RBC Elizaveta Ossetian, chief editor of the RBC Site Roman Badanin and chief editor of the RBC newspaper Maxim Solus left the holding by the Agreement of the Parties, the company itself reported. The last working day of all three - Friday, May 13, the report says.
Irina Malkova will be temporarily to manage the united editor, now - Deputy Badanina. Formally, it will not be appointed to the position of Vrio Schif editor, clarified the general director of RBC Nikolai Molybogo. Malkova wrote on Facebook, which will soon leave RBC and "works tentatively until June 30." The editor-in-chief of the RBC magazine Valery Igumen also wrote on Facebook, which remains in his post in RBC "Briefly".
Later, Solus wrote to Facebook, which will not disclose the specific reasons for their care. But he is deeply convinced that his dismissal is connected with the editorial policy of RBC and so that due to this editorial policy, the owner of the holding Mikhail Prokhorov has problems. "This policy and, in particular, my stay as chief editor of the RBC newspaper reduces the chances of a prosperous outcome of the" dispute of economic entities "for the entire business of Prokhorov," Solus believes.
Changeover in editors RBC It was a decision of the management of the RBC Holding, confirmed Molybogus "Vedomosti". From any other comments on this issue he refused. "IN lately We talked a lot about how to develop RBC, and in these conversations could not come to a single opinion in terms of important issues, therefore decided to part. I want to thank Elizavet, Roman and Maxim for work and for contributing to the development of the company, "the RBC official reports on his behalf.
According to the source of the "Vedomosti" in RBC, it was first decided to leave Solus, Ossetian and Badananin left solidarity with him. "On new personnel appointments in the structure of the RBC media projects will be announced later," the company said.
In addition, several editors of the holding leave, including Julia Yarosh and Peter Mironenko. Both reported in their Facebook. What works in the company until June 30. "I stay for the transitional period for the transfer of affairs," Yarosh wrote. A similar message was made by the editor of the "Technology and Media" department of RBC Polina Russeyev-Tsybizova, Deputy Chief Editor of RBC magazine Alexey Applekov, Deputy Chief Editor for Special Projects Elena Manyzina and Special Core RBC Svetlana Reuters. The fact that they work in RBC until June 30 were announced by the head of the "banks and finance" Elena Tofanyuk and the deputy editor-in-chief of the RBC magazine Anfisa Voronin.
In April, it became known that Ossetian was leaving for study in the United States. At first she announced the team that he would cease to perform responsibilities from August, but in a week reported that this would happen in May. It was announced that the position would remain for her.
In mid-April, the police, the FSB and the FTS conducted searches and recess of documents at the head office of the Mikhail Prokhorov group "OnEksim" and the companies controlled (but not in RBC) due to "with possible tax evasion". Later, the representative of the FSB said that the searches were conducted in the framework of the criminal case on the bank "TAU", whose sanatorian - Bank IFC (47% - at Prokhorov). Why, within the framework of the "Tauridious" case, companies were searched, not related to the financial market, he did not explain.
The last few months the pressure on RBC intensified. As reported by "Vedomosti" sources in the holding, the staff of the Presidential and Government committee sought from the company's management and its shareholder Mikhail Prokhorov changing editorial policy. First of all, officials did not suit the investigations of RBC about people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in particular about the estimated daughter of Putin, Catherine Tikhonova. Two interlocutors close to RBC, they say that the salty was sent to resign, as officials were accustomed to reading a paper newspaper, and not the RBC website, where the materials appeared initially.
Following the searches in several companies, Prokhorov, the police opened a criminal case on fraud associated with RBC. The case was headed at the end of April the main investigative department of the State Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow "On the fact of the embezzlement of 25% of the shares" of the Byte-Telecom Data Center, the former subsidiary of RBC. The allegedly stolen package belonged in equal shares Alexander Panov and Yaroslav Koretsky (the rest of the shares controlled RBC). In September 2014, Holding sold the "Byte Telecom" shares. Panov considers this sale fictitious, as a result of it, he assures, minority injuries lost shares.
Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov today declared that the departure of the RBC leadership is not related to the pressure of the authorities. The Kremlin, he said, did not know in advance about these resignations. At the end of April, the sands have already said that the authorities do not interfere with the media policy. "Such messages do not correspond to reality. The Kremlin never interferes with the editorial policy, the more not interfere with the property rights, "said the Kremlin representative.
