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Russia Beyond

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Russia Beyond The Headlines
Russia Beyond The Headlines insert in 20 November 2015 international edition of The New York Times
TypeNewspaper, website
FormatBroadsheet, Tabloid, Berliner
PublisherYevgeny Abov
LanguageEnglish, Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, Greek, Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian
Headquarters24 bld.4 Pravdy Street
Moscow, Russia
Circulation8.7 million
Websitewww.rbth.com

Russia Beyond The Headlines or RBTH is a multilingual news and information resource that offers news, comment, opinion and analysis on culture, politics, business, science, and public life in Russia. The resource is sponsored by the Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the Russian government’s official newspaper.

Russia Beyond The Headlines has print supplements that get distributed in 30 influential international newspapers in 16 different languages in 24 countries of the world. RBTH also has 20 websites in 16 languages.

In its print supplements and on its websites, RBTH covers current affairs and public phenomena in Russia, relying on professional, independent Russian and foreign journalists. In addition, RBTH publishes a wide range of expert opinion on Russia's actions in the international arena and on the processes taking place inside the country.

Mission

RBTH is a link between Russian society and a foreign audience, offering its media platforms for a balanced and professional international dialogue.

RBTH collects, selects and publishes in foreign languages topical reports about Russian politics, public life, culture, business, science, history and other areas that are usually not covered by foreign media for their domestic audiences.

Structure

Russia Beyond The Headlines is a news and information resource sponsored by the Rossiyskaya Gazeta publishing house.

Rossiyskaya Gazeta is the Russian government’s official newspaper of record and provides the official publication of all laws and government decrees, for which it gets compensation from the federal budget. In addition to its official functions, Rossiyskaya Gazeta is a general-interest daily newspaper, offering its readers a diverse and quality content and receiving income from commercial advertising and sales of the paper. It is this revenue that provides the RBTH project with its funding.

RBTH has editorial and output teams, separate from Rossiyskaya Gazeta, that prepare material for publication in print supplements to foreign media outlets and on its own websites in different languages.

The RBTH editorial team consists of the Central Desk, which produces material shared across countries and regions, and of regional clusters, where this material is adapted to specific countries, adding themes relevant for a particular region. In addition, each regional division of RBTH publishes material on bilateral relations with Russia.

Editorial values

Most published material is written by freelance authors specifically for RBTH. Some materials are borrowed from other Russian media (Vedomosti, Kommersant, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Russky Reporter, The Moscow Times and others) with their permission.

Financial operations

RBTH operations are financed by Rossiyskaya Gazeta as well as from RBTH income from sponsorship and commercial advertising.

Foreign partners taking part in the printing and distribution of RBTH print supplements (sections) receive full or partial compensation of their costs associated with the production of the Russian supplements (paper, printing, distribution) as well as for providing RBTH with additional services in promoting the supplements and in studying readers' feedback.

Worldwide distribution network

Digital presence

RBTH maintains 20 websites in 16 languages and publishes monthly supplements about Russia in 30 newspapers in 24 countries. RBTH's total audience is 30 million. RBTH's online resources also include mobile versions of its website, an iPad app available in English and German, digital magazines, a number of special sections on various topics, and the analytic media outlet Russia Direct.

Sociological and marketing research on the readership of print supplements

Under the existing agreements, RBTH's newspaper partners conduct regular audience surveys in order to assess readers' awareness of the project and feedback on it.

During a survey, some 500-600 respondents are asked how often they read or skim through the Russian supplement, how much time they spend reading it, which topics they are most interested in and which topics they would like to see covered in future issues, how they view the current state of affairs between their country and Russia, etc.

Data collection and processing methodology as well as analysis and collating of this information are carried out by independent consultants. They ensure impartial interpretation of the collected data along the key indicators of project effectiveness.

These surveys make it possible to spot changes in readers' awareness of the project, study the social and demographic profile of the audience, and learn readers' interests and their attitude to developing relations with Russia.

The RBTH audience is a wide circle of well-educated, well-to-do and socially active people who are readers of influential national newspapers[citation needed]. The core of the total readership of all of the RBTH print supplements, over 34.5 million people, is made up of political, cultural, expert, business, and academic elites.

Criticism

RBTH pays newspapers to include its supplements, part of a wider effort by the Russian government to exert soft power that includes heavy investment in international television network Russia Today. At the earliest stage of the project in 2007, Slate magazine criticized RBTH for its poor writing style and political agenda, saying "beneath the shattered syntax of these laughable pieces beats the bloody red heart of the tone-deaf Soviet propagandist."[1]

References

  1. ^ Shafer, Jack (30 August 2007). "Hail to the Return of Motherland-Protecting Propaganda!". Slate. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
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