Komsomolskaya Pravda ID

Publishing House "Komsomolskaya Pravda" is a Russian multimedia holding. It consists of six federal publications: the daily newspaper and the weekly Komsomolskaya Pravda, the daily newspaper Sovetsky Sport, the weekly Sovetsky Sport - Football, the TV program magazine, and the weekly Express Gazeta. The holding's portfolio also includes the kp.ru Internet portal and the Komsomolskaya Pravda radio station with federal broadcasting.

Owners

As of January 2015, almost 84% of "KP" from the "Baltic Media Group."

Audience

As of December 2014, the circulation of the daily version of "KP" is 0.5 million copies, weekly - 2 million (with regions). According to TNS Russia, in November 2014, an average of 894,000 unique users visited the Kp.ru website every day.

At the beginning of 2015, the total audience of all media holding projects was 28, 9 million people per week.

Performance indicators

The revenue of "KP" will be in 2014, according to the head of "KP" Vladimir Sungorkin (December 2014), about 7 billion rubles, which approximately corresponds to the level of 2013. But the profitability is zero primarily due to investments in the TV channel and digital media.

History

1925: Creation of a newspaper

The first issue of "KP" was published in 1925.

2000

August 2000

2007

ESN Grigory Berezkin buys 60% of ID

In January 2007, the media holding Gazprom media"" announced that it was negotiating with Prof-Media to acquire 60 + 1% of the shares of the publishing house Komsomolskaya Pravda (KP) in the interests of the group UNIFIED SOCIAL TAX. The head of the ESN Grigory Berezkin at that time was close to Russian Railways, market participants noted. They believe that the decision to sell the CP to the USN group was made in the Kremlin, which thus creates another center for media consolidation under the control of the second most important state monopoly.

In a statement made, the head of Gazprom-Media Nikolai Senkevich argued that "the final acquisition of KP was not initially included in the holding's plans, since another daily newspaper (Gazprom-Media at that time belongs to Izvestia) does not fit into its structure." "By agreement with the customer (ESN), we carried out a financial and legal audit of the publication, performed its assessment," he said. "Now the deal is close to finalization."

Grigory Berezkin, chairman of the board of directors of the ESN group, said that he was pleased with the cooperation with Gazprom-Media, which "is negotiating very professionally."

For the majority of market participants, including Prof-Media and Renaissance Capital Management Company, which represented the interests of the Norwegian company A-pressen (owned 25% plus one share of ID), the statement of Gazprom-Media and ESN came as a complete surprise. Renaissance Capital Management Company declined to comment, and the head of Prof-Media, Rafael Akopov, succinctly noted: "Please us."

The parties did not disclose the amount of the transaction. According to Kommersant's information, Gazprom-Media has reached an agreement with Prof-Media on the price of $100 million for 60% of the publishing house. However, experts believe that the publishing house "Komsomolskaya Pravda" is much more expensive. Vadim Goryainov, co-owner of Popular Press Publishing House, estimates the entire KP Publishing House at at least $200 million: "And if the existing management is maintained, its value can grow to $1 billion in several years."

At this time, the publishing house "Komsomolskaya Pravda" publishes the newspapers "Komsomolskaya Pravda," "Soviet Sport" and "Express Newspaper." The main asset of the publishing house is the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper with the largest circulation among national Russian newspapers - 30 million copies per month. Its turnover for 2006 amounted, according to its own data, to $130 million.

Market participants note that Komsomolskaya Pravda is incomparable in terms of business size with existing ESN assets, and believe that this acquisition is political in nature. "" Komsomolskaya Pravda "is a very good investment direction, it is an unambiguous market leader whose share is constantly growing," said Mr. Goryainov. "But, unfortunately, no one considers it as a business, but only as a political asset. And this is logical - if possible, political influence, it is comparable to 'Channel One'. "

In this case, Grigory Berezkin's interest in the media business coincided with the interests of the Kremlin, said Marina Pereverzeva, vice president of the Guild of Periodical Publishers. "In fact, Russian Railways-Partner already manages Russian Railways media assets, and when corporatizing the state monopoly, the USN group is obviously preparing to buy out other media assets of JSC (for example, the Gudok newspaper. - Kommersant)," she said. "By combining the Komsomolskaya Pravda audience and the distribution capabilities of Russian Railways, they will receive one of the largest media holdings."

