The fall and rise of Russian media

On 18 October, the magazine Russkiy Newsweek hit the news-stands for the last time. Over the six years or so that it had been published in Russia under licence from the owners of the US Newsweek magazine, it had built up a talented group of journalists and gained a reputation for feisty, independent reporting that was often critical of the government. Its young editor-in-chief, Mikhail Fishman, had even been the victim of an internet smear that some linked to pro-Kremlin youth groups and others to the security forces.

The reason for Russkiy Newsweek's demise, though, appears to have been purely economic. Despite its good standing among the journalistic community, it had never made a profit. So it was perhaps not surprising that its German publisher, Axel Springer, finally decided to pull the plug.

Russkiy Newsweek joins a number of other national publications that have succumbed to harsh economic forces over the past couple of years. They include Business Week, which closed down in April 2008; Moskovskiy Korrespondent - a title owned by the proprietor of the London Evening Standard and the Independent, Aleksandr Lebedev - which folded in October 2008; and another business publication, Smart Money, which went under in May 2009. In addition, earlier this year the upmarket daily Gazeta ceased publication of its hard-copy version and reverted to being one of Russia's many internet-only news publications.

Other publications and outlets have been forced to take drastic cost-cutting measures. Some, such as the quality dailies Kommersant and Novyye Izvestiya, cut their page numbers. Kommersant also cut jobs, as did the investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta and business daily Vedomosti, which severely scaled back its regional operations. Pay cuts have also been rife. Staff at the editorially independent radio station Ekho Moskvy volunteered for this option in order to minimise redundancies.

State-owned media were partly insulated from the harsh economic climate, but they also had to tighten their belts. Two of those earmarked for the chop at the state-controlled Channel One TV were journalists Oleg Ptashkin and Elkhan Mirzoyev. Ptashkin and Mirzoyev, though, refused to take their fate lying down. When they were given notice in March 2009, they barricaded themselves in the Ostankino TV tower, declared a hunger strike and even threatened to set fire to themselves unless they were given their jobs back.

Two months later a court ruled Ptashkin's dismissal had been illegal and ordered his reinstatement. He has since left the channel.

Overall, though, Russian media have proved pretty resilient to the economic downturn. Many predicted the roll-call of major closures would be even longer.

The main reason for the gloom had been the sharp decline in advertising revenues. According to figures produced by the Association of Russian Communication Agencies (AKAR), the media advertising market in Russia fell by 27% in 2009 - from R277bn to R204bn (around £5.6bn to £4.1bn according to current exchange rates).

Print publications were worst hit, suffering a 43% fall in advertising revenues; closely followed by radio stations, which saw a 36% drop. TV channels fared only a little better, with an 18% dip. Only the internet bucked the trend, increasing its advertising revenue by 8%.

Now, however - notwithstanding the demise of Russkiy Newsweek - the picture is looking much rosier. The latest AKAR figures show market growth of 10% in the first half of 2010. The rate of growth in the three months from April to June was even faster, at 15%.

Again, it was internet advertising that blazed the trail, growing by a third to just over R11bn for the half-year. TV and radio advertising both grew by 7%, and press advertising lagged slightly, recording 6% growth.

Forecasts are now bullish. Russia's largest advertising sales house, Video International, is predicting the market will grow by 14% in 2010 and 16% in 2011, which will take it back to near pre-crisis levels. It also thinks the growth will continue at similar rates until 2015, by which time the internet will be generating more advertising revenue than the press.

A forecast by the ZenithOptimedia for the next couple of years comes up with similar figures.

This optimism opens the door for new media projects. One recent start-up is Dozhd TV (Rain TV), which was set up in March and, appropriately, calls itself the "optimistic channel". It broadcasts via the internet and mobile technology until its launch on the NTV+ satellite platform in September.

According to director-general Natalya Sindeyeva, Dozhd TV is an unashamedly aimed at an upmarket audience. "We are not building McDonald's - big, mass TV," she told the internet newspaper Chastnyy Korrespondent on 1 October.

She also said the channel, which broadcasts round the clock, will have a "large volume of news content" as well as "very difficult" documentaries and off-beat music.

Although it is a minor channel, Dozhd has already made an impact, and, as the Chastnyy Korrespondent reporter noted, some people are comparing it to the NTV of the 1990s, when this channel was owned by the tycoon Vladimir Gusinskiy and was a byword for independent reporting.

Dozhd TV has also come to the aid of one of the victims of the downturn: until a couple of weeks ago, the channel's new editor-in-chief, Mikhail Zygar, was deputy to the editor-in-chief of Russkiy Newsweek.