Telex's ninth transparency report

The operation of Telex is made possible by our supporters, which is why we consider it important to make our operations more transparent than is customary in Hungary. Our readers' support is not only important to us when things are difficult, but it is one of the things that guarantee our ability to operate independently and make plans for the long term. The more diverse Telex’s funding is, the less we will depend on any single government, major advertiser, or other market player.

This is why we prepare and publish a financial report each year, detailing how much money we have managed and how it was spent. The year behind us has been very busy, so it isn’t easy to list everything we’ve done, but we’ll give it a try.

This April, the government that had systematically attacked the independent press over the past 10–16 years was ousted. The ousted regime was responsible for closing down, crippling and harassing media outlets and for reducing several newsrooms to mere propaganda outlets.

Regardless of how social, political, legal, and market conditions evolve in Hungary, our work remains the same: we are committed to critical, independent journalism, and every day we strive to make sense of the world around us and ensure that our articles, reports, and videos reach everyone. And we do so without paywalls, keeping our content freely available. No matter who is in power, we hold them accountable. Just as we have done so far, we will continue to monitor what happens to public funds and to the country's citizens in the future too. In order to do this truly independently, we still need a significant portion of our revenue to come directly from our readers.

Let us review what we’ve done over the past year and how we’ve spent the funds we’ve received from our readers and from the market!

We wrote. A lot. Telex published more than 20,000 articles, news stories, interviews, analyses, and investigative reports, and we produced 300 videos, reportages, and live broadcasts. We reported on Áron Orbán’s shady dealings and the black-clad men protecting Viktor Orbán from counter-protesters; we exposed the irregularities surrounding the Samsung factory in Göd; we produced a documentary about student protesters, one about the hundreds of billions missing from the Hungarian National Bank, Hungary’s economic dead end; and we even interviewed Captain Pálinkás. Projects like these often involve weeks or months of work carried out by journalists, editors, videographers, and legal staff. Predictable funding is one of the things that allows us to devote time and resources to stories that do not necessarily generate immediate high traffic or advertising revenue.

We have become Hungary’s most-read news site; and our election-day coverage drew the country’s largest audience. Today, not only does Telex.hu attract 2.5 to 3 million monthly readers, but an audience nearly as large has also gathered around Telex's YouTube channel, making it one of the most-watched domestic public affairs channels. Meanwhile, the Reuters Institute’s annual report once again found Telex to be one of the most reliable Hungarian news sources.

That said, a big audience alone does not automatically mean stable funding. Given the size of the Hungarian advertising market, securely financing such a large editorial staff and funding an increasing number of video, cultural, educational, and other projects would not be sustainable on its own, which is why revenue from readers remains crucial.

We built a new studio—actually, two of them. Last year, when the government was planning to introduce measures to shut us down, and our readers rallied behind us in huge numbers in protest, we used that money to build a brand-new, television-quality studio, because our goal was to create the country’s most-watched public affairs channel in time for the election campaign. This is the studio in which everyone from Péter Magyar to Szilveszter Pálinkás to Péter Szijjártó gave memorable interviews. And since we produced a great many programs on public affairs—but life is not just about politics—we also used our reader's support to establish a production hub (called RGB Stream) where we primarily create programs focusing on cultural topics.

This is a good example of what reader support means to us: we don’t just use it to plug a hole in the budget; rather, we’re able to use it to create things that make Telex stronger in the long run.

Our live broadcasts have become a regular feature, and several new colleagues have joined us, allowing us to expand our editorial capacity to produce more political, economic, and video content. Our journalists and photographers have won ten awards over the past year, and we have begun new collaborations with top researchers, experts, and institutions.

Meanwhile, we launched Telex Karakter, where we cover literature and theater-related topics daily, and starting in 2026, Krisztián Nyáry’s “Buksó” is also published on Telex.

In the past year alone, we published five new books, and our readers have had more opportunities to meet us in person at various discussions, book launches, and film premieres.

We’ve relaunched the Telex Academy, a course on media literacy open to both high school students and teachers.

