Translated material
What will be the "echo"?
On March 3, the elections of the editor -in -chief of Echo of Moscow were held. The result was obvious and predictable: at a general meeting of journalists for a non -alternative candidate - Alexei Venediktov, 72 journalists out of 79 present voted. Against 4, abstained - 3.
Now, within two weeks, Mr. Venediktov should approve or not approve the Board of Directors of Echo, in which most of the representatives of Gazprom-Media make up. The chairman of the board of directors of Echo and the head of Gazprom-Media is Mikhail Lesin, with whom Alexei Alekseevich, by his own admission, has a very difficult relationship. If the board of directors until March 17 does not approve the candidacy of Alexei Venediktov, then the duties of the editor -in -chief are transferred to his deputy, Sergei Buntman.
To predict the situation with the “echo” is an extremely ungrateful business. That is, it would be easy to do if everyone who makes decisions would be guided by rational motives. In this case, Venediktov’s statement would be technical, since he is an ideal figure for the owner, that is, for Gazprom Media, and for the owner of the owner, that is, for the Kremlin. The owner is interested in profit - Venediktov provides high audit indicators and a low expenditure part, since people on Echo are motivated not so much with money as a high from creativity.
For the Kremlin, Alexei Venediktov is also an ideal editor, because, not being a radical, but on the contrary, a very moderate conservative, it provides the release of an opposition couple through an “echo”, thereby performing the functions of “literature” from the time of the Brezhnev stagnation. In addition, he is now under the inevitably strong pressure of the new general director, Ekaterina Pavlova, who, possessing the fullness of financial and administrative power, will most likely try to influence the editorial policy, moving it towards greater loyalty.
An attempt to change the chief editor will inevitably cause the resistance of the team with the likely departure of the leading (and possibly - and all) employees and the new surge in dissatisfaction in society.
So if the shareholders are friends with logic, then they need to hold on to AAV. Well, if not ... However, what to guess is already less than two weeks.