OREANDA-NEWS  On 25 February was announced, that working to build a more transparent relationship between advertisers and media outlets in Moldova, Eurasia Foundation (EF) launched the Developing Viable Media initiative with funding support from the Royal Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and USAID. EF awarded a grant to the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) to create an Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), which will track and collect data on ownership, advertising revenues and circulation of media outlets across the country.

Recent studies have shown that the creation of an entity to monitor and analyze the circulation of print media will improve the transparency and commercial viability of newspapers, and thus is crucial for media development in Moldova.

“The lack of independent mechanisms for auditing the circulation of newspapers and journals and uneven economic development across Moldova makes it more difficult for some media outlets to operate, prompting us to establish an ABC here,” said Nadine Gogu, project director of the IJC.

The ABC is expected to launch in June 2009 and after a media campaign and series of meetings with various stakeholders, a working group has been established consisting of Moldovan media outlets, advertising agencies and their clients. Twenty-seven members have joined the group: 15 media institutions, eight advertising agencies and four advertising clients. IJC, however, will not be a founding member of the ABC in order to remain independent.

The representatives of the working group published a common declaration in which they expressed the importance of an ABC in Moldova and described the advantages of such an entity for media development. "We believe that the Audit Bureau of Circulation will improve the transparency of newspapers’ circulation figures, increase investments in print media and, therefore, foster the development of a viable media market in Moldova," the group said in their statement.