TPR - I quarter 2012

The following changes have been introduced to the Title Popularity Rating since 1Q12:

• The Popular Newspapers list has been renamed Mainstream Newspapers;
• Komsomolskaya Pravda, Argumenty I Fakty, and Moskovsky Komsomolets have been excluded from the Sociopolitical Newspapers ranking (now you can find them in the Mainstream Newspapers list only)
• Itogi and Profile have been removed from the Business Magazines list (now they are ranked as Sociopolitical Magazines only).

Expert Magazine is not included in the Sociopolitical Magazines segment anymore (now you can find it in the Business Magazines list only). The upcoming presidential election was the key issue that attracted the attention of almost every key Russian media source in 1Q12; as had been expected, this was the topic that influenced the popularity of publications included in the Title Popularity Rating most. The degree to which the old and social media mentioned these sources saw the most considerable changes. First and foremost, the sources that published articles written by the main candidate, Vladimir Putin, increased in popularity: Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Vedomosti, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Komsomolskaya Pravda, and Izvestia (listed according to the growth in the rate at which they are made mention of, in descending order). Kommersant is the only publication in this pool that saw its position weaken: its media presence fell off slightly after having posted two-fold growth in the last quarter of 2011. However, the surge in Kommersant’s popularity in the blogosphere fully compensated for this fall.

The opposition media and related media sources also became more popular, according to a number of sociological studies. There are statistics on the frequency at which they are quoted to confirm the fact. For instance, The New Times has been quoted 1.5-fold more by the old media and 1.9-fold more by the social media q-o-q. Excerpts from and references to the following articles have been popular in the blogosphere: “The Kremlin Cash”, “I Believe the Shift of Power in Russia Will Not Be the Result of Elections”, “Marriageable Oligarch”, and “I Had Blood Coming From My Ears”, by judge Dmitry Novikov, and others. The number of references to Novaya Gazeta in the social media increased by 1.1 times. The most frequently quoted articles included “’A Bomb’ for a Candidate”, “It is Not an Election Fraud but a Conspiracy to Retain One’s Power by Force”, “102,486 people. We Counted the Heads”, “December 24th. Rally on Sakharov Avenue”; the European media frequently quoted: “’The Putin’s clan’ of friends and relatives heads the list of the world’s richest families”, and others.

This has had a considerable impact on the distribution of places in the Sociopolitical Magazines and Sociopolitical Newspapers lists. Thanks to the large number of quotes of The New Time’s January interview with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, as well as to the attention that the media paid to the magazine’s articles on elections and a number of other “sensational” reports, The New Times has returned to the top three in the Sociopolitical Magazines list. Second place is held by Itogi, which is to a large extent rooted in Expert having been excluded from the list. However, Itogi’s popularity among other media is still high because of a story it published in 4Q11 (an interview with Vladimir Churov, the Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Russia), as well as an interview with the Chair of Moscow City Court, Olga Yegorova, and a slight increase in the media outreach that was detected by TNS Gallup between September 2011 and February 2012. Kommersant-Vlast continues to hold first page, despite a drop in its TPR; the publication continues to speak about the newspaper’s reshuffling, which has a certain influence on its quotation index Due to the inclusion of an entirely different range of periodicals in the Sociopolitical Newspapers category, it welcomed an entirely new top 3. Rossiyskaya Gazeta has become the undisputed leader (+0.3232 p., leader in terms of rank increase over the entire quarter), having published about 30 reports which were extremely popular among the leading Russian media outlets in the late 2011 – early 2012. The articles and news items that were reprinted most of all in the period under review include: Vladimir Putin’s article “Being Strong: National Security Guarantees for Russia”, material on the population loss in Russia and the country’s accession to the WTO, as well as the report on the ban on Federal Security Service (FSB) employees owning real estate abroad. Other popular articles covered the establishment of military police in Russia, the CEC publication of the presidential candidates’ incomes, the FAS verifying the airlines’ fee policy, as well as the Prosecutor General’s stance on the protests that were taking place in Moscow and other cities throughout Russia. Izvestia has consistently scored higher in every quarter since 3Q11, ranking second in 1Q12. This time, besides presidential candidate Vladimir Putin’s numerous articles, the publication has enjoyed high demand due to information about V. Putin drafting his own version of “The People’s Program”, as well as the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the sinking of the Kolskaya rig by journalists. Other popular reports have been on the prospects for a new luxury tax (which is slated to be introduced in 2013 by the RF Ministry of Economic Development and Trade), on Federal Penitentiary Service head Alexander Reimer being involved in a sexual harassment scandal with the institution’s former secretary, and other news. Izvestia interviewed Vladislav Surkov, First Deputy Chief of the Russian Presidential Administration; V. Popovkin, head of the Russian Federal Space Agency; RF Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov; and Olga Borovkova, a Justice of the Peace. Citations from these interviews have been highly popular, and the themes resulted in an increased interest in Izvestia among Russian bloggers. The third highest ranked Sociopolitical Newspaper was Nezavisimaya Gazeta, which has been quoted quite frequently due to the publication of Vladimir Putin’s article, “Russia: The Ethnicity Issue”. Among the Sociopolitical Newspapers, one should pay special attention to the TPR dynamics of Trud (+0.1563 p.). Spearheaded by Valery Simonov, who has returned and holds the position of editor-in-chief, and the new CEO Alexander Sokolov, the newspaper seeks to adopt a completely different editorial policy and is set to implement a new distribution strategy in Moscow and the country’s regions, pursuant to which it seeks broader media outreach and qualitative changes of the readership.

