Media in Russia

Total Media Count

2021: 61.5 thousand active media

As of mid-2021, there are 149,288 media outlets in the Roskomnadzor register, of which only 61,576 are valid - about 40%. From 1990 to 2012, the number of new media registrations as a whole grew - from 572 in 1990 to 7582 in 2012. There were also "failures" - for example, in 2004, only 4,818 new media outlets were registered. This was most likely due to the abolition of the Ministry of Printing (its last head was Mikhail Lesin) during the reorganization of the government after the election of Vladimir Putin for a second term. Then the functions of registering the media were transferred to the Ministry of Communications for a long time. But such failures did not affect the general trend - most of all new media received licenses in 2003-2013, then a sharp decline began.

Media analyst Vasily Gatov explained the registration "boom" of the mid-2000s by the fact that at that time newspapers and magazines registered their sites as separate media. In addition, large federal newspapers such as Komsomolskaya Pravda, Argumenty i Fakty, Telenedelya were bought and re-registered by regional publications that used to work under their franchise in the mid-2000s.

Of the 3,700 publications registered in 2019, nearly one in three registered government agencies. In 2020 and 2021 - more than a quarter. For comparison, in 2001-2011, new media established by administrative structures accounted for 6-9% of all media that received a license during the year.

The record holders for the "nationalization" of the media are quite predictably national republics. In first place is Chechnya - out of 38 registered media, 28 (or 73.68%) are established by administrative structures. In the second - Kabardino-Balkaria (67.86%), in the third - Adygea (63.64%). In the TOP-10 of regions in which the share of state media is highest, only one region fell - Omsk, in it the media established by government agencies, almost half of the total (49.52%).

In absolute figures in the number of media established by state organizations, Moscow and the Moscow region are in the lead (in the distribution region) - 367 media out of the current ones, this is 19% of the total number of Moscow media, in second place - St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region with 302 state media (13% of all local media), on the third - Bashkiria with 155 media (47%), in the fourth - Tatarstan with 146 media (39%), closes the top five Tyumen region with 134 media (27% of all licensed Tyumen media).

In a number of regions, state media are combined into holdings. So, for example, it was done in Tatarstan, where Tatmedia Joint-Stock Company, owned by the government of the republic, established 259 different publications (this is 77.3% of the total number of publications that officially belong to state ones). Under a contract with the republican press agency, Tatmedia produces programs and videos for local television and newspapers. Until 2021, the holding received hundreds of millions of rubles annually from the government for these purposes.

Media holdings

The largest

The largest in terms of revenue in Russia in 2012 are the following media holdings:

• Gazprom media
• Channel One
• VGTRK
• STS Media
• National Media Group (NMG)
• Komsomolskaya Pravda
• Hearst Shkulev Media (HSM)
• European Media Group
• RBC
• "Media-1"
• Independent Media (IM, Independent Media)
• Rambler&Co
• Russian Media Group (RMG)
• Burda Hubert Media

Averages

• Moscow Media
• Bauer Media Rus (Bauer Media)
• Axel Springer
• Conde Nast
• Businessman
• Implementation of 1C Enterprise in Bonnier Business Press
• United Media
• Expert ID
• ID Rodionova
• ID Top 50

Specialized

• TRK Sun Star - Armed Forces
• TAdviser - Business, IT
• Acting - Accounting
• Economic Newspaper - Accounting
• Oedipress Conliga
• Driving - car
• Cool Media - Radio
• De Agostini
• First TVF
• Abak-press, ED
• Pronto-Moscow

Media by audience size

Industry media

• Media about IT and telecom (Russian market)

Newspapers and magazines in Russia

Main article: Newspapers and magazines in Russia

Property maps

2013

Map of property in the Russian media business for October 2013 here.

2012

Click to enlarge

State support for the media

2025: The annual budget for supporting state media in Russia has grown to ₽139,6 billion. Who will get this money

In December 2024, it became known that the Russian Ministry of Finance increased funding for state media for 2025 by ₽45 billion to ₽139,6 billion. The corresponding federal law was approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to Kommersant, VGTRK, which unites the channels Russia 1, Russia 24, Russia-Culture and Karusel, will receive a subsidy of ₽22,4 billion, which is 52.3% more than previously planned amount. In 2026, companies will allocate ₽15,2 billion.

