Introduction
The Russian media and advertising market are evolving. This is important for people who are trying to gain the attention of the Russian consumer! Below we highlight a few of the many changes that people outside of Russia might find interesting.
A new wave of closing and reformatting paper editions.
The hard copy is dying and digital is thriving. No surprise there, right? 2018 saw a number of Russian companies stop paper printing: Artcom Media Group(ACMG) ceased printing hard copies of “Gala Biography”, GEO, “Geolianok”. As well, hard copies of "Igromania" (a gaming magazine) and “The World of Fiction” ceased. Companies are not buying ads in hard copy magazines for a reason, hard copy purchases are down and digital consumption is up.
The search for new monetisation models of media.
Advertising exhausts everyone. The online media audience is in no hurry to click on ads which means companies must change revenue streams. It’s a simple choice: watch ads or pay subscriptions. RBKGroup closed access to their websites to users who had installed ad blockers. RBKGroup told users to remove the ad blocker or buy a subscription. How well did it work, RBKGroup isn’t saying but similar models exist far and wide.
Another popular business model in the media is crowdfunding. Due to donations from readers, such magazines as "Mediazone" and "Such matters" continue to exist. “The New Times” and the “7 × 7” online magazines managed to raise sufficient funds to pay undisclosed government fines. Can you call these donations a kind of subscription...sure!
The superiority of mobile media consumption or Mobile is King
The increased use of mobile devices and access to the quick mobile Internet have led to global changes in media consumption. Russian media was affected too. Research company Mediascope established that in 2018 the Russian audience chose mobile devices over the desktop. According to Media Consumption Forecasts 2018, Russians spent 24% of their time using gadgets, whereas in 2011 only 5% did so. The most popular destinations for Russian mobile audiences are VKontakte, Whatsapp messenger, Google, Yandex, and Instagram. More than 20% of Russians use at least one of them.
Professional Russian journalists shift
In 2018, many well-known people in the media market left for different pastures and some promptly launched their own projects. Former Chief editor of “Vogue” and “Interview” magazines Alyona Doletskaya opened her own creative agency AsD and re-launched the magazine “Flacon”, which formerly belonged to the Golden Apple perfume chain. Former Chief Editor of “Women’s Health”, Masha Troitskaya, opened “Marussia” magazine. Former chief editor of “Tatler”,”Glamor”, and ”Vogue”, Victoria Davydova launched an online project sportchic.ru. AD chief editor Evgenia Mikulina introduced the portal DesignChat.com. It will be interesting to see which of new ventures finds a winning market. It’s too early to judge their success or failure.
TV Shows for Export
Russian television shows have found viewers abroad. Viacom media holding bought the second season of the animated series “Three Cats”. In addition, “Three cats” and the TV series “Youth” are now being sold into the Chinese market. The publishing house Egmont will begin to produce books, albums and coloring books with cartoon characters in Europe. Television series from CTC Media is now available via video services such as Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. In autumn, Netflix acquired the rights to the show “Going on a Charge” from NTV media company.
Conclusion
If you are considering a PR, marketing or advertising campaigns in Russia for your hotel(s), Onlink Services is ready to help you navigate the Russian market!