RBC (from RosBusinessConsulting) - Russian media holding, including the eponymous television channel, news agency, newspaper and magazine. Conducts industry conferences, business regatta and premiums. It is the largest of non-state media holdings of Russia. Headquarters is located in Moscow.
History
For its more than twenty-year-old history, RBC has grown into a diversified company, which operates in IT segments, television and presses.
From the beginning of the 2000s, the RBC website was one of the most visited information resources in the Russian Internet (and in the opinion of many competitors, also one of the leaders of "purchase traffic"). For several years in a row, the company's online advertising sales company exceeded the sale of other largest advertising sites, including Internet giants like Yandex, Mail.Ru, Rambler and others, was noted in the investigation of SmartMoney magazine, published in 2006.
In 2002, RBC was the first among media holdings to postect its shares on Russian stock exchanges. By 2008, their price grew more than ten times, the company itself was assessed by one and a half billion dollars.
Change of owner
In July 2009, RBC shareholders agreed with the ONEXIM Group Mikhail Prokhorov on the purchase of the latest additional issue of 51% of the company's shares for $ 80 million, half of which will go to the coverage of debts. The question of the withdrawal of assets is considered in court. The total debt RBC at the end of August 2009 was assessed by the company's creditors at $ 207 million. In June 2010, the transaction was completed: "ONEXIM" for $ 80 million bought an additional emission of RBC TV Moscow, which controls the majority of RBC assets.
Further history (2010-2015)
At the end of 2013, after unsuccessful negotiations on the purchase of the Russian edition "Forbes", a number of his employees were switched to RBC: the editor-in-chief of Elizaveta Ossetian, her deputy Valery Igumen (headed by RBC magazine), Elena Tofanyuk editor, Observer Irina Malkov and several correspondents, in order to improve The quality of the materials turned on employees of other publications. Elizabeth Ossetian as the chief editor of RBC took up the association of the editorial board of the magazine, the site, newspapers and the TV channel. In the future, the cost optimization began, during which the staff declined from 2000 to 1100 employees, non-core assets were sold (publishing house "Salon-Press", which produced glossy magazines).
By 2014, the RBC website became one of the leaders of citement according to the "medial" (in the spring of his audience reached 20 million unique visitors per month), the RBC newspaper in September 2015 went to the audience leaders in the segment of daily business publications.
By 2015, the total sales of the holding reached a little more than five billion rubles, the EBITDA group of companies reached 426 million rubles. Nevertheless, the net loss of the Group amounted to 1.58 billion rubles, long-term debt rose to 17 billion rubles ($ 263 million).
Dismissal of chief editors
In April 2016, a number of media tied searches in the office of the ONEXIM Group and the vacation of the chief editor of the RBC Holding of Elizabeth Ossetian with the Kremlin pressure on Mikhail Prokhorov due to publications about the alleged daughter and call Vladimir Putin Ekaterina Tikhonova and Cyril Shamalov, as well as Panaman archive. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that the authorities are not trying to put pressure on the editorial policy of the Holding.
May 11 became aware of the investigation of the case of fraud in RBC, whose defendants could become cEO Holding Nikolai Molybogo and a group of his subordinates.
May 13, 2016 Holding lost editorial leadership: The chief editor of the RBC newspaper Maxim Solus was dismissed, the chef editor of the holding of Elizaveta Ossetian and the editor-in-chief of the information agency Roman Badanin was fired by the parties' agreement. Nikolay Molybogo explained the dismissal "disagreements on some important issues." Journalists and editors of RBC ordered to coordinate texts before publishing with the CEO of the Holding. Following the leaders, the publication was planned to leave many editors and journalists; Others decided to work "to the first removed notes."
Commenting on dismissal, Deputy Minister of Communications and Mass Communications Alexei Volin said that "RBC owner had every reason to be dissatisfied ... [Since] his managers generated losses, and not profit" and what "look for politics where a purely economy is completely meaningless." Ossetian refuted this version, noting: Commands are not engaged in business, they are guided by editors. .
