Vedomosti Business News Media

Aktivs

For 2017, Business News Media's assets include:

• newspaper "Vedomosti,"
• Conference Management Unit and
• Harvard Business Review.

Performance indicators

According to the Rosstat State Medical Center, the performance indicators of Business News Media CJSC (since 2015 JSC) are as follows:

Revenue:

• 2008: 1,386,564 thousand rubles.
• 2009:830 104 thousand rubles.
• 2010: 872,948 thousand rubles.
• 2011: 1,006,207 thousand rubles.
• 2012: 1,098,374 thousand rubles.
• 2013: 1,075,373 thousand rubles. Almost a quarter of the income was provided by online advertising and payment for access to the electronic version of the newspaper, follows from the presentation Citibank for potential buyers.
• 2014: 955,183 thousand rubles
• 2015: 749,058 thousand rubles
• 2016: 783,400 thousand rubles
• 2017: 865,200 thousand rubles
• 2018: 848,600 thousand rubles
• 2019: 850,000 thousand rubles

Net income (loss):

• 2008: 24,926K
• 2009: -85 309 thousand
• 2010: -60 369 thousand
• 2011: -26 571 thousand
• 2012: -4 232 thousand
• 2013: -34 150 thousand
• 2014: -203 273 thousand
• 2015: -289 435 thousand
• 2016: 58,000K
• 2017: -62 300 thousand The revenue from advertising in the paper version of Vedomosti is more than the revenue from advertising on the site, said in 2017 in an interview with Inc. Member of the Board of Directors of Vedomosti Demyan Kudryavtsev (the owner of the publishing JSC Business News Media is Arkan Investment JSC, whose only shareholder is Demyan Kudryavtsev's wife Yana Mosel-Kudryavtseva). He also noted that in the 2.5 years during which he manages the newspaper, the company goes "with a constant decrease in loss" and plans to profit by the end of 2017.

"But

whether it happens or doesn't happen, or I sacrifice it for investment in development, to keep what I need, I can't say now. In addition, it is not me who decides this, it is decided by the board of directors together with the management, "Kudryavtsev emphasized^[1]

.

He also noted that he believes that Vedomosti is a product with multi-channel income (advertising, subscription, conferences, and so on), and in the near future these channels should become more.

• 2018: -58 400 thousand rubles
• 2019: -48 000 thousand rubles

Audience

As of October 2019, the paper number of Vedomosti is read on average by 192,300 people (Mediascope data for May - October 2019), the monthly audience of the publication's website is 13 million unique users.

History

2022: Five employees apply to prosecutors after cuts

In February 2022, five employees Sheets"" wrote a statement to the Ostankino interdistrict prosecutor's office and the State Labor Inspectorate To Moscow after receiving notifications "about the reduction and upcoming dismissal" in connection with the abolition of the online edition of the publication from April 20. As the chief editor of the Vedomosti.ru website explained to RBC, in Alexander Malakhov addition to him, the statement was also signed by correspondents Vladislav Puzyrev, Tatyana Morozova, Natalya Ivankina and website editor Yegor Efimchik. On the Vedomosti website, nine people Vedomosti.ru named as employees of the division, not counting Malakhov.

Morozova told RBC that no one discussed the disbandment of the unit with the employees of the online editorial office: "The HR director kept the topic of the conversation secret until the moment when we were summoned one at a time and notifications were read out with witnesses, as if this was a court verdict. The general director who signed the notifications did not appear and did not explain himself. " She noted that "the division brings a large share of traffic," and the reorganization will not improve work and "carries risks" for the publication.

The statement, the partial text of which RBC has, says that the reduction has signs of fictitious, since everyone except Malakhov, under the threat of dismissal, was invited to go to the editorial office of the Vedomosti newspaper with similar job titles and with the preservation of salaries. Malakhov was offered the post of issuing editor with a decrease in salary. "The transformations carried out by the employer do not lead to a decrease in the total number of employees, as directly assumed by paragraph 2 of Art. 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation with a reduction, but are used for the purpose of forcibly transferring employees from one structural unit to another with a deterioration in their situation and putting pressure on them," the statement said.

Malakhov at this time is suing Business News Media JSC, the publisher of Vedomosti, follows from the base of the Moscow City Court. The Ostankinsky District Court of Moscow received two lawsuits in January, the reason for the dispute in both cases was formulated "as invalidating the conclusion of an official audit, disciplinary sanctions, certification results, the results of a competition for the position of state (municipal) service." Meetings on these claims are scheduled for March 10 and 22.

Malakhov claims that the employer first brought him to disciplinary responsibility in August 2021. But this order, relating to the skipping of a meeting with the general director, was subsequently canceled by the labor inspectorate, and two other penalties, which Malakhov considers "far-fetched," are being challenged in court. The decision to abolish the online edition was made after the publisher familiarized himself with the claims.

In particular, Malakhov, according to him, received one of the penalties a few days after he refused to write a text about the creation of a "global association of business media," which at that time included only Vedomosti and Federalpress from the media. These publications have one owner - Ivan Eremin^[2].

2020

All deputy editor-in-chief quit after the appointment of A. Shmarov as editor-in-chief

On June 15, 2020, it became known that all five deputy editor-in-chief of Vedomosti were leaving the newspaper in protest against the appointment of Andrei Shmarov as editor-in-chief of the publication. These are Dmitry Simakov, Boris Safronov, Philip Sterkin, Kirill Kharatyan and Alexander Gubsky. The latter has been working in Vedomosti since the founding of the publication, the rest for about 15 years. From "Vedomosti" also leaves and. about. Chief Editor of the site vedomosti.ru Alexander Chunova and Editor of the Department of Economics Elizaveta Bazanova.

Since the end of March 2020, Shmarov has been acting editor-in-chief of Vedomosti. On Monday, June 15, it became known that the board of directors of Business News Media (BNM, publisher of Vedomosti) approved Shmarov as editor-in-chief. The chairman of the board of directors is the new owner of the publication, Ivan Eremin.

Ivan Eremin becomes the sole owner of Vedomosti

In May 2020, Konstantin Zyatkov, the publisher of the Versiya newspaper, withdrew from the deal to buy the Vedomosti newspaper, follows from the message of the new owner of the Sapport newspaper. Zyatkov confirmed to RBC that he had withdrawn from the deal.

The ultimate owner of Vedomosti is Sapport, founded by Ivan Eremin, head of the FederalPress media holding.

Earlier, Vedomosti reported that Sapport is under the control of Eremin and Zyatkov. However, Zyatkov denied his participation in the deal. He stated his position in a statement on the Versiya website.

"I originally planned to acquire the asset on a parity basis. It was planned to expand its own publishing projects... The situation on the market due to the coronavirus is very difficult. A number of objective reasons have become an obstacle to closing procedures in the initially intended format.

Alexey Golubovich (Managing Director of Arbat Capital, former partner of Zyatkov on the transaction. - RBC) suspended work on the study of company documents, "said Zyatkov.

