts important news of the region on the page.
“Last August, I quit my job and decided to develop my account on Instagram, promoted it for a while, and then quit it. But this year I decided to run my public account seriously,” the journalist said.
Now Daryn’s account on Instagram has over 21 thousand followers, and over 60 thousand people follow the account named bizdin_oskemen on Facebook and TikTok.
Daryn does not consider his public account and activity as a full-fledged journalism. He rather calls it blogging.
“For example, I can visit a district, and take a beautiful video of the nature as a mobilographer, write some text, add music to it and post it. The video causes the reaction of my followers. People start commenting on the video, discussing it,” Daryn Nursapar said.
According to the journalist, it was difficult for him financially. Once he became a little popular, advertisers began to contact him. However, his income is little for the time being. The second way to earn money is to get a government order from the city akimat.
“I take videos of how the akim arrives at a facility and speaks about construction completion dates, asks if contractors can complete the project in time, etc. Such videos are informational in nature. But I cannot quit government contracts for now as I have to make a living,” said Daryn Nursapar.
It’s better on the internet
Journalist Askar Aktleu has long dreamed of his own media outlet and launched the newsletter ‘Tilshi’ (translated from Kazakh as ‘journalist’) in 2010. It was a socio-political weekly news bulletin covering the news of Kazakhstan.
“I started it with pure enthusiasm. The printing house always checked if I affixed my signature to ensure that I was personally responsible for the content of the newsletter. Back then, I earned well as a freelancer in several media outlets and I invested my money in the newsletter. But one day I ran out of money and those who promised to help me just vanished,” Aktleu said.
After a while, Askar opened the website tilshi.kz and continued to publish news bulletins there, and refused the printing version. According to him, it is easier to work on a website than in the printing version.
“I did not run the website all the time because I had to earn a living, so my audience grew and diminished from time to time. But the website still exists and I publish materials there,” the journalist said.
He posts content on his tilshi.kz account on Instagram. His account has over 20 thousand followers now.Askar is strongly against government contracts and wants to earn money by advertising. To do so, he runs projects in Aktobe, where he gathers local businessmen, invites speakers to such meetings, and makes content for his website and social media accounts during the events.
“Even western media outlets have small incomes. They earn money by holding events, making documentaries, by production (not journalism as it is – Author’s note). I also create the platform for businessmen, where they get useful information on how to hold negotiations, make sales. I monetise these meetings and make content there. I involve the audience by means of content,” said Askar Aktleu.
Askar has also launched the media school for journalists.
“Sometimes, I get grants, invite trainers. However, I don’t want to rely on grants, I want to earn money by doing business, by advertising,” said Askar Aktleu.
Independence vs. money
Bagdat Asylbek is now a full-time journalist at the international media outlet in Kazakhstan. Earlier, he collaborated with editorial departments of local media outlets. In 2019, together with his colleague Elnur, he opened a Telegram channel ‘Ras_aitam’ (translated from Kazakh as ‘I am telling the truth’). They did not register their media outlet. According to Bagdat, it is not necessary to be licensed as a media outlet in order to practise journalism today.
“People gather in the square and say, ‘I have a right to speak out.’ The same is true for a journalist – I have a right to spread information,” Bagdat Asylbek said.
According to Bagdat, he and his colleague first wanted to practise investigative journalism.
“Back then, in 2018-2019, there were few journalistic investigations in Kazakhstan, few reporters wrote about the family (he refers to the family of ex-president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev – Author’s note), almost no one monitored government procurements. And we looked for some events that went unnoticed, yet were of public concern, and we published them,” Bagdat Asylbek said.
In summer 2020, one year after the launch of the Telegram channel, the authors opened the Instagram account with the same theme. Now their Instagram account has just under two thousand followers. However, they stopped making posts after July 2023. According to Bagdat, he has neither time nor money to run the project because he has to meet deadlines in his main job.“I would like to quit my job in the long run and to be fully involved in my project. I believe I will not be able to do it in the next five years because it is impossible to meet one’s material needs why being an independent journalist in Kazakhstan,” journalist Bagdat Asylbek said.
Content is the main thing
According to media expert Asiya Akisheva, content is a key to success among journalists.
“Being an editor and journalist writing in the Kazakh language, I can say that the more quality content is, the more opportunities you have to win grants and get commercial offers,” Akisheva said.
Some people in Kazakhstan believe that international grants should not be sought because in this case media outlets are unofficially regarded as ‘foreign agents’, which can cause problems. But according to Asiya Akisheva, there is nothing bad in winning international grants for the media development.
“As to the government support, I am strongly against it. I have worked in media outlets that did not get government support. No matter how hard it was, we, journalists, received our salaries, and were able to print out the newsletter. Media outlets can survive in Kazakhstan without government support if they create quality content that can arouse public interest,” said Asiya Akisheva.According to the expert, if journalists make the audience feel themselves as full-fledged members of the society, protect their rights, the audience will trust such media outlets and take part in processes initiated by journalists.
“What we see now is that the society pays more attention to the republican budgeting. This is much due to journalists and experts,” Akisheva said. “Journalists now have great opportunities and many empty niches to be filled.”
Main photo: Tatiana Trubacheva
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