New Guide
On July 7, the newspaper "Vedomosti", with reference to an internal letter, reported the appointment by the "heads of the United States" Elizabeth Golikova and Igor Trosnikova, the start date of the work on July 14. Both new leaders in the past worked by the editors of the Kommersant newspaper, and until recently they worked in the state news agency TASS.
On the evening of July 7, 2016, Elizabeth Golikova and Igor Calls, together with Nikolai Molybogo met with the editors of the publication and the site to discuss the future information policy of the Holding. The text decoding of the meeting was published on the Meduza Internet Edition website, which received audio recording from one of the meeting participants.
During the conversation, new leaders stated that there are certain restrictions, personified in double solid, an example of the intersection of which molybogue and punishers called the lighting of RBC Panama archive against the background of Vedomosti and Kommersant. Also, RBC journalists called for not submitting statements about the care, for it incorrect attitude to anything that you have done, nor to the company or shareholders. On the question of the possibility of publishing materials about Ekaterina Tikhonovaya Cane refused to answer. The main goal of top managers called the preservation of indicators, respect for the audience, and the disclosure of the potential.
In early July, the RBC magazine ceased to be part of the united edition of the holding, going under the control of molybogue. The magazine of the Media and Telecom Unified Edition was transferred to the Magazine. Rearrangements The editor-in-chief of the magazine asked not to communicate with the change of the editorial office.
From May to July 2016, the holding left 20 journalists, among them eight out of 10 deputy editor-in-chief, four of 12 directions, services, services and editors of departments, one of the four special correspondents. Departments of policies, industry and energy resources, Internet release service, in turn, no one left. On August 18, the deputy editor-in-chief and the head of the Internet release service Vladimir Motorin announced his care. Most journalists who left RBC's printed editions, in August-October 2016, began working on the Rain TV channel, which led to a split inside of his editorial board.
With the new leadership of RBC began to produce less investigations, the family of Putin's own texts was no longer. By the size of the audience, the holding competed with the largest state media (in March 2017, RBC sites and RIA news visited 26.5 and 27.4 million people) [ ]. The media reported on the editorial policy of the publication on the eve of the presidential elections in the presidential administration, in particular, by Alexey Gromova).
New owner (2017 - N.V.)
According to the "Russian Bi-Bi-Si Service", the decision to sell the Holding Prokhorov was taken under pressure from the presidential administration. Also, according to media, Berezkin was unhappy with an excessive politicization of his new asset, planning to concentrate its work on the coverage of business processes.
Mission
media
RBC Media Holding includes RosbusinessConsulting News Agency, News Internet Portal, Business Analytical Portal "Quote.RBC.RU", since 2003, the release of the RBC's daily analytical newspaper (until 2014 - RBC Daily began; It comes out both in the printed and online version) and the RBC's monthly business magazine, RBC-TV business TV channel (created in 2003), the magazine about the high technologies "CNews", a project for the sale of finished marketing information " RBC. Research of the markets ", Auto portal" Autonews.ru ", portal about alcoholic beverages" DrinkTime.rbc.ru "and a number of other online-editions of business, information, service and entertainment.
In early October 2007, RBC Company. Information systems "Bought 89.99% of the shares of our money magazine at Kit Finance and 100% of the Shares of the Weekly Newspaper M² - Square Meter at the ID Rodionov.
In December 2014, media holding entered the media monitoring and analytics market by buying a specialized Internet service "Public.ru".
IT
Another major focus of RBC is the registration of domains and hosting, opening customers wide opportunities for doing business on the Internet.
Within the framework of the Holding, the RBC-Soft division was created, specializing in software development (software). In 2007, it was transformed into Armada.
The RBC Group of Companies includes the largest community of hosting providers and domain name recorders "RU-CENTER GROUP" in Russia and Eastern Europe. Currently, the "RU-CENTER GROUP" includes seven key operating companies: Recorders "R01", "
On Friday, May 13, RBC reported that the holding led actually all top managers responsible for the editorial policy. "Lenta.ru" understands what happens in one of the largest media hydring countries and that preceded the treatment of editorial leadership.
What's happening
Holding officially announced that the chief editor of the projects of Elizaveta Ossetian, the chief editor of the information agency Roman Badanin and the Glavred newspaper of the newspaper Maxim Solus leaving RBC.
