ARKA – 30 Years: How to Maintain Trust When Models Are Collapsing
YEREVAN, May 1. /ARKA/. On May 1, 2026, the ARKA news agency turns 30.
For any media outlet in the post-Soviet space, and especially in Armenia, this is more than just a date. It is a journey through changing eras, crises, technological upheavals, wars, economic turmoil, and the constant need to re-answer the question: why do you keep doing what you do?
We started as a small group in 1996, full of enthusiasm, feeling that we could do anything, and, of course, with no idea of the difficulties that lay ahead. And it’s a good thing we didn’t know, otherwise we might have simply given up.
Back then, we were the fourth news agency in Armenia. But it was clear from the very beginning: if we simply copied others, we wouldn’t have our own identity. That’s why we chose our own path—we created an economic news agency. It was a conscious decision: not to cover socio-political news, but to occupy a niche that was just beginning to take shape alongside the new Armenian economy.
It was a special time. Entrepreneurship in the country was just beginning to take shape. Banks were taking their first steps, businesses were learning to navigate the new environment, and the media were also finding their footing. Everyone was a pioneer. In their respective fields, people weren’t just creating a company or a product—they were shaping a new professional culture.
Perhaps it was precisely this sense of the times that shaped ARKA. We didn’t grow within an established system—we grew alongside it.
The first major upheaval: the internet
One of the first major challenges for us was the advent of the internet. To many outsiders, it looked like natural technological progress. For the media, it was a much more profound turning point. The familiar subscription-based monetization model collapsed. News became accessible to everyone, and with that came disappointment: what had once been a professional product came to be perceived, at some point, as free by default.
Another concern arose: if news is accessible to everyone, fewer people will pay for it, and there will be more and more competitors in a small and essentially unregulated market.
But we never feared losing sight of the purpose of our work. We were ready to learn, adapt, and restructure ourselves to meet new technological conditions. And perhaps that is exactly what helped us survive: not clinging to the old way of doing things just because it was familiar, but seeking a new approach to our work without betraying our own principles.
When there is too much information, maintaining trust is more important
Then came the next phase: the internet became flooded with countless websites, platforms, news feeds, and random players. There wasn’t just a lot of information—there was too much of it.
Then came social media—and this dealt another heavy blow to traditional media. At first, it looked like a new opportunity: quick access to an audience, direct contact with readers, new promotional formats. But it soon became clear that the media had once again become dependent on someone else’s infrastructure.
Newsrooms invested resources in developing their pages, adapted content to algorithms, and learned to play by the platforms’ rules—only to lose more and more control over distribution and monetization as a result. Social media platforms captured a significant portion of audience attention and advertising revenue, while traditional media increasingly found themselves in the role of content providers for platforms that themselves determined to whom, when, and in what volume that content would be shown.
Today, a new challenge has emerged alongside these existing ones: artificial intelligence. It is once again changing the rules of the game for the media: a portion of search traffic is shifting to AI services, users are increasingly receiving ready-made answers without visiting a website, and editorial content risks becoming raw material for third-party technology platforms. For the media, this poses a new risk of losing traffic, monetization opportunities, and direct engagement with their audience.
But at the same time, it is a new test of quality. If, in the era of information scarcity, the main value was the news itself, and in the era of social media—speed and reach—then now originality, verification, professional expertise, and the source’s reputation are becoming increasingly important.
In this new reality, it has become abundantly clear that the media can no longer exist simply as an editorial office in the old sense. It is no longer enough to merely produce news. One must be able to work with the flow of information as a system: analyze, structure, package correctly, deliver to the right audience, and turn it into value.
The media world has shifted from a shortage of information to an excess of it, from control over distribution to the dominance of platforms, from news as a product to information as infrastructure. In these conditions, it is not those who simply write faster who survive, but those who know how to maintain quality, trust, and meaning.
The Toughest Years
Over the past 30 years, ARKA has weathered many difficult periods. But the pandemic and the 44-day war in Karabakh were, perhaps, the toughest trials of all.
The pandemic was crushing us financially. We were losing revenue, clients, and stability. But the war drained not only our business but also our human resources. There was a sense of emptiness; we didn’t want to keep working. People couldn’t handle the strain and left. At one point, I just wanted to shut everything down and walk away from the media industry altogether.
A conversation that made it easier to breathe
At some point, I realized we had to snap out of this stupor. I gathered the team and stated plainly: either we stay in this state, in which case it would be more honest to just go home, or we move forward and acknowledge that both we and our country have a future.
It was an honest, difficult conversation. But it is precisely in moments like these that many things fall into place.
That’s when we named one of our new special projects “Armenia—There Is a Future.” For me, it wasn’t just a name. It was an inner choice. A refusal to remain paralyzed. A decision to move forward, even when I had almost no strength left.
And my colleagues supported me. We were able to get through that difficult period.
My wife—my friend and comrade-in-arms—and my team were always by my side. During the difficult periods of my life, their support proved decisive. It was their faith, their willingness to stay by my side and keep moving forward, that became one of the main reasons why the ARKA news agency survived.
What 30 years in the media really teach you
Over the years, I’ve come to realize a few things. First, you can’t stop growing. The world changes too quickly to rely on yesterday’s experiences. You have to constantly work on yourself, keep up with trends, sense what’s coming, and learn before circumstances force you to.
Second, leadership is, above all, about responsibility. Not grand words, not a title, not status, but the ability to make decisions at a moment when there is no complete clarity, and the consequences affect more than just you.
Third, the most important thing is people. You can change models, platforms, technologies, and formats, but at the heart of any sustainable business, there is still a team of professionals.
And perhaps one of my main personal conclusions is this: it’s better to act and regret it than to do nothing and regret it for the rest of your life.
Why Trust Is the Most Important Asset
If you asked me what I consider ARKA’s greatest achievement over the past 30 years, I wouldn’t start by talking about numbers, reach, or projects.
The most important thing is that we have established our own school of quality journalism.
For me, quality journalism means accuracy, responsibility, professional ethics, depth, respect for the reader, fact-checking, and discipline in handling information.
Our main editorial rule has remained unchanged all these years: speed must not come at the expense of quality.
Verifying and fact-checking news, and refusing to publish unverified information, is not just an editorial technique. It is a matter of reputation. Over the years, our main assets have become expertise and trust.
But over the past 30 years, ARKA has become more than just a news agency. We have built a professional information ecosystem around us that serves businesses, banks, the financial sector, investors, international organizations, and everyone who makes decisions based on high-quality information.
Today, ARKA is more than just a daily news feed. It monitors the economy, banks, companies, regulators, and markets. It consists of analytical products, weekly reviews, sector-specific analysis, banking and financial digests, ratings, special projects, and customized solutions for clients. Our mission is not simply to record events, but to explain what they mean for the market, companies, and a professional audience.
That is precisely why I increasingly think of media not just as an editorial office, but as infrastructure. If your information is trusted, if businesses, banks, institutions, and international partners make decisions based on it, then you are no longer just publishing news. You become part of the system that underpins the professional environment.
In a world oversaturated with information, trust is becoming almost the only truly rare commodity. It cannot be bought, it cannot be copied, and it cannot be built with a single successful project. It accumulates over the years and is tested, above all, in times of crisis.
And this is precisely where I see the meaning of ARKA’s future.
Konstantin Petrosov
Director of ARKA News Agency
