“We are anti-trend.” Editor-in-Chief of Russian Reporter about the crisis and the new format of the magazine. Events Direct from Assange

The Russian Reporter magazine, which stopped publishing in the second half of 2016, resumes publication at the end of February 2017. The first issue of the revived magazine will be published on February 27, according to the magazine’s Facebook page.

We found a simplification of topics and plots in the media space, and a deficit in the reporter’s description of life,” the report says. - We also discovered a demand for such a description, which became the impetus for the resumption of production. Our media environment as a whole copes with the tasks of producing relevant news; social networks are full of all possible opinions and disputes. But this is not enough for the public discussion to be meaningful: behind the abundance of news and opinions, stories disappear, meaning and understanding of the country and people disappear.

The editors plan, as before, to devote large space to large texts and reportage photographs, to write about social activity, social conflicts and enterprising citizens.

- “Russian Reporter”, as before, will tell through large texts and reportage photographs about the informal side of our life: social activity, deep social processes and conflicts, self-organization of citizens, about people who equip their cities and build civilization in Russia, about social leaders and volunteers, about entrepreneurs with a social mission, about leaders in the field of education, culture, science, engineering, about professional and moral authorities who are respected by colleagues, but are almost unknown to the country, say RR employees.

Until the end of 2017, it will be published regularly every two weeks on Mondays.

Let us remind you that the situation with the publication of the Russian Reporter magazine should be resolved by the end of the year, said Valery Fadeev, general director of the Expert media holding. The last issue of the magazine was published in July. The suspension of the release of "Russian Reporter" was then explained by work on its update. It was assumed that the publication would continue to be printed from the second half of November - this was stated in a letter from the head of the distribution department of Expert Group JSC, posted in the Russian Reporter group on the social network.

It was noted that the concept of the publication, the style and work scheme of the editorial office would be changed, and the magazine itself would change the frequency of publication - from once every two weeks to once a month. This should not have been the first change in the magazine’s publication schedule: until February 2015, Russian Reporter was published weekly.

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The Russian Reporter magazine, which is published by the Expert media holding, missed the release of five issues and may probably miss at least two more. The editors of the publication promise that it will resume its work in November.

Subscribers have not received the magazine since July 21, 2016. Several users of the official website complained about this fact. groups publications on the social network VKontakte. They indicated that the latest issue was dated before July 7th. The issues of August 4 and August 18 were also not published. Subscribers of the magazine also noted that they were unable to receive information on the toll-free number 8 800 200 80 10. On the publication’s website, this number is listed as a phone number where you can call with questions regarding subscription, payment and delivery.

A representative of the publication, answering questions, suggested tracking the release of issues on a special page website of the "Russian Reporter" and send requests by subscription to email [email protected].

On October 3, the same group published a photocopy of a letter signed by the head of the distribution department of Expert Group OJSC, Vladimir Fedorov, apparently intended for internal distribution. The document reported that delays in the publication of the magazine were due to the need to reformat the publication. “Without these changes, given the current situation on the market for printed products, the existence of the Russian Reporter as a sought-after product is highly doubtful,” the letter says. It also reports that a decision has been made to transfer the publication to a monthly format with an increase in the number of pages and the selling price. The release of the updated magazine, according to the letter, is scheduled for the second half of November 2016.

The management of the Expert Publishing House could not confirm information about the transition to a monthly format, as well as the authenticity of the letter to Lenizdat.Ru. The publication's editor-in-chief Vitaly Leibin also declined to comment.

In September, the magazine “Expert”, owned by the same holding, was published. According to one source of the RNS agency, the omission was due to the “economic difficulties” of the magazine, another source claimed that the omission of the issue was technical.

The Expert media holding was created in 1995. From July 2006 to the present, the general director is Valery Fadeev, a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. The holding owns the business weekly Expert, the Russian Reporter magazine, five regional business applications Expert (North-West, South, Kazakhstan, Ural, Siberia), as well as Expert websites Online", RusRep.ru and the international rating agency "Expert RA".

The head of the holding, Valery Fadeev, has been the host of the weekly final program of Channel One since September 2016, replacing Irada Zeynalova in the frame. In addition, Fadeev is a member of the Supreme Council of United Russia and one of the leaders of the party’s “liberal platform”. He is also a member of the leadership of the All-Russian Popular Front.