He explained that the purchase of Vedomosti was entirely considered too risky for itself in the current conditions, since this would lead to the need to "risk more funds than the purchase amount." In addition, it would require distraction from other projects. Therefore, he began to search for a new investor, after which he received an offer from Ivan Eremin.

"He more than met the criteria above. Under our agreement, we did not make further discussions public. Coalitions and a large number of participants are not what is required for an asset during a market crisis. Ivan Eremin made it clear that he was ready to fully acquire the asset, but was not ready to participate below the controlling stake. Having studied the Vedomosti edition, I realized that at the moment participation in the project with a share less than the control will be ineffective, "Zyatkov said.

FederalPress LLC, headed by Eremin, is a major recipient of contracts from regional authorities. In 2019, the company entered into 35 contracts, most of which are related to the provision of information coverage services for the activities of various government agencies and municipal structures.

After the announcement of the transfer of the publication under the control of Zyatkov and Sapport JSC, Vedomosti published a column in the Opinions section marked "From the editorial office," in which the observers of the publication Pavel Aptekar and Vladimir Ruvinsky assessed the results of the transaction. "The appearance in the shareholders of Vedomosti of a person managing the FederalPress agency, which, according to the public procurement website, actively cooperates with the authorities and individual state institutions and is engaged in" preparing and publishing materials in the interests of the customer, "cannot but disturb us. It cannot be ruled out that the new owner will try to apply his usual business model in a new place, using the Vedomosti sign to serve someone's political and business interests, "the column says.

Vedomosti lobbyist Dmitry Bosov committed suicide

According to telegram channels, Dmitry Bosov was the main lobbyist for Vedomosti. In May 2020, he committed suicide.

Suspension of print newspaper due to coronavirus

The Vedomosti newspaper at the end of March 2020 announced that it would not appear in the printed version for a week, at which time only the site works. The decision was made due to the announcement of quarantine associated with the coronavirus epidemic. COVID-19

"In general, there is nowhere to go out and there is no one (newspaper) to deliver it. The site is running smoothly. We will try to somehow expand it, maybe, "- told RIA Novosti and. about. Editor-in-chief of Vedomosti Andrei Shmarov.

Andrey Shmarov appointed io chief editor

Since March 24, Andrei Shmarov, one of the creators of the Expert magazine, has become the acting editor-in-chief of Vedomosti.

The annual contract of the previous chief editor Ilya Bulavinov expires on April 23, and he warned the editorial office that he did not plan to remain in this position after the expiration of the contract. He notified Zyatkov and Golubovich about this at a personal meeting. Bulavinov became the editor-in-chief of Vedomosti in the spring of 2017.

Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev directly participated in the selection of a new editor-in-chief during Kudryavtsev's negotiations on a deal with Golubovich and Zyatkov, an acquaintance of one of the participants in these negotiations said. When asked to comment on this, Mikhail Leontyev replied to The Bell: "This is some kind of trash, get behind me, more shit than this newspaper, I have not seen in life."

However, the actions of and. about. The editor-in-chief Andrei Shmarov only confirms the version of the participation of Rosneft. He first replaced the title of the article about the deal with Rosneft's assets with the opposite and profitable Rosneft - and soon removed from the site an already published column criticizing the actions of Rosneft's head Igor Sechin, written by Vedomosti's regular author, economist Konstantin Sonin. Shmarov also forbade the editors to mention the Levada sociological service, citing dissatisfaction with the presidential administration.

And on May 8, 2020, an employee of Vedomosti told Medusa, from the article "" "Rosneft organizes a master's degree in human genomics at Moscow State University" Shmarov cut out the following text three times: "" The BBC Russian Service, "citing sources, reported that children's endocrinologist Maria Vorontsova could become the curator of the project. The New Times magazine in 2016 named her Putin's alleged eldest daughter. Vorontsova is also on the council for the implementation of the program for the development of genetic technologies. "

Announcement of the sale of the publication to A. Golubovich and K. Zyatkov with the participation of a representative of Rosneft

On March 17, 2020, it was announced that the current owners of Vedomosti (formally Arkan, and informally Demyan Kudryavtsev with partners) were selling Vedomosti (that is, BNM) to publisher Konstantin Zyatkov and financier Alexei Golubovich.

Kudryavtsev himself explained his motives on the air of Echo of Moscow in early April: "I say that a month and a half ago we found ourselves in such a situation. Because all these five years it became clear that we can no longer, there is nothing to invest in us. It is now impossible to attract loans, no one will give us loans under Vedomosti, because it is clear that over these five years the situation in the country has changed unusually and Vedomosti is an opposition resource, although I do not think so<…>. You can't get funding. And we have the only chance - to close and lose everything that we spent in these five years. "

"Kudryavtsev now sells not his own, but what he bought with the money of creditors. These debts will apparently be written off, because they cannot be repaid, and without the consent of creditors it is not possible to sell anything, "says the Meduza interlocutor, who is aware of the negotiations on the sale^[3].

That is why the main creditor, that is, Rosneft, takes an active part in the sale of the publication.

The Bell found a businessman who, about a year and a half ago, was offered, in fact, to take Vedomosti into control. According to him, the negotiations were led by "a high-ranking person from the entourage [of the head of Rosneft Igor] Sechin." It was about replacing Kudryavtsev with another nominal owner in exchange for managing and establishing control over the editorial board. But there was no continuation of negotiations - for Rosneft then this was not a matter of paramount importance, The Bell interlocutor said.

Kudryavtsev's friend Dmitry Bosov also tried to find a buyer for Vedomosti. It was he who presented the idea of ​ ​ how to establish control over Vedomosti, President of Rosneft Igor Sechin, when they had an excellent relationship, an acquaintance of the businessman told The Bell. "Someone gave someone some loans, Kudryavtsev kind of bought, and they tried to play democracy," he describes the beginning of the story. But at some point, Bosov and Sechin "parted ways," after which Bosov even tried to negotiate the sale of Vedomosti himself, adds The Bell interlocutor.

Another acquaintance of Bosov confirms this: "After the conflict between Bosov and Sechin, Bosov himself offered Vedomosti on the market for some time. But everyone was interested - can he really sell and is it true that he is the seller, and when they understood that there the structures close to Rosneft were dissolved. "

"Bosov has never been as such an investor, owner of Vedomosti or a controlling person," says now a source close to the owners of the publication. Bosov committed suicide on May 6, 2020; his spokesman declined to comment for this article.

And the failed buyers of Vedomosti were offered to take part in the deal by Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev, one of their mutual acquaintances told The Bell. In conversations with good acquaintances, he did not hide the fact that Rosneft is directly related to the owners of Vedomosti - however, without going into details; The Bell was told about this by two acquaintances of the press secretary of Rosneft. One of them recalls: a couple of years ago, Leontyev complained how difficult it was for him to work with Kudryavtsev, and said that the decision to replace the owner of Vedomosti was overdue.

