Portal Magločistač, based on the Serbian northern city of Subotica, in only three months of support provided through ‘Media for All’ managed to significantly increase its content production, audience and monetize its newly introduced services and partnerships. They also enlarged the team working for the portal and introduced new formats, such as Instagram stories, podcasts and video content. For the first time, the editorial team regularly promotes content via social networks.
Talking with numbers, their fast growth could be illustrated the following way:
- Production of own and localized content increased from 36% to 52% during the intervention,
- Number of visitors increased for 55 % during the first three months of business grant implementation,
- Number of page visits increased for 24 % within the same period,
- Number of engaged individuals on social networks is doubled,
- Portal earned 70 % of funds targeted for a one-year period after four months only – most of the income were from partnerships with local CSOs.
“When it comes to production of local news, all stories are authentic and produced by ourselves. We do not include press releases that are regularly disseminated by the local government or promo content for different local events. More and more, our community suggests topics they consider to be of the public interest and we follow it”, highlighted Mirana Dmitrović, editor in chief of Magločistač.
By the end of grant implementation Magločistač team will be focused on donations of its readers and campaign around it. The peak should be at the beginning of 2022 when they will launch a crowdfunding campaign to collect funds for equipment necessary to produce podcasts and MoJo content.