“The Secret of the Firm” stopped publishing on paper, “Russian Reporter” announced the transition to a regime of two issues per month. Media expert Dmitry Mikhailin spoke about what other “surprises” await us in the print media market in 2015 in his column on the ZhurDom portal.

What is a crisis for print media? Firstly, a reduction in the advertising market and, accordingly, a reduction in sales of advertising space. Secondly, an increase in the price of printing even for those who print in Russia: the industry has a large import component - coated paper, paint, components for printing machines.

Plus components that are not related to the crisis and sanctions, but directly affect the economic state of publishing houses: it is still prohibited to advertise alcohol and cigarettes, and they occupied up to half of the advertising space in some magazines. Plus, or rather, in this case, minus is the refusal of the state, starting from this half of the year, to subsidize postal delivery and a general reduction in government spending.

Some colleagues express an optimistic forecast that the print media market will clear up, unnecessary ones will leave it, freeing up the kiosks for in-demand publications.

I do not think so. In fact, the first to feel the problem will be those newspapers and magazines that spend serious money on content. Simply put, those who engage in quality journalism buy good photographs, bring reports back from business trips, and do not do them at their desks. If, when the advertising market was growing, their debits and credits converged, then when the advertising market collapsed, they would stop converging. A striking example is “Russian Reporter”. The guys make the best humanities magazine in the country, but they had problems long before the crisis. They are now moving from a weekly format to two issues a month, but I am very sad to predict that this is the beginning of the end. Unless some extraordinary measures are taken, Russian Reporter may finally close before the end of this year.

I don’t see any bright prospects for Ogonyok either. He has even less chance of surviving naturally than the “Russian Reporter”. “Ogonyok” is saved only by the fact that it is part of the strong publishing house “Kommersant”, and not the stagnant “Expert”.

Daily newspapers will be seriously affected. Both for the reason described above, and simply because the crisis will intensify existing problems. The main one is the disappearance of the habit of reading daily paper newspapers. The crisis will accelerate the decline of daily newspapers into oblivion. Tabloids like “KP” or “Your Day” will last the longest, and “serious” newspapers will be the first to go. The list is headed by the RBC newspaper - I do not rule out that it will go out of print this year.

Glossy publications, most of which are advertising in the legal sense, will, of course, suffer from the crisis, like everyone else. But, if in the case of humanitarian, that is, non-profit projects, we are talking about life and death, then in this case it is simply about a significant decrease in income. The same can be said about business publications.

But on whom the crisis will have almost no effect are those publications that use cheap content, cheap printing and are sold in kiosks for the price of a metro ticket - crossword puzzles, horoscopes and other healthy lifestyle heralds. They have virtually no dependence on advertising revenue, making money from the sale of copies. Most of them not only will not leave the market, on the contrary, I predict a sharp increase in the number of such publications, which some colleagues call “junk.”

That is, the print media market will not be cleared thanks to the crisis, but on the contrary, it will become littered. And this, generally speaking, is a serious problem. Because, if we move from market categories to higher categories, print media are an important element of the country’s cultural and public space. This is a special way of perceiving information, where not only text is important, but also design, illustrations, tactile sensations - everything that a computer is not able to provide. This is why, by the way, I do not support the idea that print media will finally supplant the Internet. It will not supplant, at least not in our lifetime. Except for daily newspapers, which are becoming more and more pointless to publish.

So, the level of this important segment of the country’s social life will noticeably decrease during the crisis. And the hardest thing will be for those who are trying to convey what is reasonable, good and eternal, and not stupidly make money. Such publications, as a rule, operate on the edge of profitability, but now they find themselves beyond this edge. And, of course, we cannot expect any new projects like the same “Russian Reporter”.

I am far from calling on the state to immediately start funding “sinking” publications: if the management cannot cope, no state will help. But the fact that it makes sense for the state to adjust the policy of issuing grants and subsidies, in my opinion, is obvious. Stop scattering resources between publications that are read by 300 people or no one at all, determine a list of socially significant publications, and only provide them with targeted support in the form of subsidies and benefits, provide priority access to retail chains, limiting markups, and so on.

Otherwise, newsstands - and so, in general, not showcases of the intellect - will be one big glamorous collection of crosswords, jokes, horoscopes.