At the same time, the management of the company was transferred to Zyatkov and Golubovich the very next day, Kudryavtsev announced. Ilya Bulavinov, editor-in-chief of Vedomosti, vacated his post a month before the expiration of the employment contract, and an external person, Andrei Shmarov, was appointed editor-in-chief. Who exactly chose Shmarov is unclear: after Shmarov's conflict with the editors, all participants in this appointment are not ready to take responsibility for him.

However, a Meduza source close to potential buyers of Vedomosti has heard more than once that the press secretary of Rosneft Mikhail Leontyev participated in the choice of the editor-in-chief of the newspaper. He also played a prominent role in discussing the sale of Vedomosti itself, an acquaintance of one of the possible investors told Meduza - and Leontiev explained his participation in such negotiations by the fact that Rosneft controls the owner of the newspaper "through credit."

Indeed, the company that owns Vedomosti has huge debts. And they arose, as it turned out, precisely in connection with the purchase of the publication by Kudryavtsev five years ago.

After the signing of the agreement, due diligence of Vedomosti should begin, that is, a financial and legal audit of the asset, one of the interlocutors clarifies. Meduza failed to find out the amount of the transaction: according to both sources, the signed agreement stipulates conditions that will affect the final amount of the transaction; in particular, exchange rates and financial indicators of Vedomosti. About a year ago, the Kommersant newspaper claimed that Vedomosti was being sold for about the same price at which the publication was sold in 2015 - that is, 15 million euros. One of Medusa's interlocutors confirmed that the amount under discussion is "no less than this."

Arbat Capital founder Alexei Golubovich has been negotiating the purchase of Vedomosti for more than a year, but "intermittently," both Meduza interlocutors say. "He either came to Kudryavtsev or left. In general, he did not dare in any way. And then Zyatkov appeared on the horizon, but he also waited. As a result, Demyan introduced them - in the hope that together they will finally decide, "says one of Medusa's interlocutors. Golubovich's interest in buying Vedomosti was indeed reported about a year ago, but he then denied that he was conducting such negotiations.

2019: Discussing the sale of the newspaper with Arbat Capital owner Alexei Golubovich

In April 2019, it became known that Demyan Kudryavtsev was discussing the sale of Vedomosti to Arbat Capital founder Alexei Golubovich. Four interlocutors, including two acquaintances of Mr. Kudryavtsev, told the Kommersant newspaper about this. One of them says that the parties have been consulting for several months, but have not yet agreed on a price. Another heard that a deal was practically agreed a month ago. Two interlocutors believe that Arbat Capital can act as a tool for attracting third-party investments or be an intermediary if another person acts as a real buyer.

"I always consider all the proposals coming to me about investments and the purchase of different shares in my assets, I have never hidden this, including about Vedomosti, but I will not comment on specific negotiations. No agreements have been reached, "Demyan[4].

Alexey Golubovich declined to comment on the question of whether he is considering the possibility of acting as an investor in Vedomosti or taking part in the search for investments for the publication:

"I have been buying and selling businesses for 30 years and have never heard someone say anything about it before the deal is completed."

He also noted that he is now engaged in information projects and fundraising in IT, but not in Russia, where he developed the publishing business until 1993, and now he is not so confident in the prospects of the newspaper market.

Kommersant's interlocutors find it difficult to estimate the cost of Vedomosti, explaining that there have been no precedent transactions in this area for a long time. One of Kommersant's sources says that the seller will receive for Vedomosti as much as he paid in 2015 for the entire newspaper, taking into account its debt to shareholders, which was acquired at a discount, and part of Sanoma magazines, that is, €15 million, while maintaining the magazine business.

Former general director of Kommersant Publishing House Pavel Filenkov believes that the cost of Vedomosti remained "approximately at the level of the last purchase": The newspaper costs not so much as a business as a resource. During the years that Demyan Kudryavtsev owns Vedomosti, the print media did not become more expensive. "

From the point of view of the general director of Komsomolskaya Pravda Vladimir Sungorkin, the cost of media assets is now "generally incomprehensible":

"If in the old days we understood something when evaluating, now we will agree. If we are talking about Vedomosti, then the deal is politicized and not quite market, only factors such as revenue and profit are unlikely to work there. "

2018: Transfer of control over the owner of the publication "Arkan Investment" to the niece of Vladimir Voronov

Kudryavtsev said that during the deal in 2015, his family bought out Vedomosti shares, and his partners owed a debt to the previous owners, as a result of which Vedomosti formed a debt to Voronov and Pompadur.

At the same time, Kudryavtsev in 2017 lost his Russian citizenship, so legally he could no longer own the newspaper. According to SPARK-Interfax, since 2017, Business News Media, which publishes Vedomosti, has been owned by Kudryavtsev's wife, Yana Mosel-Kudryavtseva, through her own Arkan Investment JSC. However, in February 2020, Kudryavtsev told RTVi that the publication was re-registered with the "family" of his partner Vladimir Voronov.

Both Meduza sources claimed that the deal to transfer Vedomosti to Voronov was "formal."

"It is not so important on which of them the newspaper is legally registered now. Negotiations with new buyers, for example, are conducted by Demyan. It is quite obvious that there is some kind of agreement between all three partners, and they all still retain financial interest in the publication, "says one of Meduza's interlocutors. Sources of The Bell previously also confirmed that "the re-registration of the publication from relatives of one to relatives of the other was, rather, a technical necessity dictated by personal circumstances" and "the real sale of Vedomosti has not yet happened."

Later, Kudryavtsev said in an interview with RTVi at the end of 2019 that he had not owned the newspaper for a long time. According to him, the property is re-registered with a family member Vladimir Voronov. This is his niece Ivetta Voronova, she confirmed to Forbes that she now owns Arkan Investment. As you can find out from her Facebook profile, she is 33 years old, she graduated from MGIMO and works on TNT.

2017: Arkan Investment shares go as collateral to Constant, which received a loan from Rosneft Bank RBRD

The only thing that Arkan has now is Vedomosti themselves and the right to demand the return of about 500 million rubles of debts from them. Vedomosti cannot return them either. For 2019, the newspaper's revenue amounted to 860 million rubles, and operating expenses - 835 million rubles, the loss for the year amounted to 13 million rubles. And her debts - 810 million rubles.

Several times more debts of Arkan itself: at the end of 2019, they amounted to two billion rubles, said the interlocutor of Meduza. In the last financial report at the end of 2018, Arkan's accounts payable amounted to 2.4 billion rubles.

Under pressure from Arkan's creditors, Kudryavtsev decided to sell Vedomosti in order to get its participants to repay and restructure the debts of their Arkan company as a result of a difficult deal, explains the Meduza interlocutor, who knows about this from one of the buyers.

The general director of Arkan Investment, Alexander Karpov, refused to tell Meduza about debts, citing commercial secrets. But a Forbes source told how this situation was described to potential buyers of Vedomosti: Gazprombank issued a loan to Arkan for the purchase of BNM shares in 2016 through a gasket company, and in 2017 this debt of Arkan went to Constanta LLC, which received a loan from Rosneft Bank - RBRD - for 28 million euros.

