How Romanian journalist Ioana Epure pivoted her expat-focused newsletter in Greece with the help of the Validation Booster programme
Back in my teens on the tennis team, we used to coach each other when it wasn’t our turn to play. Besides spotting the opponent’s weak spots, a solid understanding of my teammate’s mindset and condition on match day was essential. Was she confident enough to follow a strong baseline shot to the net? Would she dare risky second serves? Did her fitness promise a fighting chance when going to a third set?
If you are not into sports and the tennis analogy falls flat, my apologies! All I mean is this: coaching is fluid. It starts with a sharp read of the situation and adapts from there.
Fast forward to today: as a coach in the Validation Booster programme implemented by the Thomson Foundation under the Media Innovation Europe 2.0 project, we get six months to work with our mentees. By the end, participants emerge with a validated business idea, a solid pitch deck, and the confidence to launch their product or service idea.
One of my mentees in the November 2024 – April 2025 cohort was Romanian journalist and editor Ioana Epure. She showed true sportsmanship, saying of the programme:
“Even if the project you applied with isn’t validated, the knowledge gained allows you to pivot or pursue other opportunities with a stronger foundation.”
Ioana came in to test whether expats in Greece – or potential sponsors – would pay for a comprehensive English-language news roundup. A passion project, yes, but one that increasingly consumed her time without comparable compensation. A perfect case for this programme, where everything revolves around finding product-market fit first.
From our very first call, it was clear: Ioana was a strong-willed, focused, and highly capable professional – someone who would find her way with or without help. My job? Similar to the one on the courtside bench: offering encouragement when momentum dropped, urging patience when tides turned, and nodding affirmatively to help keep her on course.
At the time, she had just completed a quick reader survey with impressive results. Loyal fans were quick to reply raving about the useful information and the humour of her weekly newsletter. But would they still feel the same if there were a price tag attached? Soon after, Ioana wanted to introduce a donation model to test this. I suggested holding off until the validation phase. She agreed.
From there, she stayed patient and focused. She clearly defined her two customer segments – new and more established expats – and cleverly branded her focus groups as “community gatherings,” hinting at a future service her audience craved: real-life meetups built on meaningful conversation, not just drinks and small talk.
As she put it:
“The core value they find in my newsletter is its authenticity, combined with its practical utility for their daily lives. They lack a sense of community, and my newsletter has the potential to fill that gap.”
One unexpected twist: her most devoted readers weren’t the newcomers she’d initially imagined. Her assumption was that readers needed help navigating their new lives in Greece including local customs, bureaucracy, that sort of thing. But survey results told a different story: 52.5% of her most engaged readers had lived in Greece for over three years; 35% for more than seven. And more than 70% of them were women – around 66% were over 35.
What do you do when the game changes? You adjust your play. One of Ioana’s biggest learnings was this shift in audience understanding: her core users are women over 35, established in Greece for at least four years, often working in the creative industries. To serve them better – and turn her newsletter into something they’ll happily pay for – she now wants to double down on deep commentary, cultural insights, and curated travel tips.
With two in-person community gatherings under her belt, she launched her donation model and is now exploring an audio version of the newsletter.
All in all? I’d say she took the first set 6:2.
Author: Christine Liehr
Validation Booster programme is impelemented by Thomson media, as a part of Media Innovation Europe 2.0., it is led by the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI); the consortium brings together Thomson Media (TM), The Fix Foundation (TFF), and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN). The programme is co-funded by the European Union.