The CEO of Holding Nikolai Molybogus explained this by the fact that the opinion of the editorial chiefs about the future of RBC did not coincide with the position of their leaders. "Recently, we talked a lot about how to further develop RBC, and in these conversations were not able to come to a single opinion on the part of important issues," he officially said. Therefore, agreed to part.
Who will come to their place - not yet reported. Following the departure of the tops about the intention to quit in social networks, some employees of the United Nations RBC reported.
After the announcement of the top management of the RBC shares on the stock exchange.
What was before
In April, it became known that from the fall of 2016 Elizaveta Ossetian will depart from affairs at the time of study at Stanford University under the program "Innovation in journalism". It was assumed that the training would last one academic year, after which the chief editor will continue to lead the editors of RBC projects.
However, later, on April 20, Media Holding reported that Ossetian would depart from management a few months before his academic leave - after the May holidays. Representatives of the holding argued that her absence would be temporary. It was reported that the management of editorial projects in its absence will be carried out by major editors, including Badanin and Solus.
Like Ossetian vacation tied with searches from Mikhail Prokhorov
The official news about the premature leave of the top manager appeared almost simultaneously with searches in the ONEXIM group - a structure that controls RBC and other companies Mikhail Prokhorov. At the same time, the inspectors did not come to RBC himself, said the representative of the media holding "Lente.ru".
The media wrote that searches in Onexim could have a political subtext: the authorities allegedly try to prescribe to Prokhorov so that he sold RBC. According to another version, the billionaire is trying to make the energy company "Quadra". Shortly before the arrival in the "ONEXIM" law enforcement agencies on TV was shown the plot of violations in the work of the quadries. Also, the media argued that RBC, publishing materials on Panaman offholsters and investigations affecting major businessmen and high-ranking officials, bypassing the energy company Prokhorov, which is also associated with offshore.
What they say in the Kremlin
A spokesman for Russian President Dmitry Peskov repeatedly refuted the media messages about the pressure of the Kremlin at Prokhorov because of the allegedly annoying authorities of RBC articles. The sands said that she was communicating with Ossetian, as with many other media leaders. Shortly before her departure, the spokesman for the head of state met with her, however, the leave of Ossetian, according to Peskov, they did not discuss.
Prokhorov sells or not selling RBC?
At the end of April, the media reported that after the searches of Prokhorov, seriously thought about selling and RBC, and Quadru. The fact that businessman from time to time is negotiating the sale of media holding, in essence, not news.
It is known that he is looking for a buyer at least from August 2014 (although representatives of the entrepreneur denied this information). "Kommersant" then wrote that the media platforms were needed to Prokhorov, when he was engaged in politics: he was the leader of the party "The right thing", participated in the presidential race, and then headed the "civil platform". But in 2014, the businessman moved away from the part of the party, and subsequently expressed her complete elimination.
Photo: Catherine Chesnikova / RIA Novosti
After unpromising attempts to make a career policy, the need of Prokhorov in media assets fell out, besides RBC worked exclusively to cover losses, and the shareholder had to invest considerable funds. At the moment, the holding of the holding is 220 million dollars. However, the billionaire liked what RBC journalists did.
How to try to change the holding
A little more than a year ago, RBC announced the "strategy 360", in which the holding should live on. The initiator and ideological inspirer of the document was Nikolai Molybogo. "The goal of RBC is to maintain the growth rates of revenue at a level not lower than the average market in the future. To achieve the right goal of RBC plans to combine organic growth and profitable acquisitions in the fastest growing mediagegment - the Internet. RBC sees its key operating purpose to ensure the high popularity of RBC resources among the Russian-speaking audience in the CIS countries and the world as a whole. The main task, from the point of view of financial management, is to increase business profitability, "the company says.
However, two years, during which molybogue was led by the company, RBC generated only losses: 1.97 billion rubles in 2014 and the same amount in 2015. Holding kept afloat thanks to the sale of assets: Sales House "Salon", RBC Money and Utro.ru payments system.