Meduza, Forbes, The Bell and Vedomosti journalists managed to find confirmation of this version in several documents.

Constanta itself was created in April 2017, follows from the SPARK-Interfax database. From the Constant cash flow report, it is clear that in the same year the company spent 1.79 billion rubles (26 million euros at the exchange rate at the end of the year) on the purchase of certain debt obligations or issuing a loan, having received a loan of 1.85 billion rubles (26.9 million euros).

Despite the fact that the activities of Constanta LLC are services for the production of oil and natural gas, this company with an authorized capital of 50 thousand rubles is registered in a Moscow apartment and is included in the register of small and medium-sized enterprises. The company's reporting does not contain revenue and taxes related to oil and gas production, only salary costs - one and a half million rubles. Its owner and CEO is Igor Lavrukhin, who was formerly involved in the publishing business: he was a co-owner of the liquidated Legend Media LLC.

Lavrukhin himself refused to tell Vedomosti anything about the RRDB loan and Arkan's debt.

And a source close to the owners of Vedomosti, in a conversation with this publication, called Constant "affiliated with the Bosov company" and said that Arkan took a loan from her at the request of Bosov to pay off the debt to Gazprombank.

As a result of this transaction, the shares of Arkan Investment JSC, which owns the publisher of Vedomosti, were pledged to Constanta; this is indicated in the documents of "Arkan" from 2018. And in the extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities of Constanta LLC itself, it is indicated that since June 20, 2017, the rights to own this company have been pledged by the RBRD bank. This bank belongs to Rosneft.

Now the Vedomosti interlocutor close to the owners of the publication assures that he learned all this - that Constanta took a long loan from the RRDB and that its shares were pledged in this bank - just a few weeks ago, and Bosov did not want to explain it.

The conclusion from this is this: Rosneft Bank actually controls the publisher of Vedomosti through the debt chain of RRDB - Constanta LLC - Arkan Investment - BNM, and not a single participant in the chain is able to pay off these debts.

And even selling Vedomosti (that is, BNM shares) is now impossible without paying off Arkan's debts, explains the Meduza interlocutor, who knows about this from one of the participants in the new transaction: after all, the burden on these debts also applies to assets, that is, BNM shares - therefore potential buyers of Vedomosti will have to solve this problem.

To make sure that Arkan's loan obligations formally apply to BNM, Meduza failed. Arkan CEO Alexander Karpov told Forbes that "BNM shares are not pledged and have never been pledged to anyone or otherwise burdened; this can be confirmed by the management of the company itself. " Gleb Prozorov, general director of Business News Media, told Meduza: "BNM management has no documents indicating that the company's shares are pledged."

Nevertheless, the very circumstances of Arkan's lending suggest that there should be an encumbrance on its assets, said a lawyer at an international firm with extensive experience in working with credit and corporate transactions.

"When a project company (having no other assets than the acquired one) is financed for the purchase of the corresponding asset, as in this case, the creditor most often requires a pledge of the asset and settlements for its acquisition through accounts with his bank," the lawyer explained. "But information about the pledge of Vedomosti shares would become available to a wider range of people, since the fact of the pledge has to be reflected in the register of shareholders, etc. If you set a goal to avoid publicity, the lender will protect its interests through other mechanisms: a ban in the loan agreement on the alienation of an asset, encumbrance of an asset with options." Arkan simply cannot have the opportunity to freely dispose of BNM shares - until the loan for their purchase is repaid, he summarizes.

Demyan Kudryavtsev told Vedomosti: "My partners and I have never done anything that would create risks for Vedomosti's editorial independence, among other things, we did nothing that would make it possible to foreclose on BNM shares."

In May 2020, representatives of Gazprombank and RRDB did not respond to Vedomosti's request for lending to Arkan Investment and Constanta LLC.

I did not answer Forbes' question about Arkan's debt to Constanta LLC and the current formal owner of Arkan, Ivetta Voronova.

2016: Sale of the publication of the company of the spouse of D. Kudryavtsev "Arkan Investments" for 24.2 million euros received on loan from Gazprombank

According to the law on "foreigners in the media," which comes into force in 2016, the Cypriot offshore Delovoi Standard Ltd, bought by Kudryavtsev's wife from the Western owners of Vedomosti, could not remain a shareholder of the Russian publication: the newspaper had to be reissued to a Russian company with Russian founders. Therefore, the shares of Business News Media, owned by an offshore company, at the beginning of 2016 (until February 1 was given to implement the law) were transferred from the ownership of Delovoi Standard Ltd to the ownership of the Russian Arkan Investment JSC, which also belonged to Kudryavtsev's wife.

This transaction is reflected in the annual report of the share seller - Delovoi Standard Ltd - as follows: on February 19, 2016, the offshore company sold to Arkan Investment its 100% stake in BNM for 24.204 million euros (or 1.794 billion rubles, indicated in the report).

The deal looks just like shifting asset and money from one pocket of Kudryavtsev to another. But that's not the case. Not only did Arkan acquire Vedomosti from the Cypriot offshore for more than they cost Kudryavtsev, but this was done not with its own funds, but with borrowed funds.

Arkan Investment is a new organization with an authorized capital of 10 thousand rubles, with one employee (director Alexander Karpov - he also runs other Kudryavtsev businesses) and without assets at all - was able to attract loans worth 1.877 billion rubles in 2016 (29.4 million euros at the exchange rate at the end of the year), of which 1.736 billion rubles spent on the "acquisition of shares (shares)" - as indicated in its financial statements. These were shares of Business News Media, that is, Vedomosti, because Arkan, judging by the data of SPARK-Interfax, never had other shares.

It turns out that at the beginning of 2016, Arkan spent more than two times more money on the purchase of Vedomosti from Kudryavtsev's offshore than Kudryavtsev himself and his friends in 2015 - on buying out Vedomosti from foreigners. How could Vedomosti rise in price more than twice in less than a year?

An interlocutor of this publication close to the owners of Vedomosti explains such a difference in price by the fact that the asset - that is, Vedomosti - has risen in price, getting rid of the obligation to pay foreigners large sums for their brands, and license payments to them under the new agreement have become much less.

Judging by the official reports, as a result of the re-registration of BNM shares, the Cypriot Delovoi Standard should have retained Kudryavtsev's profit, which amounted to almost 14 million euros, and a colossal debt of 1.877 billion rubles remained on the Russian Arkana. The deal was drawn up "without additional money, completely legally and in compliance with the legislation of Cyprus and Russia," says a Vedomosti source close to the owners of the publication.

The general director of the company Karpov refused to name Meduse as generous creditors of Arkan. However, a source close to the owners of Vedomosti told the publication that it was a loan from Gazprombank in the amount of about 25 million euros, which Dmitry Bosov then helped Arkan to get.

