INMA Elevate Scholar: Eva Gaigalniece of TVNet Grupa
Editor's Inbox | 31 March 2024
In December 2023, INMA and Google News Initiative (GNI) awarded their fourth annual Elevate Scholarship to 50 news media professionals from 31 countries. This series features these impressive media professionals who are shaping our industry.
It hasn’t taken Eva Gaigalniece long to make her presence known in journalism. Just four months into her career with TVNet Grupa — the largest media group in Latvia — Eva won the Westphalia Peace Prize Scholarship for Young Journalists, thanks to her series on COVID-19 restrictions and whether all human rights were being respected.
Now, after three years with TVNet Grupa, she has risen to the role of senior news editor, and her passion about all aspects of the news media industry continues to grow.
“I write long, analytical, and summarising articles about politics, economics, issues important to society, personal stories, interviews, and other types of content created specifically for a paid content service,” she said.
She follows the daily analytics to see what’s working with the target audiences on social media and through various campaigns.
“I actively follow the journalism business of news media and developments in order to be able to improve and provide what is necessary for the market,” she said, noting she diligently follows the data these days: “It is important for me to understand whether the article is performing, whether it has feedback, how many people it has reached and what could be done better. All this is helped by statistics.”
In her time in the industry so far, she said she has already learned a great deal and, as an Elevate Scholarship recipient, she is eager to learn more.
“I want to learn more about the media business, learn more details about data and statistics, and ways and tools to make an article reach the largest possible audience,” she explained. “I will be glad to apply these skills to myself on a daily basis and also contribute more to the creation of the monthly strategies of the news team.”