The paradox of Russian media in America: there is an audience, there is no media

The heyday of Russian-language media in America fell on the 80 and 90 years. During the fourth wave of immigration, over a million people came to the United States who spoke Russian and spoke poor English. In response to their needs, Russian newspapers, radio stations, television channels, and then online portals began to open.

Now, it would seem, the influence and popularity of the Russian-language media has fallen significantly.

At the same time, according to research by the Modern Language Association, Russian is the fourth most common language in the United States, and together with illegal immigrants, about 7 million Russian speakers live in the country.

The Forum tried to understand the reasons for this paradox - the Russian-speaking community is alive, but the Russian-language media in America is in decline.

Advertising is the engine of the newspaper

Nowadays, Russian newspapers are primarily read to learn about the events of the Russian-speaking community, for example, tours of stars of the post-Soviet space. “The only thing that can still keep a Russian-speaking reader is entertainment content. Despite being integrated into the American environment, people from post-Soviet republics want to know where they can get married, meet, and where to go to meet their loved ones,” assures Chicago media magnate of Odessa origin Igor Golubchik, owner Russian Chicago newspapers, online television golubchik tv, website bomond.com and radio stations "Your Radio".

Intellectual media remained unclaimed. This is due to the poor quality of materials and the lack of a business component.

“Neither newspapers nor other types of media have ever been the media”

- says Golubchik, referring to the Russian-language press in the United States. In the face of competition from American publications and the Internet, newspapers survive only due to low costs and local advertising aimed at Russian-speaking audiences.

The basis of the content consists of reprints from the Russian editions and local materials of low quality. According to this principle are filled; "Komsomolskaya Pravda in America"; "The reporter" (Brooklyn, for free), Russian Advertising (10 000 circulation, distributed in New York, Miami, Chicago, costs $ 0,25) and "Russian Bazaar" (New York, $ 0,25), “Evening New York” and so on. “Market logic is inexorable: newspapers are filled with material that is in demand and the production of which costs pennies,” admits Oleg Sulkin, editor-in-chief of the largest circulation weekly “In the New World”, daughter of Moskovsky Komsomolets (declared circulation - 45 copies, costs less than a dollar)

In New York, newspapers are mostly sold or distributed on Brighton and in Brooklyn, but some can also be found in Manhattan.

Pavel Ivlev, a former Yukos lawyer who has been in New York for more than 10 years, has a low opinion of Russian-language media. “All my information about local, national and international events comes from English-language media. To know what is happening in Russia and the diaspora, the radio station “Echo of Moscow”, the TV channel “Dozhd” and the online project “Medusa” are enough for me. There has long been no journalism in what is published for emigrants,” he believes.

Ivlev is sure that this is due to the low quality of such media and the gradual globalization of the media. In addition, the old, elderly audience is dying out - and young people are consuming media in English. He attributes the constant budget cuts to the Russian-language services of the BBC, Deutsche Welle, Voice of America and Radio Liberty to the same factors.

“They just stopped performing their function”

— states Ivlev, who took part in the creation Institute of Modern Russiafunded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky in America.

How Dovlatov, Bunin, Solzhenitsyn in the US newspaper did

The New Russian Word newspaper, which existed for 100 years, was perhaps the most widespread and popular newspaper among Russian-speaking residents of the United States. At different times, Russian singer Ivan Bunin, writers Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Sergei Dovlatov worked there. Circulation at its peak reached 150 thousand, the legendary newspaper cost $1 dollar in New York, and $1.25 outside.

In 1980, Sergei Dovlatov began publishing his own newspaper, “New American.” However, financial collapse took her into oblivion. “New Russian Word”, which closed three years ago, also went there. Recently, the newspaper was financed by Ukrainian businessman Vadim Rabinovich.

Vladimir Kozlovsky, a journalist who has worked in the “New Russian Word” 27 for years, and now is an employee Russian BBC service I am sure: the decline in circulation and lack of interest on the part of investors is due to the “lack of demand for high-quality local journalism.”

Sulkin from “In the New World” believes that the problem is more in frames.

“Russian-language journalism in America is very unique; we are talking practically about its fragments, the so-called veterans of mental work, who have not been very integrated into the constantly changing professional environment for a long time,” he says.

The newspaper remained in literature - Sergei Dovlatov in the story “Craft” depicted the editor-in-chief Andrei Sedykh in the satirical image of Bogolyubov, while the name of the newspaper itself in the story was changed to “Word and Deed”.

Russian box

The famous satirist and public figure Viktor Shenderovich, who is often in the United States, assures: the heads of the Russian-speaking public in America are overflowing with propaganda, and it gets to them from the TV.

“Numerous propaganda techniques of Russian television “zombie” viewers not only in Russia itself, but also beyond its borders, where Russian TV channels are available on various cable networks and on which the state spends millions of dollars to maintain,” he says.

