He was relieved of duty as CEO of Netinfo, the largest group of digital media in Bulgaria in May. The reason: he became a public and spoke of pressure in certain editorial rooms of the group to publish “doubtful facts”. This happened a little after the majority owner of Netinfo, Nova Broadcasting Group, obtained new majority stakeholders – well -known businessmen from the Bulgarian transition to democracy.
Now, Hristo Hristov, who still has a minor participation in Netinfo, has several new efforts – all dedicated to his conviction that there could be freedom of expression, even in Bulgaria, thanks to innovative approaches and digital technology.
“But why still the media?” Didn’t you have enough? We asked. “Because the media give you something very special – a combination of the opportunity to do business and has a visible impact on society at the same time,” was his short response.
Back to the place where it all started
“Well, to be honest, it took me ten years in a way,” said Hristov. Before spending the last six years as CEO of Netinfo, in 2005, he founded and managed the Digital News Dariknews.bg website. After several acquisitions, it has become Netinfo, the largest digital media company on the Bulgarian market with more than 30 websites and portfolio applications.
“Now, I put blinds, I understand presentations, I make sales,” he smiles. There are currently three projects gravitating around him. Two of them are digital media where he is the initiator and the ideologist, and are created by the teams that have moved from Netinfo when he was dismissed. DSPORT.BG is a sports media and comments which was launched in early August, and a little later, a publication of new generals called dnews.bg came. The third is called Whitepress. It is a digital platform that allows agencies to buy native advertising in the media, give publishers and publishers to control content and help them better monetize their scope.
All these projects are dedicated to what he considers the future of the media and journalism – membership, opinions with faces, confidence and a technological battery behind this …
Hristo’s vision on media innovation
Sports and news websites are part of Independent Media Group, where Hristov acts as an investor and advisor. These are two of the verticals of a support to be developed. The idea is to be a content center and draw different formats and co -producers in various vertical sectors.
“The content of social media and the expert media”, is in a word what Hristov believes. Dsports.bg, for example, which started, produces dozens of videos for social media every week, meeting people where they are, instead of trying to attract them to a website. The sporting publication is now featuring Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and through these channels reached 1.5 million people on a weekly basis. “Advertisers still don’t get that. They are enthusiastic about modern concepts, but in the end, buy the same old banners as they know, ”he says. While the future, according to him, belongs to another type of advertising – native, often created for social networks, and different from traditional press releases which do not contain a grain of history and creativity; And various main sources of income – an audience that pays to trust the media.
With Whitepress which is indeed the product of a Polish startup, and Hristov crosses it in Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece, aims to create additional monetization opportunities for the media and facilitate the work of agencies. The idea behind the independent media company is to give its audience the information and explanations they really need to navigate in a day and ask them to support this financially. Some formats will be funded by crowdfunding, others will be behind a payment wall, he said. It’s just a matter of time, and develop a technological tool to make this possible, he says.
In the meantime, Hristov gathers around these projects of eminent journalists, some of which have also left the NOVA broadcasting group recently, such as Genka Shikerova, Miroluba Benatova, Draco Simeonov etc.
“A niche and an opportunity are to open up to the market right now. Just look at the models, ”he says. The question here is how Hristov will need before directing another large media group.