Some of these will be able to become self-sustaining from a business perspective, while other projects are only made possible because our readers support and their 1 percent tax donations allow us to invest in cultural content where the return on investment isn’t measured solely by short-term business considerations.

Here’s a list of everything else that’s happened:

• We turned 6!
• We’ve welcomed new colleagues to our team: Balázs Rédli and Anita Vorák from RTL, Bálint Fabók from Partizán, and Gergő Lovas from 444. Zsolt Sarkadi has also returned to the team from Partizán.
• In collaboration with the Equilibrium Institute, we started the series entitled "Hungary in the future tense".
• We published “Zsebtárcák 2” and “Zsebtárcák 3,” the book “Napirajz,” “Pénzkombájn,” “A 100 legfontosabb magyar lemez”, (The one hundred most important Hungairian albums) and “Ne higgy ennek a könyvnek!” (Don't believe this book!-our colleague's book on media literacy and how to recognize manipulated news)
• We were there at the Budapest International Book Festival and at the Book Week.
• We held a Christmas market and organized book signings for our authors.
• In addition to publishing our own books, we started a book retail business.
• We launched a new T-shirt collection at Telex Shop, issued a hiking passport, and now we even have sports T-shirts on offer.
• Our articles became available in Audio format too.
• As we’ve already mentioned, we built a new studio.
• We produced a feature-length film about the scandal at the Hungarian National Bank.
• Our “Most jövök” programme was recorded in front of a live audience at the Átrium (with András Péter Kovács, György Spiró and Eszter Ráskó as guests).
• Our birthday event held at Dürer Kert featured several concerts, talks, and workshops, and we had the opportunity to meet with thousands of our readers.
• We further strengthened our ties with G7, and the website got a new design.
• We launched a conference series on economics, with the next one—titled “The Race for Energy”—coming this fall, featuring the sector’s most important decision-makers, corporate leaders, and experts.
• Telex photographers won awards in six categories and took home the grand prize at the Hungarian Press Photo Contest.
• Renowned television host Emília Krug brought her program to Telex.
• Our colleague Gergely Brückner won an award for his article on crypto trading.
• Our colleague, Dóra Patakfalvi, received the Anna Földes Award of the National Association of Hungarian Journalists for her interview with Erika Renner.
• Vilmos Weiler received several awards for his investigative article on the Samsung factory.
• We organized hiking tours for our supporters.
• We launched “Helyben,” Telex's series on Hungarian counties.
• We continued our monthly Film Club at the Toldi Cinema with Dávid Klág.
• Our “Diszpó” newsletter became a series available in the newspaper as well.
• We collaborated with the Budapest International Film Festival and served as media sponsors for the Budapest Open Mic, the Kikeltető music talent search, and the World Press Photo exhibition.
• We were there at several festivals; at the Fishing festival in Orfű, Telex After held a daily discussion series.
• Telex photographer Orsi Ajpek received the Honorka Hégető Award.​​
• Last year, breaking all previous records, our readers donated more than 580 million forints to the Telex Foundation from 1 percent of their personal income tax. It is important to note, however, that the funds received from the 1 percent tax donations serve a different purpose than regular reader donations. This is a one-time, fixed-term resource, which primarily allows us to carry out additional projects that we would have far less opportunity to undertake from our day-to-day operating budget. These funds do not replace the predictable revenue we rely on to operate Telex month after month, and they must be spent within two years.
• Last year (in the fourth quarter, when we received these funds from the state), we spent 128 million forints, and in 2026, we will spend 454 million forints on amazing projects, which we will report on in detail in May 2027. We primarily use these funds to finance cultural programs, events, and publications, but it is also thanks to this support that we were able to revive the Telex Academy, which provides media literacy training to high school students and their teachers. We also collected 1 percent donations this year; the results will be known this fall. We will provide a detailed report on how the funds received last year were used at the end of the utilization period.

Our finances

We managed to increase our revenue from ad sales in 2025, and we also received more support from our readers than the year before. And we needed it, because our staff grew to over 130, we moved into a bigger, more modern office, upgraded our studio, and launched new publications and business branches. We ended the year with a very modest profit, which, as is our custom, we’re reinvesting in the company so we can continue to grow.