Moscow business daily, Kommersant, finally launches radio station Kommersant FM

Posted by Robert Eisenhart on March 15, 2010 at 4:51 PM

Nearly three years after it was first announced, Monday marks the first broadcast of Moscow's latest radio station, Kommersant FM, The Moscow Times reported. The radio station, which has been in development since the spring of 2007, is the audio equivalent of Kommersant, the city's largest daily business newspaper.

The station's spokeswoman, Galina Boyanova, said the new radio station will "synergize" with the content of the newspaper, providing readers with news "focused on business and financial information."

The newspaper and the radio station are owned by Russian billionaire, Alisher Usmanov, who was recently ranked by Forbes as the 14th richest person in the world.

Usmavov, like certain other Russian billionaires, have steadily worked on diversifying their media holdings, which is apparently "en vogue," said Alexei Mukhin, an analyst for a Moscow-based think tank. Usmavov is also the owner of several other magazines and websites, many of which fall under his Kommersant publishing house umbrella.

When asked whether they thought the station would succeed, analysts gave mixed responses. Despite competition from 50 other radio stations, Kommersant FM stands apart from competitors with its focus on business.

Source: The Moscow Times