2015

The purchase of Vedomosti cost Kudryavtsev about 10 million euros, taking into account debt

Rumors that Kudryavtsev was not a real buyer, and the frontman, to whom someone gave money to buy out Vedomosti, spread almost immediately. But no one could convincingly prove it.

"Demyan said that his money, although we heard that he had someone to borrow from," says Sergei Petrov (Rolf group), a negotiator with FT Group and Dow Jones & Co about Vedomosti. "And he promised: if we raise the price, he will do the same."

Kudryavtsev himself recognized the participation of only his friends in the deal: Vladimir Voronov and Martin Pompadur. "It was quite openly stated: there are Vladimir Voronov and Martin Pompadour who went with me in this deal. Due to the adoption of the law on foreigners, they did not become shareholders. They took away debts, acted as creditors, and my family bought shares, "Kudryavtsev explained in an interview with journalist Elizabeth Osetinskaya.

In particular, Pompadour bought Vedomosti's debt obligations from the FT Group and Dow Jones & Co for a total of 6.7 million euros - this was part of the transaction. That is, Vedomosti Steel owes this amount to his company PY Financing LLC.

And for the shares themselves, both foreign co-owners of Vedomosti - FT Group and Dow Jones & Co - received only 500 thousand euros from Kudryavtsev, a source familiar with the details of that transaction told Meduza: for them then, because of corporate rules, it was more important to pay off debts than to make money on the sale of assets. However, Pompadour bought these debts at a discount of 40%, the source explains. "Just bought this debt from them cheaper. The company [BNM] owes [us] this money as before, we just bought the debt at a discount, "Kudryavtsev himself confirmed in an interview with Elizabeth Osetinskaya. But he never named the amounts. According to the terms described in the agreement, the entire amount of the transaction amounted to five million euros, the participants in the transaction itself told Meduza.

Kudryavtsev's expenses to buy out the share of Finnish Sanoma in Vedomosti were also a secret. Sources of Kommersant spoke about about six million euros, sources of Vedomosti - about four million euros.

But Meduza managed to get acquainted with the documents related to the transaction, from which it follows: it is based on the valuation of Delovoi Standard shares (which Kudryavtsev's company Ivania Ltd bought) in 2.687 million euros - and the valuation of debt (which Kudryavtsev's company Moscowtimes LLC bought) in 2.47 million euros. That is, the total amount was just over five million euros.

"Delovoi Standart shares were acquired in 2015 in aggregate [from three previous owners] for about 10 million euros, and about three million euros amounted to repurchased debts for license payments," a source close to buyers of offshore Delovoi Standart explains to Vedomosti. From his words it turns out that Kudryavtsev and partners spent 13 million euros on the purchase of Vedomosti. However, Medusa sources who saw the documents on these transactions insist that the total amount was about 10 million euros and included both shares (3.7 million euros) and debts (6.47 million euros).

Kudryavtsev himself has always argued that he and his friends - wealthy people - paid for these transactions with their own money and no one is behind them. "Medusa," investigating this issue at the end of 2015, wrote: "Kudryavtsev's total income over the past 15 years is more than $20 million." True, Kudryavtsev then admitted that he had to borrow money from his friend and partner in other projects Dmitry Bosov for a short time.

Could Kudryavtsev and his partners buy Vedomosti at their own expense? Maybe. But they didn't do it. As found out in 2020 during a joint investigation by Meduza, Forbes, The Bell and Vedomosti, the publication was bought entirely with borrowed funds and, in fact (although not in form) was pledged. It is this debt that Rosneft has been controlling since 2017. And Bosov played one of the key roles in this story.

Kudryavtsev's family becomes 100% owner of the newspaper. At Sechin's request?

Demyan Kudryavtsev, having become a shareholder of Delovoi Standard Ltd, received the pre-emptive right to buy out the shares of other shareholders in the company (in accordance with the charter of Delovoi Standard Ltd). This, in particular, was told by the owner of the car dealer "Rolf" Sergei Petrov, who also considered then the possibility of buying "Vedomosti" from foreigners. "He [Kudryavtsev] has already bought 30% [more precisely, 33%]. He had the right to priority purchase of the rest of the shares, "Petrov described that situation on the recent air of the Ekho Moskvy radio station.

At the end of November 2015, it became known that Pearson and Dow Jones agreed to sell their shares in the Vedomosti business newspaper to the family of Demyan Kudryavtsev, follows from a joint message from both companies. The parties did not disclose the terms of the transaction, they promised to close it by the end of the year.

Later in 2019, telegram channels wrote that Demyan Kudryavtsev did not buy Vedomosti with his own money. The deal was financed by the owner of the Sibanthracite group Dmitry Bosov, a good acquaintance of Igor Sechin. Allegedly, there was an opinion on the market that it was at the request of Sechin that Bosov financed the purchase of Vedomosti. Having bought out Vedomosti's debt of 27 million euros, Bosov-Kudryavtsev allegedly reissued it to one of Rosneft's structures.

"We are very proud that we managed to work with Vedomosti and contribute to the development of an independent press in Russia for 15 years," Pearson and Dow Jones quoted representatives as saying.

They are forced to sell their shares due to the law that has come into force, limiting the share of foreign investors in the Russian media to 20%.

Kudryavtsev will pay for the asset based on the "standard market value ratio," writes the Financial Times (FT), citing people familiar with the details of the agreement. The newspaper is valued at more than 10 million euros, taking into account the debt, a person close to the participants in the transaction told Vedomosti.

According to RBC, the transaction was executed mainly as a purchase of Business News Media debt obligations to outgoing shareholders. These obligations will be bought from them by a member of the board of directors of the company, a former top manager of News Corp. Martin Pompadour. And Business News Media will pay off its debts with it, RBC said. Kudryavtsev does not comment on this, it was not possible to contact Pompadur.

Now, according to Kudryavtsev, Vedomosti's cooperation with the FT and WSJ will continue in a different form:

"We have signed a new agreement to use the materials of these publications with the appropriate use of their brands."

When selling shares, Pearson and Dow Jones put some restrictive conditions on the buyer, according to a person close to the negotiators. Kudryavtsev will not be able to sell Vedomosti to individuals or companies that fall under a number of criteria described by Pearson and Dow Jones. What these criteria are, the interlocutor of Vedomosti did not specify. Also, the new shareholder will not be able to amend the charter of the Vedomosti newspaper without the approval of the editorial board. In addition, Kudryavtsev will not be able to sell the newspaper within a certain time, the FT notes, citing people familiar with the negotiations.

The change of ownership will not affect the editorial policy in any way, since it is determined by the editor-in-chief - according to the law and according to the charter of the editorial board, says Tatyana Lysova, editor-in-chief of Vedomosti. Until the completion of the transaction, she said, the charter of the editorial board will be changed to clearly distinguish between the rights and powers of the editorial board and the founder. And subsequent changes to the charter will be possible only with the approval of most full-time editorial staff.

