| Only organized newspaper sellers will remain underground Periodicals dealers seem to have managed to persuade the capital's authorities not to expel all distributors of newspapers and magazines from the metro. By emphasizing the important ideological component of their work, the owners of networks selling printed materials have achieved concessions for themselves that are not available to sellers of pies or flowers who are far from ideology. At the end of last week, the President of the Union of Publishers and Distributors of Printed Products (SURPP) Olga Nikulina and the head of the Moscow Department of Consumer Market and Services Vladimir Malyshkov amicably discussed options for solving the problem of “spontaneous” sales of press at Moscow metro stations.
Let us recall that for more than a month the Moscow government discussed a bill banning all retail trade in the metro. The complete liquidation of the “newsmen” was scheduled for June 1. The restriction was initiated by the Interdepartmental Anti-Terrorist Commission, but such measures were categorically opposed by both publishers and distributors - according to statistics, up to 70% of circulations are sold in the metro. Unable to withstand the pressure of the press, which defended the rights of the population to receive information, Mr. Malyshkov was forced to promise that only “mini-flea markets and spontaneous collapses” would be removed from the metro. Stationary newspaper sales points will remain, but their number will be reduced. In addition, according to Mr. Malyshkov, the required number of vending machines selling newspapers and magazines will be installed in the metro.
Nevertheless, newspaper sellers will have to forget about the past freedom. “We intend to propose programs to replace the current press distribution system in the metro, to develop such sales facilities that would satisfy the safety requirements and needs of the population in terms of the range and number of publications,” acting acting director told a correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper. Head of the Department of Printed Products Sales Systems of the Committee on Telecommunications and Media of the City of Moscow Sergey Lobanov. “Our committee is working on this project in collaboration with organizations such as Metropress, the Print Publishers Guild and the Press Distributors Association.”
Who will remain in the metro and under what conditions traders will work will become clear after the Moscow Department of Transport and Communications adopts regulations that will clearly state which objects will receive the right to exist. It is planned that it will take about a month to prepare the project and approve it. However, it is already known for sure that there will be no more hand-held newspaper vendors, the so-called “rukniki”, in the metro from June 1st. Each of these sellers signs a monthly contract with a press distribution company. Contracts that expire on May 31, according to the Vremya Novostei newspaper, are not being renewed. Nadezhda STEPANOVA |
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