Preparing Independent Russian Media for the 21'' Century:

Flnal Report on Cooperative Agreement 1 18-A-00-97-00274-00, December 2000 page 36
Gubernia in Petrozavodsk and Amurskaya Pravda in Blagoveshchensk
created their own independent distribution systems;
Tochka Zrenya in Penza saw a circulation increase of 80 percent and doubled
its revenues from local advertising within six months of the consultant's visit
(in all, the consultant made 22 concrete recommendations for change, 18 of
which were implemented within six months);
Vyborskiye Vedornosti in Vyborg made significant design changes; began
creating work teams of editors, designers and reporters for each major story;
created a marketing kit for advertisers; and undertook an aggressive
promotion campaign that doubled the number of local advertising accounts.
One measure of this program's success is the fact that all of the host newspapers
and all of the Western consultants are ready to continue participating in this program. In
short, virtually every paper that participated directly in this program gained insight that
reduced production costs, raised revenues and helped them create a more reader-oriented
and financially viable publication.
4.3.2 Publications
NfI's How to Sell Newspaper Advertising "u an irreplaceable
guidebook for any newspaper advertzszng department "
Irina Bezhon, Segodnyashnyaya Gazeta, Zheleznogorsk
"I would like to thank the National Press Institute and Zhurnallst for
the tremendous thing they have done zn begznningpublzcatzon of the
speczal section 'Newspaper Business Ideas. ' It 1s important that this
publicatzon not only contznue, but develop and expand "
Serge] Belov, independent newspaper publisher, Sochl
Because of the size of Russia and the limits to NPI's resources, MBDS developed
an aggressive, low-cost program to develop written newspaper-management resources
and to distribute them via electronic mail and the Internet.
MBDS created a unique database of the non-state regional press in Russia that, by
the end of the Cooperative Agreement, included more than 850 newspapers in virtually
every Russian city with a population of more than 75,000 and many smaller ones as well.
Through this listserv, MBDS regularly sent media-management materials and
announcements of direct practical use to non-state publishers.
Some highlights of this unique service included the following:
NPI distributed electronically a large number of management handbooks on
advertising, audience research, consumer habits, and other aspects of newspaper
management.
Center for War, Peace, and the News Media - N W Chapter 4: Media Business Development Servlce