And there is not much journalism left in the country. As it turned out, she must be protected.

No similar news found.

Six months ago, after 10 years of work, the Russian Reporter magazine closed. They said that with him, supposedly unnecessary big reports became a thing of the past. But on February 27, the release of “RR” will resume. The first issue will be released in a circulation of 85 thousand copies. The publication's editor-in-chief, Vitaly Leibin, told Moments why reportage journalism is needed and what had to be changed to revive the Russian Reporter.

“Russian Reporter” will begin publishing again after a six-month break

— When commenting on the closure of the magazine, you said that financial problems had arisen. What are their reasons?

— Long-term decline in the advertising market. We fought to the last. But the reduction was catastrophic - 60% of advertising annually, for three years. In general, the print press experienced a shock due to the fall in the advertising market. Online advertising is growing slightly, but not enough to improve the economics of online publishing.

— Some people slandered that the reason was the loss of readers - they say, no one needs reports...

— When we switched to a biweekly publication format, there was a decline, but a very small one. In general, reader demand for Russian Reporter did not fall. The entire time we measured the rating, it either grew or remained at a consistently high level.

The problem is not that the reader does not need the reporter's texture. The problem is that no economic model has been found for maintaining such a press, other than external funding. The industry is going through a huge crisis. All producers of expensive content - movies, music, books, quality journalism - are under pressure from free information of lesser quality. But this does not mean that people will prefer some meaningless, illiterate text to real quality journalism.

“I am sure that there is a demand for real journalism” Photo: Anton Belitsky

— It’s also a matter of the volume of text. Over the 10 years of RR’s existence, the world of media has changed dramatically. Experts say that the priority is short materials that can be read quickly.

— When RR first began publishing, we were told that the younger generation in the modern world would only read short texts and headlines. But we discovered that among our audience there are a lot of young people, along with Soviet readers.

At the same time, professional journalism really is between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, new Internet technologies and social networks. On the other hand, there is an information war. Both are characterized by short, ideologically clear statements. In general, this is in demand. But in order to remain sane and have a solid memory, readers would like to understand reality. If we completely lose attention to the details of our life, the texture of reporting, I’m afraid that our affairs will be bad. And I am sure that there is a demand for real journalism.

— Did you notice this after the closure of RR?

— We felt that the reader was in some shock due to our withdrawal from the market. Some colleagues make brilliant reports: “Gazeta”, “Lenta”, “Takiye Dela”, “Novaya Gazeta” and “Komsomolskaya Pravda”. But this is not enough - they are drowning in Internet garbage. On the other hand, fellow reporters found that a significant source of publications and interesting work had gone. There was also a reaction from civil society and philanthropists - interest in having texts about the life of society appear.

“We are not commenting on sources of funding yet” Photo: Vitaly Leibin’s personal page on the social network

— So you were offered help by sponsors?

— Yes. We found that we could find people interested in resuming production and people interested in reporting. We realized that we would have resources for publication for at least a year. And they started right away.

— Can you tell me where the funds come from?

— Neither I nor the holding (media holding “Expert” - editor’s note) are commenting on the sources yet, but we assure you that there will be enough of them to publish in the near future. We also have an analytical judgment that the acute crisis, which we have experienced intermittently since 2009, is ending, and the country’s economy is moving towards growth. We think that we will be able to find both old markets and new ways of monetization on this wave.

- Which for example?

— Direct advertising in magazines is being replaced by demand for stories, including those about business. We are ready to do them, including on a commercial basis. But not the way jeans are made - secretly and badly, but good - if it is a good thing. The model is changing - from contempt for the advertiser to a sincere interest in the business. This does not mean that we will not distinguish between commercial texts and non-commercial ones, but paid materials require the same talent, the same work.

“Now we will pay more attention to life inside Russia” Photo: Vitaly Leibin’s personal page on the social network

— Following the economic policy, will the editorial also change?

— It will remain more or less the same with the amendment that previously a significant part of our reporting efforts was related to the war in Ukraine, and now it will be with our country. The war in Donbass continues, and we will pay attention to it, but we understand that it is important for the reader to read about himself, about life in Russia. And being a “Russian reporter” we must look, first of all, for internal stories. We will maintain the proportions of materials as before, at the beginning of the “RR” work. When the maximum amount of materials concerned life within the country, internal conflicts.