If during the time and in the times of Dovlatov and Bunin in America it was not possible to receive operational news from the homeland, now the problem is directly opposed: the viewers have access to dozens of TV channels that are broadcast from the CIS and Israel. And the ubiquitous Russia Today can soon be seen even from the fridge.

Cable operator packages include two channels for Russian-speaking audiences in America - Rtvi and RTN.

New York-based RTVi broadcasts not only in America, but also in Europe, Australia and the Middle East. His audience in the USA alone exceeds 2 million, people say on the TV channel.

RTVi originally belonged to entrepreneur Vladimir Gusinsky, the founder of the NTV television channel, during which he survived his best years. Many former employees of NTV did RTVi, for example, Viktor Shenderovich, Yevgeny Kisilev, Vladimir Kara-Murza. Under Gusinsky, RTVi was known for sharp criticism of the Kremlin.

According to experts, it was the political position that became the reason for the sale of the channel in 2012. The current owner of RTVi, Ruslan Sokolov, lives in Moscow and previously headed the Zvezda TV channel, which is supervised by the Russian Ministry of Defense. “The new owner of the last fragment of independent public television was a representative of Putin’s power corporation, which accordingly turned the direction of the channel’s broadcasting,” assures Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was fired from RTVi immediately after the sale. According to him, the new owner began to suppress freedom of speech, and many journalists left because of this.

Decide the viewers. On RTVi “Forum” saw what usually Russian TV channels do not show: a film about oppositionist Boris Nemtsov and a report about the closure of the Crimean Tatar media in Crimea.

“The public in America is still different and frontal propaganda does not work for them,” explains Kara-Murza.

The current management of the channel assures that these accusations are not true.

“Over the past 2 years, Yuri Shevchuk, Andrei Makarevich, Diana Arbenina, Boris Grebenshchikov, Mikhail Efremov, Andrei Illarionov, Ilya Ponomarev, Alexander Goldfarb, Vitaliy Klitschko, who were “banned” in Russia, have appeared on our air <...>,” notes the television company’s news director RTVi Ekaterina Kotrikadze.

According to her, the previous management did not keep up with the times: the channel did not produce exclusive content, did not film enough on location and worked without a website. The new team is trying to create a modern TV channel - “not oppositional, but honest.”

Another American channel that also broadcasts in Russian is RTN (Russian Television Network of America). The content is a mixture of humorous and entertainment programs from Israel, Russia and Ukraine. And the eternal owner, American Rabbi Mark Golub, personally appears on air with regular English and Hebrew lessons. RTN's audience is elderly.

At the end of last year, both this niche entertainment channel and the large RTVi staff were reduced due to problems with advertising.

Радио

Also in the US there are several radio stations broadcasting in Russian. The largest coverage has "Davidzon Radio". The station broadcasts from 2004 of the year, the claimed daily audience is half a million people.

The founder, Gregory Davidson, immigrated in the 90s and created a media holding in his own name, which also includes a newspaper, a web design studio and ticket offices.

“Surviving in this market is becoming increasingly difficult; the Internet instantly neutralizes any monopoly. And there is not enough advertising market for Russian-language media to survive, so they are often subsidized,” he admits.

Davidson noted that the audience has stopped responding to “quality nostalgia” and is demanding “local information,” locally in each state. “Each niche, be it ethnic or age group, requires a different product and, in my opinion, the demand is fully satisfied,” states the media mogul.

Also in New York you can listen DaNu Radio FMoriented to a younger audience. The plans of the radio station in the near future to open Miami broadcasting, where there is also a large Russian-speaking community.

Internet

The traditional leader in the Internet is the site “Voices of America” available in English, Russian, Ukrainian and 43 in other languages. The site, as well as the TV channel, is financed by the federal agency of the US government. This puts him out of competition with all those who are trying to make American news in Russian with more modest resources.

Other popular sites include: RUNYweb – Russian-American news portal with materials about the USA and New York. According to the resource’s journalists, 90% of all content is unique. However, the media market in America is so small that most Russian-language publications in New York employ the same journalists.

Another relatively popular resource is the news agency "News of America" , existing already 11 years. A distinctive feature of the site is the presence of a bulletin board, which is a traditional tool to attract an audience.

In social networks, Russian-speaking Americans are also looking for platforms for discussing and publishing important news for themselves. Among the most massive groups can be distinguished group on Facebook RosMozg - Global Russian-language think tank (more than 5 000 active members). Liberally-minded users gather there and regularly publish announcements of events with the participation of the opposition.

Quite the opposite by political sympathies group TheRussianInsider has more 12 000 active members. Since its founder, Michael Levitis, who owned a restaurant “Rasputin” in Brooklyn, went to jail for money frauds in the millions of dollars, his wife and mother, who are famous for the Russian Dolls reality show, took up the group.