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Freepik

Channel One will be allocated ₽6 billion in 2025 and ₽4,6 billion in 2026. MIA Rossiya Segodnya will receive ₽10,9 billion, which is ₽3 billion more than the original plan. Subsidies of FSUE ITAR-TASS increased to ₽4,8 billion for 2025, but reduced by ₽50 million to ₽3,21 billion for 2026.

Director of the Institute of Modern Media Kirill Tanaev explains the increase in budget expenditures by a change in the economic situation, inflation and an increase in the cost of communication services, including an increase in tariffs for the distribution of TV channels and radio stations by 9%.

For the first time, the state will allocate a subsidy of ₽370 million to the Russian World company, which became the fifth satellite television operator in Russia along with Tricolor TV, NTV-plus, Orion and TV from MTS. The company provides broadcasting services in the DPR, LPR, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions, as well as in Crimea and Sevastopol.

The state will also continue to subsidize the broadcasters of the first multiplex (First, Russia 1, Russia K, Russia 24, NTV, Channel Five, OTR, TV Center, Karusel and Match TV) and the distribution of their signal in settlements with less than 100 thousand people. In 2025, ₽1,5 billion will be allocated to compensate for the costs of signal delivery.

For the planning period of 2026 and 2027, funding is provided in the amount of ₽97,7 billion and ₽98,5 billion, respectively. At the same time, budget allocations for 2026 were reduced by ₽2 billion compared to the previous budget version.^[1]

2024:330 billion rubles are allocated from the budget of the Russian Federation for 2025-2027 to finance the media.

It is planned to allocate 330 billion rubles to finance the Media program within three years. This is stated in an explanatory note to the bill on the federal budget for 2025 and for the planning period 2026-2027, which was submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation on September 30, 2024.

It is reported that budget allocations for the media section in 2025 will amount to 137.18 billion rubles, in 2026 - 96.62 billion rubles, in 2027 - 96.59 billion rubles. These amounts include subsidies to budgetary, autonomous institutions and other non-profit organizations, expenses for staff payments, costs for the purchase of goods, works and services to meet state (municipal) needs, social security costs and other payments to the population.

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Freepik

In particular, in 2025, subsidies are provided for the autonomous non-profit organization TV-Novosti to create and maintain media and information resources on the Internet in the amount of 33.14 billion rubles. Subsidies to the federal state unitary enterprise "All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company" will amount to 22.36 billion rubles, to the federal state unitary enterprise "International Information Agency" Russia Today "- 10.88 billion rubles.

Subsidies of Channel One JSC, NTV Television Company JSC, TV and Radio Company Petersburg JSC, JSC "Karusel," JSC "TV Center," LLC "National Sports TV Channel," the federal state unitary enterprise "All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company" and the autonomous non-profit organization "Public Television of Russia" to pay for the services provided by the federal state unitary enterprise "Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network" for the distribution and broadcast of their programs in settlements with a population of less than 100 thousand people in 2025 are determined in the amount of 18.52 billion rubles^[2]

2021: 1.85 billion rubles will be allocated for socially significant electronic media projects in three years

Starting from 2021, the issuance of subsidies to socially significant projects of electronic, MEDIA social and - educational Internet sites will be regulated by a resolution Governments with direct participation. Ministry of Digital Development The corresponding decree No. 103 of February 2, 2021, signed by the Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin , was published on the Government's website. Russia

The total amount of subsidies for socially significant projects of electronic media, social and educational Internet sites in the period 2021-2023 will amount to 1.85 billion rubles. (617.3 million rubles per year), follows from the text of the federal law on the state budget of Russia for 2021.

The lion's share of these expenses is planned as financial support for large television channels and the expansion of television broadcasting, including for the development of the second multiplex and the broadcast of its programs in settlements with a population of less than 100 thousand people, as well as for "information and explanatory and expert sociological support of the results and events of national projects in the media and information and telecommunication network" Internet. ""

The document also noted that the budget allocations reserved during the formation of the draft law under the section "Media" in 2022-2023 will amount to 6 billion rubles. annually, and will be aimed at supporting the media.