Ms. Pereverzeva recalled that at the World Newspaper Congress, foreign journalists were outraged by the fact that the KP had come under the control of Gazprom.

"When formally the most popular newspaper is acquired by a private person, the Russian authorities will no longer be accused of establishing total control over the media," sums up Marina Pereverzeva. Viktor Shkulev, chairman of the board of directors of Ashet Filipaki Shkulev Publishing House, agrees with her, adding that in this way the authorities are creating an alternative center for the concentration of media assets under the control of the second most important state monopoly, Russian Railways. "Grigory Berezkin is close to Yakunin (head of OJSC. - Kommersant), he is entrusted with creating a second pole of media concentration," Mr.^[1] is sure^[1]

Partner of Yuri Kovalchuk Oleg Rudnov headed the board of directors of KP

As it became known in July 2007, Oleg Rudnov, who heads the Baltic Media Group (St. Petersburg), was appointed chairman of the board of directors of Komsomolskaya Pravda Publishing House (KP). Mr. Rudnov is a business partner of Yuri Kovalchuk, co-owner of Rossiya Bank and close friend of President Vladimir Putin^[2]

2009: Radio Station Launch

In 2009, the publishing house launched the radio station of the same name (its daily audience in Russia as of December 2014 is about 0.5 million people).

2012: Cable TV Channel Launch

In 2012, a cable TV channel was launched.

2014

Closing the TV channel

After the ban on advertising on paid channels in the summer of 2014, the head of "KP" Vladimir Sungorkin announced the closure of the TV project.

Evstafiev and Sungorkin are ready to sell a 16% stake in KP

In December 2014, a 16% stake in the Komsomolskaya Pravda publishing house (KP) was put up for sale, the head of a large media company told Vedomosti. The owner of 11% of "KP" Arkady Evstafiev confirmed that he was negotiating the sale of his package: "An agreement of intent has already been signed, we are now discussing the amount." He refused to discuss the details, but said that a total of 16% of the publishing house could be sold: its package, the package of the general director and editor-in-chief of "KP" Vladimir Sungorkin (about 4%) and an unnamed third party. Sungorkin confirms that he is ready to sell his package and previously discussed it with Evstafiev, although he has not received specific proposals and has not yet participated in the negotiations. But "the very idea of ​ ​ selling a package, I won't hide, I like it," he adds. Whether Sungorkin will continue to lead "KP" in the event of a sale of the share - to decide the shareholders. "I am completely satisfied with the position of a hired manager," he says^[3]

Evstafiev says that he decided to sell the shares of "KP" in the calculation to help out "good money." The buyer of 16% "will receive a seat on the board of directors and some opportunity to control" the editorial board, he explains, specifying: "First of all, the buyer is interested in the opportunity to influence the content of" KP. " According to a source in "KP," Evstafiev is negotiating with a foreign company.

In recent years, "KP" is not in the best financial shape, so its image of an influential political resource with federal coverage is mainly sold, according to the heads of media companies interviewed by Vedomosti. Most likely, the buyer will agree to close part of the ID debts and pay the owners of 16% a couple of tens of millions of dollars, one of Vedomosti's interlocutors believes.

Sungorkin has been managing KP for more than 20 years and has always stressed that the media is primarily a business. Nevertheless, "KP" has never hidden sympathy for the leadership of Russia, led by Vladimir Putin. In the spring of 2014, in an interview with Echo of Moscow, Sungorkin said that he was not ready to give the floor in the newspaper to opponents of the Russian authorities: "We defend national interests."

2015: BMG owns 84% of Komsomolskaya Pravda publishing house

As of January 2015, BMG owns 84% of the shares of the Komsomolskaya Pravda publishing house. In addition to the fact that the founder of BMG Oleg Rudnov headed the board of directors of the publishing house, he also controlled most of the seats on this board. At the same time, the newspaper was never operationally included in BMG, the general director of the publishing house Vladimir Sungorkin did not report directly to the top managers of the holding, says a source in KP.

After Rudnov's death in January 2015, BMG came under the management of Aram Gabrelyanov. According to Sungorkin, the transition of the KP under the control of Gabrelyanov was not discussed. Gabrelyanov confirmed that the issue of the CP was not discussed with him.

See also

• Media in Russia

Notes