How to keep Ukraine at the top of your newsfeed (Patreon)

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

Thank you for your continued support. This is Elsa Court, the audience development manager at the Kyiv Independent. My job here is to help connect our journalism with readers like you — and to make sure the information you care about most reaches you.

Because so much of that reach depends on algorithms, feeds, and platforms that we can’t always control, I wanted to share a few simple, practical tips that can help you keep Ukraine at the top of your newsfeed.

We’re increasingly seeing that the world turns its attention to Russia’s war against Ukraine only when a new round of peace negotiations begins. Here on the ground, however, the war doesn't slow down between those waves of talks.

The front line continues to shift, Russian tactics are evolving, and the pace of battlefield technological innovation is moving at a breakneck speed. Understanding this is crucial to understanding the latest on peace talks.

If you’re outside Ukraine, it can be hard to stay informed about what’s going on — especially when algorithms hide news that matters simply because it isn’t trending.

We are working hard to bring you the truth from the ground, but as a digital publication, we are reliant on these algorithms — from social media and news aggregators to tech giants like Google — to bring you our stories. These companies aren’t always transparent about how these algorithms work, which makes it even more difficult to have agency over your news feed. 

So, we’ve put together a few quick tips on how you can fight back against the algorithm and keep Ukraine in the news you’re seeing. You can also forward this email to your friends or find the article on our website here.

Sign up for one of our newsletters

As a member, you already receive some of our updates — but you can customize what you get or sign up for more. Our most popular newsletter, Ukraine Daily, gives you a summary of news from Ukraine every day. It is also the oldest newsletter and the first-ever product launched by the Kyiv Independent in 2021, shortly after we were founded. 

If you prefer a weekly summary of the most important news with personal commentary from our editor-in-chief, Olga Rudenko, sign up for Ukraine Weekly — sent every Saturday. 

Our other newsletters help you stay informed on specific topics. These include War Notes, which provides front-line analysis and personal accounts of the war, and Explaining Ukraine, where culture reporter Kate Tsurkan covers Ukrainian culture, history, and sociopolitics. We also have weekly newsletters on Russia and on Belarus, as well as on Ukraine’s business and tech sectors.

We recently launched One Story From Ukraine, a newsletter that highlights the top story of the day, selected by our editorial team, sent directly to you Monday through Friday.

Tell Google you want to see news from the Kyiv Independent

You can now tell Google that you want to see more of our content. Click this link and press follow, if you’re logged into your Google account. 

If you’re in the U.S., there’s another way to make sure that you can see content from specific publications more frequently. Simply search for a news topic on mobile (think “Ukraine news” or “Volodymyr Zelensky”) and find Google’s Top Stories section, which should be located at the top of the search results. To the right of the title “Top Stories,” you should see a star icon — click this icon, and you can select the Kyiv Independent as a source. Then, you’ll see our content in Top Stories whenever you search for this topic. Google will likely roll out this feature in other countries in the future.

Use the power of social media 

It’s straightforward, but worth mentioning. You can follow the Kyiv Independent on our social media accounts — Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn — to make sure our news is included in your feed. You can even take additional steps to let the algorithm know you want to see our posts, like subscribing to our YouTube channel and turning on notifications or adding the Kyiv Independent to “favorites” on Instagram.

Interact with the news you want to see more of

Besides following the Kyiv Independent, you can influence your algorithm by liking posts, leaving comments, resharing to your story, or sending friends the links. Your engagement can also help push content to other users — for example, watching our YouTube videos through to the end will increase the chances that this video is shown to other viewers as recommended content. Reading an article to the end can also push similar engagement signals to Google, helping it get featured more prominently by Google’s algorithm.

Your support as a member already plays a crucial role in keeping our newsroom independent and resilient. You make it possible for our reporters to work on the ground and bring reliable journalism to millions of readers each month.

Thank you for being part of this community — and for helping us keep the world’s attention on Ukraine, not only when the war becomes “headline news,” but every day in between.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to reach out via email at community@kyivindependent.com.

Warm regards,

Elsa Court