Moscow News

The Moscow News, which began publication in 1930, is Russia’s oldest English-language publication newspaper. Many of its feature articles used to be translated from the now defunct Russian "Moskovskiye Novosti."

History

The Moscow News was founded by American socialist Anne-Louisa Strong and approved by the Communist leadership - at that time already fully controlled by Stalin - in 1930 as an international newspaper with the purpose of spreading the ideas of socialism to international audience. The paper was soon published in many languages, including major world languages, such as French, German, Spanish, and Arabic, as well as languages of neighboring countries, such as Finnish.

In 1949, The Moscow News was shut down after its editor-in-chief, Mikhail Borodin, was arrested (and most likely died in a prison camp (Gulags). The paper resumed publication under the supervision of the Communist Party on January 4, 1956.

At the onset of perestroika, the freeing of the press gave it the opportunity to openly address the democratic processes. Sergey Roy, who became the editor-in-chief in the late 1980s, made the "Moscow News" one of the first Soviet papers to experiment with glasnost and publish increasingly critical articles by a range of prominent intellectuals. Readership increased to one million copies per week and the paper was read throughout the country.

In 2004, the Moscow News began to introduce a fully colored front-page.

Under Putin, and suffering from declining sales, "Moscow News" was bought by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, one of Russia's oligarchs and owner of Yukos. Khodorovsky hired Yevgeny Kiselyov, an outspoken liberal journalist who started a scandal in the ranks by firing nine veteran journalists. Kiselyov was eventually replaced.

"The Moscow News" has had numerous other owners: Ogonyok, International Book, and the All-Union Society of Cultural Ties with Foreign Countries among others have had a stake in the historic newspaper at one time or another.

Since 2007, the English version of "The Moscow News" is partially owned by Russian information agency RIA Novosti. Until the end of 2007, some of its articles were translated from "Moskovskiye Novosti", which closed down. The name "Moscow News" belongs to Arcadi Gaydamak,a businessman who now lives in Israel and who proposed in March 2006 to buy back 100% of "France Soir" shares. [ cite news | title=RIA Novosti to launch The Moscow News | url=http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/2007-33-19.cfm ]

Between January and July 2007, the paper was managed by Anthony Louis, [ cite news | title=Arcadi Gaydamak annonce avoir racheté 'France Soir' (Arcadi Gaydamak announce having bought back 'France Soir') | publisher=Le Monde | date=March 14, 2006 | url=http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3236,36-750525,0.html ] who introduced several changes. The paper's format was changed to a completely new layout with new fonts and masthead design, and expanded from 16 pages to 32. Local and business coverage was expanded, as well as a sport and local section that features regular original writing by staff writers, most of whom are expatriates living in Moscow.

Distribution on domestic and international Aeroflot flights was reintroduced as well. The paper is available or free at many business establishments in the Russian capital, and is sold in kiosks at prominent locations, such as Pushkin Square.

The paper is financed entirely by its current owners. It runs occasional advertisement, and is distributed largely for free.

The current managing editor is Robert Bridge, who has been a columnist and political commentator at the MN since 2003.

References

* Baker, Peter and Susan Glasser. "Kremlin Rising." Scribner: New York, 2005. p287.

External links

* [http://mnweekly.ru The Moscow News - official webpage]
* [http://mnweekly.ru/about/history.html The Moscow News history]
* [http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070209/60437591.html RIA Novosti News item on editorial changes at The Moscow News]