Earlier, the rules for subsidizing the media were annually approved by order of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications (Rospechat), subordinate to the Ministry of Digital Ministry of Digital Development. At the end of 2020, the department was abolished together with the Federal Communications Agency (Rossvyaz).

From now on, the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development will be engaged in the formation of the commission for the selection of competitive applications. All data on the competition will be published on the agency's website, including the timing, requirements for issuing an application and for documents for participation.

The founders of the media - legal entities (except for state institutions), which produce, distribute and replicate socially significant television and radio programs, documentary television films, create and maintain Internet sites of social or educational significance, can apply for subsidies from the state budget. Subsidies are provided under the subprogram "Information Environment" of the state program "Information Society," the document says.

Subsidies are not available to foreign legal entities and companies with a share of foreign legal entities of more than 50%, as well as those who are already the recipient of such a subsidy.

Among the key criteria for the selection of social projects of electronic media for obtaining subsidies, the document indicates compliance with priority areas of Russian state policy, social significance, elaboration of the scenario concept, reliability of project cost calculations and compliance with the target audience. For Internet sites, their traffic is also taken into account.

The amount of the subsidy is calculated as the amount of costs in the areas of expenses of the recipient of the subsidy declared during the competitive selection of the project. The criterion for the project is the general timing of the produced television or radio production, or the creation and maintenance of a site for Internet projects.

The funds received under the subsidy are allowed to be spent on salaries of full-time and non-staff workers, payments of copyright and acting fees, as well as on all relevant insurance, pension and medical payments.

Subsidies can also be spent on travel and transportation costs, rental of premises, studios, film sets, filming, lighting and recording equipment, payment for communication services (except for television and radio companies with authorized state support), props, costumes, scenery, studio services and installation hardware. It is allowed to pay for the services of individual entrepreneurs participating in the process as a director, sound engineer operator, animator, computer graphics specialist, artist, etc. This also includes expenses for the rights to use audio, video and photo materials, archival materials, stunt shooting and the purchase of consumables.

The owners of social or educational sites who have passed the competitive selection can spend the funds of subsidies on salaries, payment for Internet traffic and extension of registration of the domain name of the site, technical support and administration of their resource. This also includes expenses for archival materials, rights to use information, rent servers and payment, hosting purchase of licensed ON and consumables.

It is strictly forbidden to spend subsidies from the state budget on the purchase of foreign currency - except for the purchase of imported equipment, raw materials, components and operations to achieve the goals of the subsidy.^[3]

2012: How much money states spend to support the media

Foreign media

2024: Restricted access to 81 EU media outlets in response to Russian media sanctions

In June 2024 Russia , in response to restrictions on Russian media, it limited access to broadcasting resources of 81 EU media outlets.

Income

In 2017, VC.ru published a table of Internet media revenues in 2013-2016^[4]. The table is available here.

Number of employees in the industry

According to the Institute for Digital Transformations and Economic Trend Research, employment in the newspaper and magazine industry has fallen 3.2 times since its peak in 2008 - from 876,000 people to 273,000 in 2018. The number of newspaper workers fell by almost 5.78 times (the maximum employed in newspaper publishers was in 1999 - 445,000 employees), in magazines - more than 3.2 times (589,000 employed in 2008). The causes of the crisis are the spread of mobile Internet, the collapse of the press distribution system, the decline in the popularity of the subscription institution in the context of the increasing distribution of free, albeit less high-quality, content.

Outgoing jobs are replaced by new ones, primarily in the Internet segment. However, since the crisis of 2008, only 80,000 new jobs have appeared in the online media segment, while more than 600,000 jobs have dropped out in the traditional media sector.

Employees of the print media who have lost their jobs are retrained as copywriters, PR- and SMM-specialists (many - on freelance), someone simply leaves the media industry.

The forecast for the print media industry is also not rosy: by 2023, the number of jobs in the industry will decrease by another 1.7 times (by 2018). However, the need for specialists in online online publications in Russia in 2019-2023 will grow at a steady pace (by 15-20% per year), and outgoing jobs in print will be almost completely replaced by those newly created in the Internet segment. In 2023, the number of jobs in these segments is expected to be almost equal (157,000 in newspaper and magazine publishers versus 154,000 in online media).

