We reached out to Igor Agarkov, publisher of Print+ magazine, to find out how he is continuing to work and inform the Ukrainian printing industry from the war zone around Kyiv.
How are you planning to continue to inform your readers in the coming weeks and months?
Everything will depend on the situation. Today, editorial staff are primarily concerned with personal security. Many families are in the occupied territory. I cannot demand their help in supporting my information efforts. I can only ask.
I post daily news on our website printus.com.ua, maintain a group and pages on Facebook and accounts on LinkedIn and Twitter, communicate with Ukrainian printers, and try to help them resolve issues as much as possible. I am trying to convince my colleagues in the EDP Association to support the printing industry in Ukraine and to systematically monitor and publish the statements of the world’s leading manufacturers with their assessment of aggression in Ukraine and their readiness to work with Russian companies.
I think that we will send small digests to our colleagues regarding the events in the Ukrainian printing industry with a request to distribute them in our channels. I’ll do it again if the situation allows!
Today, editorial staff is primarily concerned with personal security. Many families are in the occupied territory. I cannot demand their help in supporting my information efforts. I can only ask.
If we consider a longer period, I hope that it will be possible to resume publication of the paper edition. In addition, we came up with an interesting book project. I hope it will be possible to release it someday.
But these goals are too petty in these times. Of course, we will make every effort to help the affected colleagues.
How are your international advertisers and partners supporting you? What do you expect?
IA: Today the communication with Ukrainian vendor offices is difficult. It is difficult to talk about their main business and even harder to talk about PR. I am in touch with the heads of the offices of leading vendors. And as soon as the opportunity arises, we will bit by bit restore our traditional work.
Of course, I hope for direct support from global manufacturers of consumables and equipment. And I will ask for it in the near future, especially if we are talking about resuming publication of the Print+ magazine.
Another source of income is subscriptions to the electronic and paper versions of the magazine. We have a lot of outstanding and unpaid bills, but today, for obvious reasons, we have no good reason to insist on them being paid.
