With the support of the European Commission, eight independent media organisations across Europe have introduced Taktak, an innovative donation solution aimed at creating new revenue streams for quality journalism. In Ukraine, LB.ua is among the partners of this project.
“The main goal of Taktak is to create a new revenue stream for European media and independent journalists through an innovative mechanism that will encourage reader donations on a per-article basis, based on collaboration between actors to share revenue through easy-to-use technology and marketing tools,” the statement said.
The project is a response to the news industry’s ongoing challenge to find new economic models for quality journalism.
Taktak’s partners, which account for approximately 4.7 million unique visitors per month across Europe, believe that maximising collaboration is key to achieving financial sustainability.
The donation solution has been backed by media outlets covering individual cities (A MENSAGEM D’A BRASILEIRA LDA in Lisbon, POD TEPETO OOD in Plovdiv, Bulgaria), countries (La Marea in Spain, Left Bank in Ukraine), and internationally (WORLDCRUNCH). This broad scope allows the tool to operate at local, regional, national, and transnational levels, addressing the needs of young journalists facing job and income insecurity in the future.
The goal of Taktak’s solution is to increase revenue and promote quality journalism by combining three key elements in the current economic context:
- The collaborative relationship between media outlets and freelance journalists, who are becoming increasingly vital as staff positions are being cut.
- Untapped opportunities for media outlets to work together on joint reporting efforts, including multilingual projects.
- Growth in direct reader revenue, including donations.
The project also includes two major global organisations, Transitions and WAN-IFRA, which will actively collect data to support the concept and disseminate information to accelerate industry adoption.
Technology partner ATC has developed products and services for the media industry across Europe, with a particular focus on the Balkans and Eastern Europe. In recent years, ATC has prioritised tools to help media practitioners combat disinformation.
The secondary objectives of the Taktak project are to encourage better journalism, foster cooperation between actors, promote diversity of voices and media plurality, and increase interaction with readers. It also aims to build sustainability and share best practices among consortium partners and the media industry.
By combining article-specific donations with revenue sharing between journalists and media outlets, Taktak aims to incentivise high-quality and diverse reporting, generating greater donation revenue.