Quality of journalism

What seems natural to us, if we talk about a high-quality press - with its balanced approach, polling all parties to the conflict, attracting experts - was not something natural for most of the history of the media, Maxim Trudolyubov wrote in June 2018, in his column for the newspaper "Vedomosti"^[5].

Standards of balanced journalism developed mainly in the second half of the 20th century, and this happened due to a unique coincidence: sustainable economic growth, business interest in expanding the number of its consumers at the expense of the growing middle class, as well as due to the willingness of consumers to pay for the newspaper, and read only part of it - for example, see only the main political news or sports news. Thus, readers subsidized each other, and private companies, ready to pay high rates for advertising in newspapers and magazines, supported high-quality, high-cost work of journalists. The profit rate of the media business in the United States reached 30%, leaving behind retail and car trading.

This idyll goes - or rather, has already gone - into the past. People are not so interested in reading about politics if they are only interested in sports. Companies are not interested in paying for advertising, because there are other, more effective ways to expand the audience of consumers: social media allows you to reach the desired client much more accurately and cheaper.

During the 4-5 centuries of the existence of newspapers, they were either state leaflets with boring diplomatic relations, or reflected narrowly focused party views, or - already towards the end of the 19th century. - focused on the most poorly educated audience, becoming what was called the yellow press.

In 2018, there is more and more evidence that the press is returning to the state in which it was before the first half of the 20th century. To the state in which rumors, disputes of sofa connoisseurs, jokes and there is the main content of the media. When you read channels in Telegram and view the feed in other social media, it is impossible to get rid of the feeling that you are moving further and further into the past (that is, the future, of course), without getting up from the couch, you move to a new world. There is no ready, verified view, there is no clarity about who is a specialist and who is not, although after having done some analytical work, an expert - and even a good one - can be found. But if it is clear that a person is a specialist, then it is not clear what his motivation is and what he wants to achieve by publishing this or that text. It is only clear that there are funny jokes and there are unfunny ones.

The Russian state-owned press incredibly benefited from the fact that the nationalization of the media and the sublimation of emotions that Russian political managers took up coincided with the onset of social networks and the retreat of the model of the media business, which in Russia did not have time to take root in a good way. As often before, we jump over the era, not really having time to feel it. In our country, pieces of the Russian XIX century are sewn together in front of the borrowed technologies of the XXI century, conjugating into some strange new canvas, in which everyone will have to navigate, incurring costs for this, including in the form of payment for information that was previously subsidized.

Citing

February 2019 by Brand Analytics

Rules for the work of the media in Russia

Main article: Rules of media work in Russia

Chronicle

2024: Russian radio stations and TV channels switched to domestic software by 90%

Russian radio stations and TV channels have switched to domestic software by 90%. This was announced in May 2024 by the Director General of the National Association of Alexander Shirokikh Broadcasters.

According to him, there are all the necessary Russian software products for the broadcasting industry. Moreover, some domestic solutions were sold abroad before the beginning of 2022, Shirokikh noted. At the same time, according to him, in the segment of equipment, the situation with import substitution is more complicated.

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Unsplash

It is clear that a lot of complex equipment - cameras, lenses, optics - cannot be simply taken and replaced from scratch, - said the general director of the National Association of Broadcasters.

However, Russia is actively trying to solve this problem in various ways. For example, scientific and technical festivals are held, where young specialists are selected who will develop hardware and software solutions for the broadcasting industry, said Alexander Shirokikh.

Earlier, market participants sent two projects for the development of Russian software for TV channels to the industrial competence center (ICC) "Broadcasting" supervised by the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development, which should replace foreign analogues. The authors of the documents expect to receive 829 million rubles from the budget for import substitution of foreign. In particular, they asked to allocate 349 million rubles for the creation of a Russian system for graphic design of the air and 480 million rubles for systems for automation of broadcasting, planning and preparation of television news. In both cases, the grant must cover 80% of development costs.

The Ministry of Digital Development told Kommersant that the members of the ICC, which includes all the largest broadcasters, supported the projects, "since the industry is in dire need of domestic professional software."^[6]

2023: The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation banned foreign participation in the capital of the media

The Judicial Collegium for Administrative Cases of the Supreme Court confirmed that a Russian legal entity, even with minor foreign participation, is prohibited from being the founder of the media. The press service of Roskomnadzor announced this on November 20, 2023.