Photo: Sergey Kiselev / Kommersant
There were acquisitions. In 2014, the company for 19 million rubles (and 200 thousand euros to diversify revenue flows) bought an integrator public.ru. The project was instructed to oversee the Digital-Director of RBC Business Projects Dmitry Kharitonov. Subsequently, as the source says, all the actions on the project were frozen. The losses of alone by the UTRO.RU, sold in just 30 million rubles, amounted to at least 100 million rubles of revenues per year. At least this is exactly the amount of the publication brought in 2013, and its daily traffic reached 400-500 thousand visitors per day.
RBC is not the first ambitious, but not fair Prokhorov project. In 2014, an entrepreneur by the state for 1 euro, a project of innovative "E-Mobile", which had previously laid high hopes and in which invested 150 million euros.
Who sells if sells
The most likely buyer of media holding the sources of Gazeta.ru call the national media group Yuri Kovalchuk. IN different time The media argued that Arkady Rothenberg, Vladimir Lisin, Holding Gazprom-Media, co-owner, claim the RBC, and the owner of Komsomolskaya Pravda Grigori Berezkin.
Another version that refutes the previous assumptions
The top manager of large Russian media holdings told Lente.ru that RBC sales had already taken place. It happened before it became known about the academic leave of Ossetian. He, however, did not specify whether her decision was to escape independently or the new owner insisted on it.
OnEksim Mikhail Prokhorov Group sold Media Holding. The transaction is completed, the ESN group bought 65% of the shares and RBC's debt obligations at the ONEXIM group, noted in the press release of the ESN. The transaction consultant performed.
"RBC is now one of the leading media hydring in Russia, and we see the great potential for its development different areas"Commented on the transaction Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Esn Grigory Berezkin.
The RBC media holding includes the television channel, news site, newspaper, magazine and Internet publication "On High Technologies". RBC also has a business on Internet hosting and domain registration, conferences. According to LiveInternet, the Monthly Holding Auditorium is 26 million users.
RBC sales are actively discussed from the spring of last year. As the source "Gazeta.Ru" told in the power circles, a photograph of Vladimir Putin aroused a negative reaction to an article about Panaman offshores published in the RBC newspaper. After the publication in April last year, and conducted searches and recession of documents at the head office of Onexim and the companies controlled in connection with it "with possible tax evasion". Then it became known that Mikhail Prokhorov sells its assets. As a result, a team of media managers was changed in the holding. To lead the publication to Igor Trosnikova and Elizabeth Golikov, who were deputy editor-in-chief, and before that they worked for many years.
In April of this year, it became aware of the resumption of negotiations on the sale of RBC. VC.RU website wrote that to sell Prokhorov Holding forced the "powerful pressure" from the deputy head, who allegedly found the "personal insult" of the RBC publication about protest rallies and a note about changing the agenda of federal TV channels.
On the eve of the transaction, even president was forced to justify. During the "straight line" on June 15, he stated that he did not discuss with Mikhail Prokhorov for the sale of RBC.
"I believe that such funds mass mediaLike RBC, you need, sometimes even, honestly, I look. And that package informational, which I see on the screens, in principle I consider it useful, I like it. But some pressure is in any case, I don't know anything about it, "said the president during a" straight line. "
The owner of the Esn Grigory Berezkin declared earlier that the potential acquisition of the ESN intends to finance the potential acquisition and will be represented in negotiations only its own interests.
The amount of the transaction the parties still do not reveal. The press release says that an agreement was reached between the seller and the buyer. Given that RBC is a public company with a capitalization of 2.7 billion rubles, 65.43% of the holding could be assessed in the amount of about 1.8 billion rubles. However, the company has large debts. The total debt is about $ 230 million, of which $ 200 million RBC owed Onexim. Debt score for a long time did not give the opportunity to the parties to agree on the amount of the transaction. In particular, the signing was delayed, since the parties were traded to the last on issues related to those who would be financially responsible if Rosneft would still be able to sue RBC 3.2 billion rubles. For damage to business reputation. Although the court refused, but the company filed a complaint to the superior instance.
At the same time, the expert does not exclude that with the new owner in the holding there will be a change of not only a media policy, but also a personnel composition of the publication.
However, in a letter to RBC employees, which leads the RNS agency, Nikolai Molybogus expresses confidence that Grigory Berezkin shares the fundamental principles of the RBC. "The question that worries many is what the impact of the change of the owner will provide the RBC media assets. In my opinion, the key value of our media brand is to work professionally and make qualitative information and analytical media. Thanks to this approach, we are confirmed daily by RBC's status as the main supplier of high-quality content for the economically active part of the population. In this, most of the success of RBC as a business, and I am sure that the new shareholder shares this point of view, "wrote molybogus.
