Realnoe Vremya: in search of reader, exclusive and food for thought
Year-end summary of 2015: over 20,000 news, 2,000 articles, 130 analytical investigations
Saying goodbye to the year 2015, we, the collective of Realnoe Vremya online newspaper, cannot help summing up owing to the fact that it was the first year of working of our newspaper. We will officially celebrate our birthday on 27 February, one year after when Realnoe Vremya entered the World Wide Web. However, even today we took a commendable position in the media space, which we are going to cement, thanks to you, our dear readers.
To sum up or not to sum up?
We had been discussing in the editorial for a long time whether to show the results of our work in 2015 because formally Realnoe Vremya online newspaper is 10-month-old. But taking into account the growing interest to our work from very different, sometimes unpredictably favourable and sometimes not, sides, we decided to do it and tell what we have today.
Let us specify: all kind of attendance indicators, views, understanding and so forth will be in February when we summarize the first year of the work. This is why, dear colleagues-rivals, you can stop here. And for you, dear reader, this is not the most important thing. The content is the most significant detail, it is what we daily tell 24/7. The news feed of Realnoe Vremya has been working around the clock from the first day.
By the end of the year, we are happy because today the editorial has a unique collective for the mass media of Tatarstan (believe us, it is not easy in Tatarstan that is full of media, especially for a start-up). Its originality does not reside in the fact that the analytical service of the editorial in some matters may fulfil the function of a rating agency of the republic (Dobro pozhalovat, to coin a phrase, dear clients – we have the first omens – if you don't need a conspiratorial gibberish with a consommé made with figures from the Federal State Statistics Service but an adequate analytics), it lies in the editorial that became a united team where every person plays his or her own role.
Transmission of Realnoe Vremya: elections in Tatarstan — 94,4% in favour of Minnikhanov
It is the news feed that excels its rivals, reporters who quickly prepare materials and made their colleagues relaxed from grandeur pull their socks up, and front end development due to which a reader decides whether to read or not a journalist's labour. The pride of the editorial is the skills of teamwork in the most difficult projects, for instance, textual transmission of presidential elections-2015 and the ability to organize its own investigations.
Special thanks to our staff correspondents from Naberezhnye Chelny, Moscow, Samara… and even Arkhangelsk. We hope next year we will expand our geographical coverage.
What is the most popular?
What does attract our readers? It is obvious the home page is visited more, and, having looked at it, readers decide what informative dish to choose.
It is followed by the news feed working around the clock and photo galleries. Photo is one of the gimmicks of our newspaper, and many people got the hang of that if you visited an event and you want to find photos with you or your friends, you need to visit Realnoe Vremya. Photos often appear earlier and in a bigger quantity in comparison with our colleagues. In addition, many media mass of Tatarstan and Russia use our photo gallery. And someone is interested in the past, for instance, in our common photo project with Mikhail Kozlovsky, a famous photographer from the Kazan Kremlin, dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the sovereignty of Tatarstan.
'Analytics' can be meant a unique content of our newspaper without false modesty. Immovable property, banking, economic reviews, lectures and leading experts' interview (our newspaper prefers classic economists to popular and mystical conspiratorial 'patriots'), investigations of separate sectors of the economy. It is clear a person who does nothing never fails, but, in general, our readers admit the high quality of our investigations because they are prepared by real professionals, not by journalists.
Due to a difficult system of monitoring and our own unique approach, Realnoe Vremya is the only regional online newspaper that daily follows the price indexes for different goods in Tatarstan and even in Volga region. You can know how much gasoline rose in price, medicines, home care, food or new-build apartments in real time.
About guests and events
Our readers actively use the heading 'Events', which became not only a help for wordsmiths but also a really useful agenda.
The section called 'Online conferences', which are aired live, is gaining in popularity. Every guest might be asked a question in real time mode. Our editorial was visited by Vladimir Gritskikh, the head of the regional office of 'Tatarstan-2030' project, Adel Vafin, the Minister of Health of the Republic of Tatarstan, Roman Shaikhutdinov, the deputy PM and Minister of Information and Communication of the Republic of Tatarstan, Sergey Yushko, the director general of Idea Innovative Technological Park CJSC, Vladimir Leonov, the Minister of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Tatarstan, Sergey Ivanov, the chairman of the State Committee on Tourism of the Republic of Tatarstan (twice), Timur Shagivaleyev, the director general of Alabuga SEZ, Anton Kukhovarenko, the director general of Avtodoria, Vadim Ligai, director general of Kazan Helicopters PJSC, Sergey Akulchev, the owner and founder of Akulchev PLC, and Elmira Zaripova, the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs of the Republic of Tatarstan. And we have many interesting guests ahead.
Our business brunches, meetings of our journalists with representatives of the business community of Tatarstan that became an outlet for professionals and place for establishing prospective contacts, and can be added to this list.
Difference between 'watch' and 'see'
In the media space, there is a concept called journalistic luck and journalistic discoveries. Our editorial has experienced both of them, thank God, during these long and short 10 months. It is difficult to imagine but for this time we have published over 20,000 news, 10,000 photos, 2,000 articles, 130 analytical investigations.
What can be called journalistic discoveries? Probably, the section 'Pieces' suits here best that partly substitutes the classic hierarchical classifier and contains all thematic articles and materials.
The pieces like 'Year of Parks and Public Gardens' (102 materials) and FINA World Championships – the main event of the year – became the richest pieces of the year. The first section consists of many photos and reports, and we observed Natalia Fishman's work, the main park inspector ('satanic commission', as Moscow inspectors were called in the provinces). The editorial took part in key federal events like MAKS-2015, St. Petersburg and Sochi forums.