— What place will Ekaterinburg take?

— From the very start of RR, Yekaterinburg showed the greatest demand for the type of communication that we offer, slightly less than Moscow and St. Petersburg. We love Yekaterinburg and consider it one of our main regions. And we have an explanation - it is a growing, vibrant city with a large urban population, more freedom than in other regions and a high demand for quality journalism.

The magazine "Russian Reporter" is a fairly well-known weekly that does not shy away from left-wing topics - trade unionist Valentin Urusov, defense of the Warsaw warehouse in St. Petersburg, sketches from the life of the anti-fascist movement. Despite the “jeans” type of articles in praise of individual regions and state monopolies, “Russian Reporter” still generates interesting content.

However, the issue of paying wages to permanent employees and fees to freelance authors is an issue in the publication. So what to do? Get a job in the Kremlin media, where you exchange your conscience for money? Or to a little-known publication where they pay in cash? Maybe just give up and write for an interesting magazine, without bothering with material things?

Rules of the game

A little background to understand how the work process works and why typical ways to get the money you are owed do not help. The paper magazine and website rusrep.ru, along with the financial weekly Expert, are part of the holding company Expert CJSC. In the professional community, the story of a decisive dispersal of the Expert-TV team with subsequent courts for the right to receive salaries is quite well known, but few people know that the story of annual deferred payments is still the current history of the holding.

Despite the pleasant editorial staff of the Russian Reporter, journalists registered under the Labor Code are the same victims of the holding company, who are paid in fits and starts - as a result, the majority of professional correspondents, including freelancers, chose to leave without even receiving the amounts due. Those who earn extra money on the side or those who travel on business trips remain to work. Despite the declared lack of funds, traveling authors receive every last penny of their money.

The story of photographer Dmitry Markov is typical, who described in LiveJournal his misadventures with receiving money, the trial, the failure of representatives of the publication and the inability to get money with the help of bailiffs: “Now I receive the familiar “tomorrow” in the form of emails, the dear editors do not strain: “We are not We can answer the exact dates of payments; for technical reasons they are frozen.” Graduates of journalism departments are ready to write for a magazine for free - it is important for them to supplement their resume and they do not even dream of receiving payment. The opportunity to achieve the due sums is a “sneaky blow to your favorite magazine” and “sneaking”.

Most of them come through “Media polygons” and educational programs of “Summer Schools”, which is done by the editor of the science department Grigory Tarasevich.

Who is responsible for what

Most of the authors, including freelancers, limit themselves only to writing to their editor once a month - those of them who have not yet quit say directly: “There is no money, you can sue, but this did not help anyone get money.” Others call the accounting department, where, shifting responsibility to financial director Vladimir Petrov, they say that they are not responsible for the accrual. The accountants themselves are also gradually leaving. In turn, Vladimir Petrov is not available either by phone or by email.

Those who are braver contact the editor-in-chief of the Russian Reporter, Vitaly Leibin. He answers all questions: “Soon the magazine will receive money, be patient!” You can wait endlessly for the weather by the sea, communicate with the accounting department and call the financial director Vladimir Petrov. Analysis of court decisions in favor of injured authors who spent money on the trial but did not receive money also does not give reason for optimism.

Behind-the-scenes threats

At the same time, the management is terribly afraid of publicity; armed with a voice recorder, I and several of my colleagues went one by one to meet with the holding’s management. Everyone, to the best of their eloquence, said that they were ready to make the story public - a reaction followed. The editor-in-chief of the magazine “Expert” Tatyana Gurova, who is on the board of the holding, recognized the validity of the demands, complained about the crisis and asked in surprise: “Why didn’t you come earlier? Only those who arrive in person receive money here!”

And indeed, a few weeks after the conversation with the promise to pay money for the recorder, the entire amount was paid, although many months after the date written down in the contracts for the preparation of materials.

Unfortunately, in Russia, with rare exceptions, there is no practice of protecting their rights among journalists, just as there is no functioning trade union. Therefore, the group of affected authors cannot publish this material under their own names. Any editor-in-chief would consider such an insight and warning to colleagues as “washing dirty linen in public,” and therefore would refuse possible cooperation.