Right holder illustration PROKOFIEV VYACHESLAV / TASS Image Caption. Igor Poletayev at the premiere of the series "Hunt for Devil" in February 2017
Leading NTV Igor Poletayev, who headed the editorial office of the television company, became the managing director of the RBC television channel, taking the place of Elmara Murtazayev's retired on the ever. The Russian Bi-Bi service asked former colleagues, which is for a person.
Poletalev as a possible new head of the TV channel staff of RBC was not called before. His name was first announced in the morning on Friday.
For Poletalev himself, this is not the first experience in RBC: it was here in 2000 he began a professional career - first in the news agency and then on the TV channel.
"Immersed in the topic for three years of work by the reporter (and then the editor), I decided to try to realize my long-standing dream - to become the leading television," says Poletalev's profile on the NTV website.
"On September 2, 2003, the first direct broadcast of RBC-TV was held. It was my first day in the live service of information that can be described in one word - delight!" - he recalled.
On NTV Poletaev began working in 2006. He came there as a leading business news, and later became one of the leading information program "Today".
Leading TV channel "Rain" Pavel Lobkov, who left NTV in 2011, speaks of flying like a "always correct" and "very neat, tied" colleague.
"[Flying] made the impression of a broker or a bank trader who went to television suddenly to work," said Lobkov.
According to one of the former colleagues, Poletalev in NTV, career successes in the first years of work, he is obliged to Tatiana Mitkova, who in 2014 became the Deputy Director General and the head of the Directorate of the information broadcasting of the TV channel.
The BBC interlocutor skepty as follows as a manager. The former leading television channel RBC Andrei Schilyaev did not agree with such an assessment: "Igor Poletaev is a clever, experienced person, he is brewed in the television kitchen for a very long time."
"The work of the manager is not some special profession or special education, this is a work for a person with common sense," said Shileaev.
Schilyaev calls her former colleague "On the one hand Maestro, with another mathematician." "This is the person who can bring some music, revive the RBC TV channel, which last years He was looking for, "added the former leading channel.
The editor-in-chief of NTV Alexander Kosterina called Poletalev professionally and wished him success in the position of head of the RBC television channel.
Who was before flying
The fact that this post has become vacant, it became known the day before. On Thursday, Elmar Murtazayev, who worked by the management director of the RBC channel since 2016, announced his care. And on Friday, the meduza edition reported that after him allegedly many leading employees of the TV channel.
So far, no one written statements on the dismissal, told the Russian BBC service several employees of the TV channel who wished to remain unnamed. We are talking about scheduled leave, the press service of RBC said.
Employees of the "History of the Day" and "Prime Time" are sent to Paid Vacation until October. "We really have greatly increased the planned summer holidays to RBC TV," CEO confirmed "Vedomosti" Director General of the RBC Holding Nikolai Molybogo.
In a long vacation, the part of the team of the TV channel, which came along with Murtazayev: Former chief editor Forbes.ru Alexander Bogomolov (Murtazayev was previously the editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, Ex-employees of the Central Television program on NTV Alexander Urzhanov and Igor Sadreyev (both Came to RBC at the end of 2016), the leading Stanislav Kucher (leads to RBC Spec ester since 2017), the former editor of the Finance department of the RBC Elena Tofanyuk, correspondents, Roman Super and Rodion Chapel.
In June, the RBC Holding has changed the owner - now it belongs to the owner of the Esn Group Gregory Berezkin. He has not yet met with the team and did not tell them about his plans for the development of the TV channel, they told the Russian BBC service two employees of the Holding. But for Murtazayev and RBC employees, it was obvious that the new owner would not leave the old team on the channel.
Paid vacation for three months is a kind of "parachute" for employees, two employees of the RBC television channel say. Murtazayev has long made it possible to understand his employees, which will not remain working with the new owner, and that, most likely, the management of the TV channel will change. Until new plans announced, employees were invited to go on vacation.
No concrete plans for changing the editorial policy channel no one declared, but the staff are confident that television will become less showing political news.
