Russian news agency RIA Novosti will be entering the print media segment with the launch of an English-language weekly newspaper on Friday, the agency's editor-in-chief said on Thursday. The Moscow News, one of Russia's oldest English language periodicals, will now be relaunched in a new version, with considerable changes in both content and design.
"The project to create a new version of the Moscow News fits in logically with our agency, which has an English language website and publishes an English language monthly magazine, Russia Profile," Svetlana Mironyuk told a preview press conference.
"RIA Novosti runs newswires in several languages, and has established cooperation with thousands of new and old periodicals throughout the world. It has been more than a year now since the 24-hour English-language television channel Russia Today, founded by the agency, began broadcasting around the clock," she said.
The Russian newspaper market is a booming one. According to the World Press Trends 2006 (published by the World Association of Newspapers), the number of newspapers in the county increased by 10 per cent between 2001 and 2005 – from 238 in 2001 to 493 in 2005. The number of titles per million of the adult population is 6.3.
The head of the project, Anthony Louis, said work is currently under way to redesign the newspaper's layout and to make its content more relevant to the target audience — English-speaking expatriates with an interest in events in Moscow and elsewhere in Russia. He said the share of business news will be increased substantially to meet the needs of both foreign business people already working in Russia, and potential investors abroad.
The paper will also carry more news stories about life in the capital, especially articles directly relating to the expat community. There will be a special focus on tips for newcomers learning their way around the city.
Louis said he was certain that RIA Novosti's vast network of reporters in Russia and across the world will enable the periodical to promptly release news stories of high journalistic quality. The size of the Moscow News publication will soon be doubled from its current 16 pages, and it will be released in twice as many copies. The paper will be available for sale both at news stands and by subscription, he said.
A new online version of the Moscow News will be launched in late February.
RIA Novosti’s history dates back to June 24, 1941 when the Soviet Information Bureau (Sovinformburo) was set up under the USSR Council of People’s Commissars and the Central Committee. Its main task was to oversee work to cover international, military events and the events of the country’s domestic life in periodicals and on the radio. Through 1,171 newspapers, 523 magazines and 18 radio stations in 23 countries, Soviet embassies abroad, friendship societies, trade unions, women’s, youth and scientific organizations, Sovinformburo informed readers and listeners about the struggle of the Soviet people against Nazism and in the post-war years about the main areas of Soviet domestic and foreign policies.
In 1961, the Novosti Press Agency (APN) succeeded Sovinformburo. It became the leading information and press body of Soviet public organisations. The APN founders were the USSR Journalists Union, USSR Writers Union, Union of Soviet Societies of Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, and the Znaniye Society. APN had bureaus in over 120 countries. The agency published 60 illustrated newspapers and magazines in 45 languages with a one-time circulation of 4.3 million copies.
APN published the newspaper Moscow News, which in September 1990 became an independent publication. APN Publishing House put out over 200 books and booklets with a total annual circulation of 20 million copies. In 1989, a TV wing too was launched. It later became the TV-Novosti TV company.
By a decree of USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev, the Information Agency Novosti (IAN) succeeded APN on July 27, 1990. IAN’s tasks remained the same - preparing and publishing printed, TV and radio materials in the USSR and abroad; studying public opinion on Soviet foreign and domestic policies in the USSR and abroad. IAN had bureaus in 120 countries. It published 13 illustrated magazines and newspapers.
The Russian Information Agency Novosti was created in September 1991 merging IAN and the Russian Information Agency. By a presidential decree, RIA Novosti was placed within the Press and Information Ministry. RIA Novosti had about 80 bureaus and news offices abroad, over 1,500 subscribers in CIS countries and about a hundred in non-CIS countries. In 1993, RIA Novosti became a state news-analytical agency.
In May 1998, the agency was renamed the Russian Information Agency Vesti. As a mass media body, it retained the name of RIA Novosti. The main criteria of RIA Novosti’s information services were the combination of promptness, objectiveness, authenticity and its own opinion regardless of the political situation.
