Kommersant (Russian: Коммерсантъ, IPA: [kəmʲɪrˈsant], The Businessman or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia certified July 2013 circulation of the daily was 120,000–130,000.[1]
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 Front page on 27 December 2010 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Owner(s) | Alisher Usmanov |
| Founder(s) | Vladimir Yakovlev |
| Editor-in-chief | Mikhail Loukin |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Language | Russian |
| Headquarters | Moscow |
| Circulation | 120,000–130,000 (July 2013) |
| ISSN | 1561-347X (print) 1563-6380 (web) |
| OCLC number | 244126120 |
| Website | www |
It is widely considered to be one of Russia's three main business dailies (together with Vedomosti and RBK Daily).[2]
History
editThe original Kommersant newspaper was established in Moscow in 1909, but was shut down by the Bolsheviks following the October Revolution in 1917.[3]
In 1989, with the onset of press freedom in Russia, Kommersant was relaunched under the ownership of businessman and publicist Vladimir Yakovlev.[4][5] The first issue was released in January 1990.[6] It was modeled after Western business journalism.[5]
The newspaper's title is spelled in Russian with a terminal hard sign (ъ) – a letter that is silent at the end of a word in modern Russian, and was thus largely abolished by the post-revolution Russian spelling reform, in reference to the original Kommersant.[6] This is played up in the Kommersant logo, which features a script hard sign at the end of somewhat more formal font. The newspaper also refers to itself or its redaction as "Ъ".
Founded as a weekly newspaper, it became popular among business and political elites.[6] It then became a daily newspaper in 1992.[6][7] It was owned by the businessman Boris Berezovsky from 1999 until 2006, when he sold it to Badri Patarkatsishvili.[5][7] In September 2006, it was sold to Alisher Usmanov.[7]
In January 2005, Kommersant published a protest at a court ruling ordering it to publish a denial of a story about a crisis at Alfa-Bank.[8] In 2008, BBC News named Kommersant one of Russia's leading liberal business broadsheets.[9]
It has been argued that Kommersant strategically uses an ironic tone in its reporting, expressed in "creative neologisms, wordplay, metaphors, and legally imposed euphemisms," allowing it to maintain a degree of independence in periods of severe state censorship.[10]
References
edit- ^ "Kommersant Website; (Russian)". 2013. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
- ^ ""Ведомости", "Коммерсант" и РБК вышли с обложками "Мы Иван Голунов"". BBC News Русская служба (in Russian). 9 June 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
- ^ "Kommersant". Presseurop. 15 October 2012.
- ^ "Kommersant; Presseurop (English)". Presseurop. 2012. Archived from the original on 5 April 2014. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
- ^ a b c Bessudnov, Alexei (1 February 2008). "Media Map". Index on Censorship. 37 (1): 183–189. doi:10.1080/03064220701882780. ISSN 0306-4220. S2CID 220926309.
- ^ a b c d Arrese, Ángel (1 March 2017). "The role of economic journalism in political transitions". Journalism. 18 (3): 368–383. doi:10.1177/1464884915623172. ISSN 1464-8849. S2CID 147918088.
- ^ a b c Koikkalainen, Katja (1 December 2007). "The local and the International in Russian business journalism: Structures and practices". Europe-Asia Studies. 59 (8): 1315–1329. doi:10.1080/09668130701655176. ISSN 0966-8136. S2CID 153949932.
- ^ "Alfa-d Up". Kommersant. Moscow. 31 January 2005. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 28 August 2009.
- ^ "The press in Russia". BBC News. 16 May 2008. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
- ^ Tymbay, Alexey (15 March 2024). "Reading 'between the lines': How implicit language helps liberal media survive in authoritarian regimes. The Kommersant Telegram posts case study". Discourse & Communication. doi:10.1177/17504813241236907. ISSN 1750-4813.
External links
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