Kyiv Post
The Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and most prominent English-language newspaper. It was founded in 1995 in Kyiv by American businessman Jed Sunden.
In 2018, the publication was acquired by prominent Ukrainian businessman Adnan Kivan, founder of KADORR Group.
On November 11, 2021, Luc Chénier returned to Kyiv Post as its CEO to rebuild, with his first hire being Bohdan Nahaylo as its Chief Editor. Within two months, Kyiv Post had doubled its readership, with a clear emphasis on being Ukraine's global voice and by focusing on the USA, Canadian, the UK, and the European Union markets. By year 3, Kyiv Post had 97% of its readership outside Ukraine, with an combined websites and social media viewership of more than 6 million viewers per month. In October 2023, Kyiv Post was the first news organisations in Ukraine to be given a 100% content transparency and accuracy rating for journalism standards according to global rating platform News Guard.
Following the passing of Adnan Kivan in 2024, ownership of the newspaper passed to his son, Ruslan Kivan, who continues to develop the media project while maintaining its editorial independence and expanding its international presence. The newspaper’s CEO is Luc Chénier, and the Chief Editor is Bohdan Nahaylo.
The Kyiv Post headquarters is located at 68 Zhylianska Street, Kyiv.
Currently, the website is updated seven days a week, approximately 10 hours a day, and includes Kyiv Post exclusive content, news and photos from wire services and aggregated articles from other news sources about Ukraine.
History
American Jed Sunden founded the Kyiv Post weekly newspaper on 18 October 1995 and later created KP Media for his holdings. The newspaper, which went online in 1997, serves Ukrainian and expatriate readers with a general interest mix of political, business and entertainment coverage.Historically, the editorial policy has supported democracy, Western integration and free markets for Ukraine. It has published numerous investigative stories, including coverage of the 2000 murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze, in which ex-Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma is a prime suspect; the 2004 Orange Revolution, in which a massive public uprising blocked Viktor Yanukovych from taking power as president after the rigged presidential election of 26 November 2004; the 2013–14 EuroMaidan Revolution that overthrew Yanukovych as president; the Russian invasion of Crimea; the war in the Donbas region; and Oligarch Watch.
On 8 November 2021, the paper's website published a statement by owner Adnan Kivan announcing the temporary halt in operations of the newspaper claiming "One day, we hope to reopen the newspaper bigger and better." Reporters at the Kyiv Post replied in a joint statement that the sudden closure came on the heels of Kivan's attempt to "infringe" on their editorial independence. Some of these reporters founded a new English-language publication named The Kyiv Independent, which is funded by donations and published its first newsletter on 26 November 2021, and its website on December 2. Kivan later stated he intended to make the newspaper more advertisement-friendly.
On 11 November 2021, Luc Chénier, whose background is in advertisement, was appointed as new CEO on the Kyiv Post. On 24 December 2021, Bohdan Nahaylo was appointed as new editor and the paper resumed publication.
In 2024 Following the passing of Adnan Kivan, ownership of the newspaper passed to his son, Ruslan Kivan, who continues to develop the media project while maintaining its editorial independence and expanding its international presence as Ukraine’s true global voice.
Ownership history
The Kyiv Post has only had three owners in its existence: Jed Sunden, an American; Mohammad Zahoor, a British businessman of Pakistani origin; and Adnan Kivan, a native of Syria. In October 2024, Adnan Kivan died, and his son, Ruslan Kivan, took over as the publisher of Kyiv Post as well as Kadorr Group.Sunden's KP Media sold the newspaper to British citizen Zahoor on July 28, 2009. Zahoor owns the ISTIL Group and is a former steel mill owner in Donetsk. Zahoor published the newspaper through his Public Media company. In an interview with the Kyiv Post published on August 6, 2009, Zahoor pledged to revive the newspaper and adhere to its tradition of editorial independence.
On 21 March 2018, Odesa-based businessman Adnan Kivan, a Syrian native and Ukrainian citizen, purchased the Kyiv Post from Zahoor for a selling price both said was more than $3.5 million. Kivan pledged editorial independence of journalists in an interview with Kyiv Post former Chief Editor Brian Bonner. The newspaper is operated by his Businessgroup LLC. Kivan owns the KADORR Group of companies that specializes in construction and agriculture. His wife, Olga, and three children participate in his business. He used to be active in metals trading in the Black Sea port city from 1991-2007. In October 2024, Adnan Kivan suddenly died leaving the company to his son Ruslan Kivan to take over as CEO of Kyiv Post and Kadorr Group.