In the same November 2015, Kudryavtseva's offshore company Ivania Ltd transferred its shares to Mosel-Kudryavtseva Delovoi Standard Ltd, according to a 2015 report by this company. Thus, on December 31, 2015, Demyan Kudryavtseva's wife became the sole owner of Business News Media, which owned Vedomosti.

Gleb Prozorov replaces Mikhail Dubik as CEO

In November 2015, Vedomosti left Mikhail Dubik, CEO of Business News Media and publisher of the newspaper since its founding in 1999. Now Gleb Prozorov is indicated as the publisher on the newspaper's website. Mr. Dubik himself submitted his resignation, says the source of Kommersant, without specifying what it is motivated by.

Kudryavtsev buys Sanoma share for $6.4 million with the assistance of Dmitry Bosov

In April 2015, it became known that the former general director of Kommersant Publishing House Demyan Kudryavtsev bought a 33% stake in Vedomosti from Finnish Sanoma. Two sources close to the participants in the transaction told Gazeta.Ru about this.

According to one of them, the deal amounted to about $6.4 million, and the necessary funds were paid by Kudryavtsev himself and private investors attracted by him. Earlier, among Kudryavtsev's partners, Vladimir Voronov and American Martin Pompadur were mentioned^[5]. It was also reported that the buyer will be a company in which all three partners have equal participation.

Many representatives of the Russian business community previously refused to participate in the acquisition of Vedomosti.

As part of the deal, Kudryavtsev can also gain control over a number of assets of CJSC Business News Media, including The Moscow Times, and the Men's Health, National Geographic magazines published by United Press. According to another source, transactions to buy United Press magazines have already been closed and the new owner will have to re-issue licenses for their publication.

Despite Sanoma's desire to sell assets as soon as possible, negotiations with Kudryavtsev took almost a year. The catch was Vedomosti.

"The deal to buy Vedomosti was closed last," Kommersant wrote, citing its sources. "The deal with Vedomosti was so delayed, because the acquisition of such an asset needs to be coordinated at the very top and Kudryavtsev could not get approval for a long time. He only got it when he attracted a 'right' partner. It became clear that some other buyer was behind him, "a source from the sellers, aware of the progress of that transaction, told Meduza.

Officially, the representative of Sanoma then stated that the deal does not require coordination with the Russian authorities. Kudryavtsev also always said that he did not coordinate this acquisition with anyone. The last time he repeated this in an interview with YouTube channel# eschenepozner in 2020:

'I didn't get permission because I didn't have to. But I just at one event said about it [press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry] Peskov. And [the first deputy head of the presidential administration in charge of media, Alexei] Gromov also said. I did not speak in order to get permission - but to keep them informed. "

However, a Vedomosti source close to the owners of the publication now admits that Kudryavtsev's purchase of Vedomosti was coordinated with the presidential administration and then Kudryavtsev's friend and partner Dmitry Bosov, president of the Alltek investment group, owner of Sibanthracite, helped to get this consent (it is no longer possible to check this: Bosov committed suicide on May 6, 2020).

After acquiring a 33% stake in Vedomosti, Kudryavtsev joined the board of directors of Business News Media. However, the remaining two-thirds of the business publication is still owned by the British FT Group and the publisher of The Wall Street Journal - the American Dow Jones.

According to one of the sources, Kudryavtsev is already negotiating with Western media groups on the possible purchase of their part of the shares, since in 2016 they will still be forced to sell or significantly reduce their share of ownership.

It is then that amendments to the federal law "On Mass Media" come into force in Russia, prohibiting foreigners from owning 20% or more of the founder of any Russian media.

"The total cost of Vedomosti is approximately $12-15 million. Considering that Kudryavtsev has already given $6.4 million, he will at least have to pay the Western owners the same amount, "the source said

.

However, if new agreements are established based on the price of the last deal, then the share of FT Group and The Wall Street Journal will rise in price to $12.8 million.

He also noted that the total value of the business publication may be significantly lower than stated, since this asset, in fact, is unprofitable.

"The Russian media industry is experiencing a serious drop in advertising revenues during the crisis, and Vedomosti was also among the victims. As a result, additional funds may be required to bring the project to a new level of quality, "the^[5] believes]

.

However, at the same time, he notes that Kudryavtsev is an excellent candidate for the reorganization of the publication, which has recently been stagnating due to the uncertainty of its fate.

Among the possible buyers of Russian assets were the founder of the publishing house Independent Media and the general director of the Russian holding RBKDerk Sauer, the media holding Hearst Shkulev Media and the ex-owner of the Ukrainian media holding UMH group Boris Lozhkin.

WSJ and FT Group refuse to buy out Sanoma stake

Vedomosti has been published since 1999 by Business News Media, and as of February 2015, Dow Jones & Co, FT Group and Sanoma own it in equal shares through the Cypriot Delovoi Standard Ltd.

In February 2015, it became known that two co-owners of the Vedomosti newspaper - the American Dow Jones & Co (owner of The Wall Street Journal) and FT Group (owner of the Financial Times) - notified a third partner, the Finnish media holding Sanoma, that they would not use the preferential right to buy out his share in the company publishing Vedomosti. Two people familiar with the negotiators told Vedomosti about this.

Sanoma wants to sell its stake in Vedomosti to a company representing the interests of Demyan Kudryavtsev, Vladimir Voronov and American Marty Pompadur, two people close to the seller told Vedomosti. According to them, Sanoma has already notified two other co-owners of the publication about such a proposal. One of Vedomosti's interlocutors clarified that the buyer is ready to pay 6 million euros for a third of Vedomosti. According to the shareholder agreement, the co-owner who decided to sell the share in Vedomosti is obliged to notify other partners about the potential transaction and the partners have the primary right to repurchase these shares at the same price. The WSJ and FT did not exercise this right. WSJ and FT also do not intend to sell their shares in Vedomosti, one of Vedomosti's sources who communicated with the co-owners of the newspaper knows.

Three acquaintances of Kudryavtsev confirmed that he, together with partners, applied for the purchase of Vedomosti at Citibank. The buyer (if the transaction takes place) will be a company in which all three partners have equal participation, clarifies one of the interlocutors of Vedomosti. Representatives of Sanoma and Citibank, as well as Kudryavtsev himself, never commented on this, they did the same yesterday.

Kudryavtsev is a former journalist, in 2006 Boris Berezovsky, the then owner of Kommersant Publishing House, appointed him general director of the publishing house, where Kudryavtsev worked until 2012, after which he founded the Clear Communication communication agency. He also advises media companies on transactions and strategy, the heads of several large media companies told Vedomosti.

Kudryavtsev, Pompadur and Voronov have known each other since 1996, when Rupert Murdoch's News Corp became interested in media assets in Russia, their acquaintance says. This corporation owns Dow Jones and, accordingly, controls a third of Vedomosti. Pompadour worked for News Corp in 1998-2010. first as vice president of the holding and president of the division in Eastern and Central Europe, and then as chairman of the board of directors of News Corp Europe. Voronov was president of News Media, a division of News Corp, he and Pompadour were actively involved in the purchase and sale of media assets for Murdoch in Russia and the CIS countries. In 1999, Berezovsky and Murdoch created a joint company "LogoVAZ - News Corp." Murdoch discussed with the Russian oligarch the purchase of TV-6, and later - the purchase of a package of Channel One. But these deals never worked out. In 2007, Berezovsky sold his TV channels in Latvia to Murdoch.

