Preparing Independent Russian Media for the 21'' Century:

Final Re~ort on Coo~erative Agreement 1 18-A-00-97-00274-00, December 2000 page 34
4.3.1 On-Site Management Consulting
"Only financial independence will enable us to defend ourselves fiom
the pressure of the local admznutratzon. "
Anatoly Karrnan, general director, Gorodskze Vestz, Volgograd
"Our battle with another monopolist - the czty postal sewzce - ended
with a rejectzon of their super-expensive sewices and the establzshment
of an ahernatwe d~stnbutzon system
Against thzs background, ourpar.tzcipation in [NPI's] program was
extremely tzmely. Lzke a spoon at lunchrzme "
Marganta Stakhovich, deputy editor, Kuznetsky Rabochy
NPI has long recognized that inefficient management and poor business practices
were hndamental obstacles to the development of the non-state press in Russia.
Therefore, it has historically served as a conduit of Western management expertise to
regional newspapers throughout the country. Under the USAID-funded Media
Development Program (1994-7), NPI developed an effective and cost-efficient procedure
for conducting professional on-site consulting and a database of nearly 200 US
newspaper managers who were ready to come to Russia on a volunteer basis. One of
these tools - a comprehensive needs-assessment survey designed to most effectively
match newspapers and consultants - was adopted by other media-assistance organizations
(a copy is included as Appendix 7).
Under the Cooperative Agreement, MBDS was able to deploy its resources
nationally. The following table indicates the on-site consulting provided by NPI (it does
not include frequent long-distance consulting by telephone and e-mail, or consulting
provided at NPI centers).
June 1998
July 1998
August
1998
Table Four: On-Site Co~zsultirzg Conducted by MBDS
Ktrznetsky
Rabochy
(Novokumetsk)
Molodost Srbrrr
(Novos~b~rsk)
Tomskaya
Nedelya (Tomsk)
Biyanskoe Zolotoe
Vremya Koltso
(~r~ansk) I (Yaroslavl) I
N~zhegorodskre Brrzha (N~zhny
Novostl (N~zhny Novgorod)
Predprrnrmatel
(St. Petersburg)
Borskaya
Novgorod)
(Borsk) pp
Podrobnosti Uralsky Rabochy Predprinrnzatel Gaudeanzus 1 TV Press
(Yekatermburg) (Yekaterinburg) (St. Petersburg)
(Samara)
(Kirov)
Zolotoe Koltso
(Y aroslavl)
(Vsevolozhsk)
Podrobnostr
NEP (Ukhta)
Nevskaya Zarya
(Vsevolozhsk)
Kalrnrtzgrads
kaya Pravda
(Kalinmgrad) I
Center for War, Peace, and the News Media - N W Chapter 4: Media Business Development Service