In FINA World Championships 2015 the editorial tested a new format of textual transmission in real time mode from the technical point of view, which allowed to perform a textual transmission of events to several journalists at the same time. But the first pancake was not lumpy, and the transmission of the World Championships was vivid and colourful. Later this format was used again during elections to the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan and as President of Tatarstan and a slump in the stock market in August. In addition, we had been following the development of Russia-Turkey crisis. It went viral and had almost 11,000 views and 190 comments.
The piece on the crash of FON Group perhaps refers to both luck and discoveries. It was to our advantage because our newspaper is young and not connected with ad contracts and obligations to write unctuous texts in favour of a developer. This is why from the very beginning Realnoe Vremya observed the situation of investors who number thousands of people and present a colossal problem, which is personally controlled by the President of the republic.
The editorial monitored the formation of Innopolis. The opening and launch of the scientific town were quickly and widely covered. But not all the materials, perhaps, were pleasant…
Start from revealing the 'canard of the year', death of the net and Potapenko
A loud interview of Dmitry Potapenko, the ex-head of Pyatyorochka and business consultant, who came to Kazan, was among the most popular for reading, which were noticed at federal level (he was in the centre of attention again because of the comments on the economic politics of the government and 'Platon'). In the interview with our correspondent, he told quite frankly about the victory linked with the power of companies over illogical anti-sanctions, the artificial scandal of Magnit, flexibility and manufacturability of retail and 'interior robbery' in Bahetle.
When the newspaper was only created, having informed about its real reason of ceasing the business – ill-timed death of its owner – we were on the federal agenda with a material on the closing of 'All! Good' drogerie.
The story about an 'interesting' loan of BTA-Kazan bank and crash of ROST financial pyramid were among other popular texts when the newspaper was launched. A material on imagined 'deal of the year', which was born in the editorials of some authoritative sources, was noticed at federal level. The study of the legislation shows there is not planned any mega deal between majority shareholders of Nizhnekamskneftekhim OJSC like TAIF PJSC in the person of Telecom-Management PLC and Svyazinvestnetfekhim PJSC on the sale of a block of shares, which was controlled by the republic, of the petrochemical enterprise.
In March, Maksim Shevchenko joined the list of our speakers who began with a comment on the issue of passports with an insert of Tatarstan.
Tatarstan rentiers' ownerships
A unique investigation called 'Who owns shopping centres of Tatarstan' was a subject for many behind-the-scenes discussions, not only among the rentiers. And the presentation of drafts on improving 25 parks and public gardens of Kazan, which were created by students of the Kazan State University of Architecture and Engineering, was also discussed.
Many people remember our not indifferent reader's material-revelation who for the first time in the mass media of Tatarstan wrote about the execution of municipal haggling over the right to lease parcels of Private Housing Construction in Kazan, sharp rise in price from thousands to several millions of rubles and the standard size of kickback in Kazan.
We are the only newspaper among the mass media of the republic that noticed that '1C-Rarus' federal integrator declared the consolidation or, more correctly, absorption of the large player of Kazan Intelcom, and wrote about Ruslan Biktimerov's promotion who was the deputy head of Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Republic of Tatarstan. He transferred to the Municipal Property Department of Moscow.
How Realnoe Vremya helped the investors
The material on the crash of Anatoly Livada's developer empire (for the market of Kazan the death of FON is comparable with the departure of the federal SU-155, which this year was re-organized, concerning the scale) is always popular among our readers. The article on how Sberbank declared bankruptcy of Anatoly Livada's companies and required to pay off the debt equal to over 1bn rubles, the deputy Minister of Construction of the Republic of Tatarstan Almaz Akhmetshin's interview about an uneasy situation of FON group. The State Housing Foundation bought out FON's apartments in MCHS Residential Complex in Kazan and Yashlek in Naberezhnye Chelny for 80-90m rubles came into view. We also analyzed FON's so-called anti-crisis plan that now is supposed to have failed.
Scandals and intrigues
Realnoe Vremya was among the first who told about Tatarstan metropolitan Anastasy's resignation and transfer to his place of metropolitan of Simbirsk and Novospassk Feofan.
The departure of the head of the Pension Fund of Tatarstan, who almost got into a criminal case, is meant to be a resignation of the year. Siloviks had claims on the purchase of immovable property in Volga Federal District, which we studied in detail.
We also want to add this year the editorial tested a format called newstainment with the intention of dilution of analytical materials and investigations. The series include a material about 'Star Wars', reviews of the adventure game market and rating of Tatar singers' honorarium for office parties.
In focus of attention
Some international mass media resources' attention to our work was a pleasant New Year gift for the editorial. For instance, EurasuaNet (USA), which is situated in New York and specialized in events of political, economic and social life and environmental conditions in Central Asia and Russia, made a reference to one of the most popular and exclusive material – about Tatarstan delegation's trip to Turkvision – Turkish Eurovision (here it can be mentioned about the closing of Yunus Emre's Institute at the height of Turkish crisis). We knew about our American colleagues' attention from another popular federal resource – InoSMI.
Moreover, several tens of federal and regional press, including Interfax and newsru.com, re-wrote an exclusive interview of Talgat Tadjuddin, the chairman of the Central Muslim Spiritual Board of Russia, about Kamil Samigullin's appointment as Supreme Mufti.
In this coming year, we will continue the painstaking labour in quest of the most significant topics for the business community and expand the geographic footprints without any doubts. And today, on New Year's eve, the editorial of Realnoe Vremya congratulates you, dear reader, on the coming festivity! The outgoing year was full of economic events and uneasy political decisions. In 2016, we wish you only good news. May this year be remembered awash with successful projects and vivid achievements. Follow the news in 'Real Time' mode!
Happy New Year!