Pompadour, after leaving News Corp, became a board member of many media companies. In Russia, he is the main investor in Montana Coffee, said its president and CEO Alexander Malchik. Montana Coffee is a major producer of premium roast coffee, says Ramaz Chanturia, director of the Rosschaikofe association; what market share this company holds, he does not specify.

Voronov has been working in private investment in recent years, his acquaintance says, but does not disclose any details. Now Kudryavtsev, Pompadur and Voronov have no joint business, he assures.

2014

The audience of one number is 181.4 million people, the site - 200 thousand per day

The average audience of one Vedomosti issue, according to TNS Russia, in March-July 2015 was 181.4 thousand people.

According to TNS estimates, the average audience of the site Vedomosti.ru in May 2014 was 200 thousand people per day.

DDos-attack

On January 30, 2014, a DDoS attack was carried out on the website of the Vedomosti newspaper, the traffic volumes in which reached 1.2 Gbps. Its peak came at midnight from January 28 to 29, when the site began to receive requests from a botnet consisting of six thousand bots, mainly with Russian IP addresses.

Then the nature of the attack on the Vedomosti website changed: the publications' DNS servers were attacked, as a result of which they stopped working. That is, all calls to the vedomosti.ru domain name ceased to reach the web server. DNS servers are responsible for redirecting domain name requests to servers by IP addresses. Domain names were invented for the convenience of people, while machines communicate by digital IP addresses.

Thanks to Qrator technologies, Vedomosti specialists managed to neutralize the attack and ensure the availability of the site. Qrator specialists redirected traffic to their filtering network, and also provided their DNS servers to the publishing house. Unfortunately, updating the records of DNS servers on the network takes several hours, at which time the site may not be available to some users.

On the same night from January 28 to 29, a DDoS attack hit the online edition of the Roem.ru, and a little earlier on the SiliconRus.com and website of the Dozhd TV channel. The situation was taken under control in all cases also thanks to the traffic filtering network Qrator.net.

Alexander Lyamin, CEO of Qrator, comments: "The attack on the Vedomosti website is definitely carried out by professionals and can be classified as above average complexity. The rest of the attacks belong to the average level in terms of the amount of traffic generated by attackers. False requests to sites in all cases came mainly from Russian IP addresses. "

Bloomberg reports that Vedomosti will be sold to Putin's friends

On October 16, 2014, it became known that businessmen close to Russian President Vladimir Putin were going to purchase the Vedomosti newspaper, Bloomberg reported, citing three informed sources.

The day before, the head of state signed a law restricting the participation of foreign capital in the Russian media.

It can be used in order for the shares of the American News Corp. (publisher of The Wall Street Journal), the British FT Group (publisher of The Financial Times) and the Finnish Sanoma in Vedomosti to be acquired either by Gazprom-Media holding, which is headed by Mikhail Lesin, or by companies associated with Yuri Kovalchuk, sources say.

The corresponding plan was supported by the presidential administration of Russia, according to Bloomberg interlocutors. According to them, in order for a deal with businessmen loyal to Putin to become more "politically attractive," an intermediary can be used.

"The Kremlin considers foreign governments to be shareholders of Vedomosti. He equates The Wall Street Journal with "USA," and The Financial Times with "Great Britain," said Tatyana Lysova, editor-in-chief of Vedomosti

.

Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov told Bloomberg that the fate of Vedomosti will be determined by the "market process."

"We do not know what will happen to Vedomosti, who will buy them," the Kremlin spokesman said

.

2013: Sanoma tries to sell Hearst edition but deal gets blocked

In the fall of 2013, Sanoma decided to leave the Russian market and sell its Russian division Sanoma Independent Media (SIM). Collected applications from potential buyers of Citibank. At first, the holding hoped to sell all SIM assets to one buyer, but could not do so.

In November 2013, it became known that the founder of Sanoma Independent MediaDerk Sauer is ready to become the owner of this publishing house again: he is negotiating a purchase with Finnish Sanoma. First of all, he is interested in the Vedomosti newspaper.

As of November 2013, Business News Media is owned by the Cypriot company Delovoi Standart, which is owned on a parity basis by the Russian Sanoma Independent Media, the British Pearson is the publisher of the Financial Times, and Rupert Murdoch's American News Corporation, which publishes The Wall Street Journal. Operationally, the company is part of the Sanoma Independent Media holding.

Interview with Gleb Prozorov, Managing Director of the Vedomosti newspaper (May 2013)

In December 2013, Sanoma agreed to sell a 100% stake in its Russian division Sanoma Independent Media (SIM), which publishes the Vedomosti newspaper, Cosmopolitan magazine and other media. The buyer was the American Hearst Corporation, which 50% owns the Hearst Shkulev Media publishing house. In May 2014, it became known that the deal did not take place and was frozen.

2012

Comparison of the size of the site audience with competitors

If from December 2010 to April 2011 the daily Russian audience of the newspaper numbered 116.5 thousand people, then in the same period in 2012 the audience decreased by 1%, amounting to 99.6 thousand readers.

Onexim tries to buy "Business News Media"

On December 11, 2012, it became known that the ONEXIM investment fund, owned by Mikhail Prokhorov, made an offer to exchange assets to the Sanoma Independent Media publishing house. According to the Kommersant newspaper, citing its own sources, Prokhorov wants to receive a Sanoma-owned stake in Business News Media, which publishes Vedomosti. In exchange, the RBC holding controlled by ONEXIM is ready to part with the Salon-Press publishing house.

News Media Business is owned by the Cypriot company Delovoi Standart, which is owned on a parity basis by the Russian Sanoma Independent Media, the British Pearson is the publisher of the Financial Times, and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which publishes The Wall Street Journal. At the same time, Pearson, according to Kommersant, is a rival of ONEXIM, as it is ready to consider the possibility of consolidating all Vedomosti assets in its hands^[6]

A source close to Salon-Press confirmed to Kommersant that RBC recently issued a mandate to sell this publishing house. According to RBC CEO Sergei Lavrukhin, two companies claim to buy Salon-Press, but Sanoma is not among them.

According to RBC reports provided by Kommersant, the revenue of the Salon-Press publishing house, which specializes in publishing interior magazines, in 2011 decreased by 3.9 percent to 547 million rubles, and profit decreased by 20.4 percent to 74 million rubles. Business News Media's revenue, according to the Professional Market and Company Analysis System (SPARK), in the same year amounted to 1.006 billion rubles, and the company's net loss was 26.5 million.