This ban, as the department clarifies, is established by article 19.1 of the Law on Media. The requirement applies even to those media where the share of foreign participation is less than 20%.

A Russian legal entity, even with insignificant foreign participation, is forbidden to act as the founder of the media

The Supreme Court considered a statement by Roskomnadzor, which claims that one of the co-founders of the Sverdlovsk newspaper Kalininets is a Russian legal entity with foreign participation. According to the service, this company included both foreign citizens and a foreign organization. Roskomnadzor demanded a suspension of the publication through the court.

Roskomnadzor monitors compliance with Article 19.1 of the Law on Media and considers foreign participation in media activities unacceptable. The work of such media is suspended until the violations are eliminated, the service said in a statement.

As Vedomosti the chairman of the Bar Association " Moscow Lawyer" Andrei Misarov explained, back in July 2021, in the first and second parts of Art. 19.1 of the law on the media, adjustments were made prohibiting foreigners from being founders of publications. The changes were made taking into account the decision of the Constitutional Court of 2019.

Unless otherwise provided by an international treaty of the Russian Federation, a foreign country, an international organization, as well as an organization under their control, a foreign legal entity, a Russian legal entity with foreign participation (including with the participation of a foreign citizen, stateless person, citizen of the Russian Federation, having citizenship of another state) together or separately, it is not entitled to act as the founder of the media, to be the editorial board of the media, the organization (legal entity) broadcasting. Unless otherwise provided by an international treaty of the Russian Federation, a foreign citizen, stateless person, citizen of the Russian Federation who has citizenship of another state, in aggregate or separately, is not entitled to act as the founder of the media and (or) to be the editorial board of the media, the amendments to the law say.

Earlier, the Constitutional Court (CC) of the Russian Federation declared unconstitutional the rule on restricting foreign ownership of the media. According to the court, the legislation is unclear about whether a Russian citizen who also has a passport from another country can exercise his corporate rights within 20% of the company's authorized capital. And also about 20% of participation in which society is in question - which itself is the founder of the media, the broadcasting organization, or which is a member of such a broadcasting organization.

In the context of such uncertainty, unforeseen risks arise both for the property rights of the co-owner and for the legal capacity of the media company itself, despite the fact that the legislator did not directly establish the obligation and procedure for alienating foreign-owned shares, the Constitutional Court pointed out.^[7]

2022:7% reduction in media news

The number of news in the Russian media in 2022 decreased by 7% compared to 2021. This was announced at the end of May 2023 by Yulia Mikhailova, director of strategic development of the SKAN of the Interfax group.

The amount of business and economic news fell especially hard, she said. At the same time, the volume of socio-political content has grown. In addition, in 2022, the top "agenda generators" changed: the number of federal-level news decreased, but regional content sources became more active. Mikhailova added that people did not read less MEDIA, than all the "meters," but at the same time the people themselves reading the media were no longer.

The number of news in the Russian media in 2022 decreased by 7%

According to the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM), which were published at the end of December 2022, the Internet became the main source of news for the population of the Russian Federation, bypassing television, "because it is not only for news - there are talk shows, there are TV shows, there are game formats." The head of VTsIOM also noted the growing popularity of the Telegram service for reading news.

"Of all social networks and Internet messengers, Telegram has the highest growth rates in Russia in 2022. If a year and a half ago it was such an elitist channel, an elitist space, an expert space, then after the prohibition of Instagram and Facebook (banned in the Russian Federation, owned by the Meta corporation, which is recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation), people knocked down en masse in Telegram, this is typical for both a young audience and an older one, "Fedorov emphasized.

Yulia Mikhailova confirmed this statement, noting that Telegram simply "shot" in 2022. The media understand what is happening, and many also started their own channels, but anonymous channels still have higher coverage, she summed up.^[8]

1904

Advice from the children's magazine "Firefly" how to show a nigger with your fingers, 1904.

1702: Publication of the first newspaper in the country: "Vedomosti" with a circulation of 1 thousand copies

On January 13, 1702, the first regular newspaper Vedomosti in Russia began work with a circulation of 1 thousand copies.

See also

Media in the United States

Notes