Sunden created the newspaper in the early years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, starting with $8,000 in capital, three computers and a staff of seven people working from a small flat in Kyiv. The first 16-page issue was put out by an editorial staff of two people. Sunden built the newspaper into a profitable enterprise, one that served the needs of the expatriate community that then regarded Ukraine as a potential hotspot for investment. During Sunden's tenure, he held to libertarian and anti-Communist views on the editorial and opinion pages, but established the business model of editorial independence on the news pages. He said the policy is good for business and news. Sunden was controversial for allowing paid "massage" advertisements from women engaging in ‘escort’ services.
After Zahoor bought the newspaper, he retained the entire editorial team. One of his first acts as publisher, however, was to eliminate the paid "massage" advertisements, saying he didn't want to own a newspaper that promoted ‘escort’ services. Zahoor sustained the policy of editorial independence, with limited exceptions. After the newspaper's editors endorsed Yulia Tymoshenko over Viktor Yanukovych for president in the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election, the publisher issued a policy to forbid editorial endorsements of any political candidate or political party, saying the newspaper should remain non-partisan even on its opinion pages. Zahoor relaxed the policy during the May 25, 2014 presidential election, when he and his wife, singer-actress Kamaliya, came out publicly in strong support of billionaire Ukrainian businessman Petro Poroshenko's election as president. While the newspaper was free to endorse any candidate for the election, its editorial board made no endorsement in the contest that Poroshenko easily won.
Zahoor's purchase and significant investment improved a newspaper that had been badly affected by the Great Recession, a sharp downturn that struck the Kyiv Post particularly hard in October–November 2008. The Kyiv Post lost advertising and cut costs, but still ended the year in the black, the last profitable year of its existence. In the last months under Sunden in 2009, the newspaper's editorial staff shrunk to 12 members, its page count to 16 and its print distribution to 6,000 copies.
Zahoor invested in journalists, increased distribution and improved newsprint. He boosted the page count—to 32 pages through much of 2010–2011, dropping back to 24 pages again through much of 2012-2013 and then to 16 or 24 pages since then. However, despite the investments, the Kyiv Post never regained consistent profitability, despite further staff and cost cuts, as print advertising continued to shrink, especially in the once all-important sector of employment advertising. However, combined with Zahoor's subsidies, the newspaper has been able to minimize financial losses through special publications, such as the Legal Quarterly, Real Estate and Doing Business supplements, as well as special events, including the annual Tiger Conference and others. The start of an affiliated nongovernmental organization, the Media Development Foundation, also raises money for independent journalism.
Kivan's first six months as owner have also seen renewed investment as the Kyiv Post hired three new foreign correspondents - Iryna Somer in Brussels, Askold Krushelnycky, a former chief editor of the Kyiv Post, in Washington, D.C.; and Olena Goncharova in Edmonton, Canada. Somer left her Brussels position at the end of 2018.
In 2024, following the passing of Adnan Kivan, ownership of the newspaper passed to his son, Ruslan Kivan, who continues to develop the media project while maintaining its editorial independence and expanding its international presence.
EuroMaidan Revolution and war in the Donbas
In 2013, the Kyiv Post covered what became known as the Euromaidan, which began on November 21, 2013, triggered by then-President Viktor Yanukovych's broken promise to sign a political and economic association agreement with the European Union. The Kyiv Post published hundreds of stories in print and online about the revolution, which ended in Yanukovych fleeing to Russia on February 21–22, 2014. The first Kyiv Post story about the revolution was published on November 22, 2013.After Yanukovych and many members of his government took up exile in Russia, the Kyiv Post covered the formation of an interim Ukrainian government, the Russian annexation of Crimea on February 27, 2014, the start of the war in the Donbas in April 2014 and the May 25, 2014, election of Petro Poroshenko as independent Ukraine's fifth president after Yanukovych, Viktor Yushchenko, Leonid Kuchma and Leonid Kravchuk.