At the same time, as Kommersant notes, in the three quarters of 2012, advertising revenues of both high-quality daily federal newspapers and interior publications increased by 12 and 10 percent, respectively. Both segments grew significantly faster than the general market of federal publications, the growth of which over the same period amounted to only one percent. Meanwhile, the volume of advertising sold in Vedomosti excluding applications in the first ten months of 2012 increased by 2.28 percent in lanes and 3.42 percent in monetary terms compared to the same period in 2011.

Advertising and online subscription revenue

• The volume of advertising sold in Vedomosti excluding applications in the first ten months of 2012 increased by 2.28 percent in strips and 3.42 percent in monetary terms compared to the same period in 2011.

• In January - March 2012, according to TNS Russia, advertising sales of the Vedomosti newspaper reached about $10 million. When calculating the budget, TNS Russia used the official prices of publishing houses without taking into account discounts and taxes, but taking into account the allowance for positioning and color.

• Vedomosti's share of "digital" revenues - from subscriptions and advertising - has grown to 22%, while the American shareholder of the newspaper, FT Group, has reached 50%, and the number of online subscribers of the Financial Times has already exceeded the number of "paper."

2011

TNS sharply lowers the estimate of the size of the audience of the publication

• A sharp drop in the audience of the Vedomosti issue To Moscow TNS began to be recorded in the spring of 2011. - almost twice (from 116 thousand people to the current 63 thousand). At the same time, the newspaper's six-month readership has been steadily declining since mid-2010. - from 914.7 thousand people in March-July 2010. up to 707.8 thousand people in May-October 2011.

• According to TNS Gallup data for May-October 2011, the number of readers in Moscow of the Vedomosti newspaper per issue decreased by 37% compared to the previous period and by 34% compared to the 2010 level^[7].

During this period, 63 thousand people read each issue of Vedomosti in the Russian capital. At the same time, the average readership of each issue of its two main competitors, according to TNS calculations, amounted to 76 thousand people at RBC daily and 98.8 thousand people at Kommersant. Unlike Vedomosti, both recorded an increase in this indicator.

President of Sanoma Independent Media Elena Myasnikova told RBC daily that the publishing house is surprised by the results of the study. 'We don't know what the audience drop might be related to and asked TNS about it. We are waiting for an answer, "she commented on the data on the reduction of the Vedomosti audience. In TNS itself, they could not explain the results they obtained. They noted that they would monitor the development of the situation, promising to submit their conclusions following the results of the next wave of research.

Vasily Gatov, vice president of the Guild of Periodical Publishers, believes that the fall in Vedomosti's audience fits into the general trend of the fall in international media audiences. "This is because part of the audience of a number of publications is switching from paper to other media. So, Vedomosti has a very large part of the audience - these are users of iPad tablet computers. Technologies for taking into account this audience have not yet been invented, so the numbers may not correspond to reality somewhat, "says V. Gatov.

However, in this case, Kommersant should have a similar dynamics of flight of readers, which not only supports a site with a free paper newspaper number, but also develops applications for iOS and Android for the second year. The data for the Internet audience did not change either. In October (the last full month of measurements in the fourth wave of Gallup), on weekdays, an average of 173.4 thousand users visited the Vedomosti website (hereinafter TNS data), Kommersant - 140.4 thousand, RBC daily - 192.7 thousand. Runet counters did not record a surge in traffic on the Vedomosti website for tens of thousands of users.

It is possible that TNS Gallup could lower the rating of the Vedomosti audience (by sample and geography) after the scandal with the divergence of glossy magazines declared at customs and real circulation, including products of Sanoma Independent Media Publishing House. In February, the National Circulation Commission, at the request of Mercury, checked the real circulation, revealing an overestimation of glossy publications, including Cosmopolitan Beauty, published by it, by 25%.

Loss at the end of the year 26.5 million rubles

Revenue of Business News Media, according to the Professional Market and Company Analysis System (SPARK), in 2011 amounted to 1.006 billion rubles, and the company's net loss was 26.5 million.

2005: Sanoma becomes co-owner of newspaper

In 2005 the Finnish Sanoma , she became a co-owner of Vedomosti.

1999: The start of the publication of the newspaper "Vedomosti"

Vedomosti has been published since 1999.

Online subscription

2011: Full edition of the newspaper by subscription only

Since July 2011, the publication began to provide a number of new paid services: the ability to read the full issue of the newspaper online, access the materials of the fresh issue using mobile applications for iPad, iPhone, smartphones and tablets based on Android.

At the same time, new content products were developed specifically for subscribers - a daily digest of announcements of the best publications from the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal (publications − founders of Vedomosti), infographic tapes and official documents.

2012: No more than 30 articles per month free of charge

From July 15, 2012, Vedomosti limits free access to vedomosti.ru publications: up to 30 vedomosti.ru articles per month will be available to one reader. In the future, this limit will change.

At the same time, subscribers will vedomosti.ru be able to read an unlimited number of publications, and also for them there is free access to the content of the fresh issue of the newspaper and all paid services of Vedomosti.

The publication consistently implements the strategy of introducing paid services for readers. The first of them was access to archival publications for the entire time of the release of Vedomosti.

As of June 2012, the share of Vedomosti online subscribers is 30% of the total number of subscribers. The share of online revenue − 21% in the total revenue^[8] Vedomosti publication^[8].

A similar monetization model (paywall) is used by business publications The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. The share of online subscribers at the Financial Times − 50%.

2016: The number of online subscribers equaled the number of paper subscribers - 20 thousand

In April 2016, the Vedomosti newspaper for the first time announced the share of revenues that pay the publication to the site. The presentation of the newspaper at the RIF conference was posted on his Facebook by RBC employee Vladimir Motorin. According to the presentation, the online version of the newspaper brings it 26% of revenue, of which 74% is advertising and 25% is a paid subscription. 64% of total revenue is generated by the paper version (90% - advertising, 10% - subscription).

The revenue of Business News Media CJSC, which publishes Vedomosti (the business newspaper is the company's only asset) for 2014, according to Kartoteka.ru, amounted to 955.183 million rubles, net loss - 203.273 million rubles. In February 2016, at one of the industry forums, Vedomosti.ru editor-in-chief Yekaterina Derbilova said that paid subscriptions to the electronic version of Vedomosti exceeded 20 thousand, equal to the number of subscriptions to the paper version. According to her, subscription to the vedomosti.ru brings 30% of the total revenue of the digital direction of the newspaper.

As Tatyana Lysova, editor-in-chief of Vedomosti, clarified during the discussion of the presentation, the introduction of paywall cost insignificant funds, and the losses associated with a decrease in audience loyalty are compensated by income from a paid subscription.

At this time, Vedomosti was the only major newspaper in Russia that decided to experiment with paid access to the site. In April 2016, the general director of Kommersant Publishing House, Maria Komarova, said that the publication plans to introduce paid access to some of the materials.

Organization of events

The publication has a division of "Vedomosti. Conference." Among the events held:

• Telecom - international forum of telecom operators (for 2015)

See also

• Media in Russia

Notes