27th June 2008, Moscow

The IV “Publishing Expo – 2008” professional forum is finished in Moscow. It was organized by Print Media Publishers Association. Media3 company participated in this largest industry event for the first time. Media3 holding presented all its assets on one exhibition stand – “Argumenty i Fakty”, “Trud” and “Extra-M” publishing houses - which print own newspapers and magazines and most of all-Russia daily newspapers - and press distribution network “ARIA-AIF” company.

Media3 holding managers actively participated in of forum business program and made a few important statements.
On “Modern technologies in print media business: 2008 survey and 2020 forecast” conference Media3 company General director Aleksander Strakhov dismantled the myth that press advertisement can’t compete the TV one considering audience exposure. “The advertisement placing in all our aggregated publications “AiF”, “Trud”, “Extra-M” and “Okruga” newspapers (14 million readers in 86 Russian regions a week) multiplied by 9 minutes average Russian spends on newspaper reading will show the result that one A3 printed side is similar to 200 GRP media-plan on Russian TV channels. However this advertisement will be paid by newspaper but not by television prices”, Aleksander Strakhov said.

Aleksander Strakhov paid attention to unbalanced media market and Russian Internet projects overestimation. During the speech he named 4 Russian web-portals – Mail.ru, Odnoklassniki.ru, Yandex.ru and Auto.ru – according to expert evaluation their cost is higher than all Russian print media. Media3 company General Manager said that Internet is overestimated today and traditional print media is underestimated vice versa, which is in contrary to facts. “AiF” publishing house last year income 20% exceeded average market growth in weekly newspaper segment; it is the example of print media development in efficient business management context.

“AiF” publishing house Development Manager Aleksey Krylov shared editorial work experience and new print and publishing “Prestige” system implementation developed by “Atex” company, Great Britain. Aleksey Krylov admitted that initially company management planned to develop new editorial management system only in “AiF” publishing house, but the decision was made to implement new system in all of Media3 holding printing offices.  “Media-Park” – brand new model of content management was developed. It will be situated in “Lefort” business center, all Media3 company assets soon will be moved there. Aleksey Krylov said that process of “Media-Park” creation and “Prestige” system implementation will require journalists’ teams, commercial and distribution services operation adjustment.

“ARIA-AiF” company General manager Maksim Melnikov described both perspectives and difficulties of press distribution. Disadvantages of Russian distribution market are opacity, unprofessional management and lack of new technologies investments. “Mergers and acquisitions can solve these problems”, Maksim Melnikov said. “It is difficult to make uniform rules on market full of minor participants. Federal networks are more stable and bring experience to the regions, proving its efficiency to other cities and towns”, “ARIA-AiF” company General Manager said. He also reminded that “ARIA-AiF” company during last 5 years obtained 5 companies and added 850 new sales points.

“Vast majority of publishing houses and local authorities noticed the significant positive changes of these companies work after the acquisition”, Maksim Melnikov said.

During “New publishing possibilities and publishing business value incensement” round table meeting “Extra M” publishing house Head of Sales Department Andrey Malakhov described Media3 printing house typographic base development. “Extra M Media” publishing house Marketing Manager Aleksandra Savina described new forms of interaction between publishing company marketing service and promotion department by the example of the free of charge “Extra M” newspaper advertising campaign in Zelenograd.