Problems of the modern newspaper industry in Russia

Raf Shakirov, former Editor, Kommersant, Gazeta and Izvestia, Russia

In 1990 Raf became a member of the team that created the first Russian business weekly “Kommersant”, which in 1992 he helped transform into Russia’s first business daily. From 2000-03 he was director general and editor-in-chief of Gazeta, which includes daily newspaper Gazeta and news internet site GZT.RU, and from 2003-4 editor-in chief of daily Izvestia. He was fired from Izvestia in September 2004 after publication of the special issue of the newspaper devoted to the Beslan tragedy.

Merging ice and fire: The marriage of Nordic newspaper and Spanish design

Priit Hobemägi, Editor-in-Chief, Eesti Päevaleth, Estonia

Priit Hõbemägi has spent more than ten years as editor-in-chief of number of Estonia’s largest newspapers; he has worked at a weekly newspaper, a tabloid, and now a modern quality paper. Along with the management team at Eesti Päevaleht, Priit implemented a three year long major re-design project, bringing back profit to a previously flagging newspaper.

Eesti Päevaleht

Eesti Päevaleht was established in 1905. Today it belongs to Estonia’s largest publishing company Ekspress Group. During its long history the owners have often changed but somehow this stubborn and intellectual newspaper has always found its way to survive and serve its readers.

Francisco Amaral, Director, Cases i Associats, Spain

Francisco Amaral joined Cases i Associats in 2001, where he has directed graphic reformulation projects of several publications in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Estonia, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Ukraine. Previously, between 1994 and 2001, he worked as Art Director and Executive Editor for Correio Braziliense (Brasilia).

Cases i Associats

Cases i Associats is a design and consulting studio for journalistic companies with headquarters in Barcelona (Spain), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Miami.
It has been responsible for the design of a significant number of newspapers that have set the industry standard. Since its foundation in 1990, Cases has led the processes of creation or graphic redesign of more than 70 publications across Europe and Latin America.


Blikk and Hungarian politics or the unusual story of the leading tabloid becoming the voice of reason

Bela Papp, Managing Director, Ringier Publishing Hungary
Before being appointed to his current position in 2003 Bela worked for Sanoma Budapest, where he headed the Business Press Division. From 1996 to 1999 he was Central and East European marketing director for ABN AMRO Bank, and before that he worked for close to nine years for The Economist Group in Vienna, Austria, where in the early 1990s he was the founding Chief Editor of the first pan-regional title of its kind, Business Central Europe.

Ringier Kiadó Kft.

The company is Hungary’s leading daily media group, fully-owned subsidiary of Zurich-based Ringier AG. The main titles include top selling tabloid daily Blikk, and the only sports daily Nemzeti Spor. Ringier holds a 67% stake in general interest daily Népszabadság. The four newspapers represent over half a million combined sold copies daily. The company also operates half a dozen internet sites.

Delovoy Peterburg: pioneering the modern business paper in Russia

Oleg Tretyakov, Project Director, Bonnier Group Russia, Russia

Oleg is President of Saint-Petersburg Journalists League. He has worked as a reporter (Nevskoje Vremja, 1990-1), as head of the Russian informational agency TASS office in Leningrad (1991-2), as a correspondent for  the news agency “Interfax” (1992-3) and in 1993 joined Delovoy Petersburg as editor-in-chief. He has been at Bonnier since April 2006. In 2005 he was elected as a member of Obshestvennaya palata (public chamber) of the Russian Federation).


Segodnya: how to transform a Soviet-style newspaper into a modern one

Vitaly Tchirkov, CEO and Editor-in-chief, Segodnya, Ukraine

Vitaly was appointed to his position in 2003. From 1999 to 2002, he was Art-director of “Vesti” newspaper (Israel) and director of media-consulting company “Anubanu” (Israel). He has also been the deputy of the editor-in-chief of the “Beseder” newspaper (Israel), promo-director of «Israel+» TV-channel and deputy to the editor-in-chief of Time Out in Israel.

Segodnya Newspaper, Kiev, Ukraine

The newspaper recorded an average daily circulation of 135,000 copies in 2005. It currently has the goal of reaching 500,000 copies per day and has plans to launch 5 more local editions. Integrating multimedia (internet, TV, SMS) into its offering is also an objective of the group.

Chairman: Vladimir Sungorkin, Editor-in-Chief,  Komsomolskaïa Pravda, Russia