As far as the business segment is concerned, there have been no dramatic changes in the TPR. Business Newspapers have seen Izvestia yield second place to Vedomosti, which has increased its media presence by 1.3 times both in traditional media (including popular publications with a high circulation), and in social media due to the articles by V. Putin (“On Our Economic Challenges”), A. Navalny (“Development Strategy: Don’t Lie, Don’t Steal”, MGIMO professor Andrei Zubov (“Withdrawal from the Legitimacy Crisis”), the article “30-year-old Specialists Protest on Sakharov Avenue”, as well as the editorial on “A Peaceful Way to Democracy”. Among other topics that have enjoyed popularity are the possible retirement of Tatyana Golikova, the RF Minister for Health and Social Development; an interview with Moscow’s ex-mayor Yuri Luzhkov and other material.

The Title Popularity Rating of all the Business Magazines, except for Forbes, sunk in the period under review. This primarily impacted Kommersant-Dengi (-0.0610 p.) and Expert (-0.0446 p.), although this didn’t deprive them of their ranking positions. Both publications have witnessed a minor decrease in their media outreach and a dip in the frequency of their citation by traditional mass media. Additionally, Expert has managed to slow the decrease a bit due to a number of articles, which enjoyed enormous popularity among the Russian blogosphere. These articles include: “Defeat Price”, “The European Path of Russians”, “Smoldering Catastrophe”, “Hysterically Exalted Postmodern”, “The Structure of Russia”, and “Security Services with no Property”. As Itogi has been removed from the Business Magazines category, Bolshoy Buziness replaced it for the first time, ranking third in 1Q12.

The Mainstream Newspapers list has not seen considerable changes either. Moskovsky Komsomolets’ TPR dropped by 0.0236 p. and gave way to Zhizn, which ranked third. Komsomolskaya Pravda strengthened its positions primarily due to its expanding media outreach and the lasting increase in the popularity of its articles (+0.0151 p.). In 1Q12, its most highly-demanded articles covered the accident at the Kolskaya rig, Alla Pugachyova’s marriage, the Costa Concordia disaster, the disappearance of actor Alexander Porokhovshchikov, and an interview with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, which he gave at the end of February. Naturally, Vladimir Putin’s article, “Building Justice. A Social Policy for Russia” was quoted extensively as well.

Business newspapers

№	Printed Mass Media	TPR
1	Kommersant	0.9674
2	Vedomosti	0.7228
3	Izvestia	0.6628
4	RBC Daily	0.4857
5	The Moscow Times	0.2272
6	Rossiyskaya Business Gazeta	0.2194
7	The St. Petersburg Times	0.1184

Sociopolitical Magazines

№	Printed Mass Media	TPR
1	Kommersant-Vlast	0.7025
2	Itogi	0.6539
3	The New Times	0.6526
4	Russian Reporter	0.6470
5	Ogoniok	0.6102
6	Profile	0.4088
7	Political Journal	0.2157

Mainstream Newspapers

№	Printed Mass Media	TPR
1	Argumenty i Fakty	0.8527
2	Komsomolskaya Pravda	0.5953
3	Zhizh	0.4294
4	Moskovsky Komsomolets	0.4170
5	Express-Gazeta	0.3865
6	Metro (Moscow)	0.3356
7	Argumenty Nedeli	0.3266
8	Mir Novostei	0.2421
9	Tvoi Den	0.1412

Sociopolitical Newspapers

№	Printed Mass Media	TPR
1	Rossiyskaya Gazeta	0.9012
2	Izvestia	0.6272
3	Nezavisimaya Gazeta	0.3849
4	Novaya gazeta	0.3641
5	Gudok	0.3464
6	Novye Izvestia	0.3406
7	Tribuna	0.2707
8	Trud	0.2581
9	Parlamentskaya Gazeta	0.2186

Business magazines

№	Printed Mass Media	TPR
1	Forbes	0.9004
2	Expert	0.5433
3	Business Magazine	0.3389
4	Kommersant-Dengi	0.3177
5	Bolshoi Business	0.3150
6	Sekret Firmy	0.2729
7	Kompania	0.2234
8	Svoi Business	0.1497

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