"Russian Thought" has found its owners

The oldest emigrant newspaper wants to become the leading publication for the diaspora

One of the most famous Russian-language foreign publications, the weekly newspaper “Russian Thought” has found new owners. Although the deal was finalized at the end of last year, this became known only recently. The head of the Russian communications group "Maxima" and the president of the Russian Association of Advertising Agencies, Vladimir Evstafiev, who was elected chairman of the board of directors of "Russian Thought" in December, told a correspondent of the newspaper "Vremya Novostey" that the new investors whose interests he represents were a group of Russian and foreign businessmen and publishers operating their policies from London. “There are no oligarchs like Gusinsky and Berezovsky here,” he emphasized. “For investors, “Russian Thought” is 99% romantic interest, the desire to revive a classic publication in Russian.” Mr. Evstafiev refused to name the new owners, citing confidentiality of information.

“Russian Thought” was founded in 1880 in Russia by the Ural merchant Lavrov as a socio-political magazine. During the war years, the publication was closed, and in April 1947 it was again revived in Paris as a socio-political newspaper, which existed on subsidies. “Russian Thought” expressed the point of view of the Russian emigration and liberal intelligentsia on the events taking place in the Soviet Union. In the 90s it also appeared legally in Russia. The newspaper gradually lost popularity, the influx of investment began to dry up, the volume decreased from 34 to 16 pages, and the circulation of 50 thousand, most of which was distributed free of charge, reached almost the critical 5 thousand copies. All this led to the fact that editor-in-chief Irina Krivova was looking for potential sponsors and long-term partners for a year and a half. A number of proposals to purchase the Russian Thought brand were rejected by her. “The proposals that, for example, came from the Kommersant publishing house and from those people who represented it did not suit me at all, since they were driven by the desire to radically change the concept of the publication,” she told a correspondent of the Vremya Novostei newspaper.

Now, according to Irina Krivova, Russian Thought needs to become the leading pan-European newspaper in Russian. “It should be aimed at the Russian-speaking reader living in Europe and integrated into European culture. Based on this goal, our main task is to bring the newspaper closer to it in content. They are much more interested in issues of the structure of society and social security in France than what is happening in Russia,” noted Irina Krivova, “but changes in the newspaper’s editorial policy will occur gradually. We will preserve the traditions that allowed the newspaper to gain and maintain its position.”

According to Vladimir Evstafiev, “Russian Thought” should turn into a “pan-European publication.” It is necessary to develop a special advertising strategy and increase the circulation to 10 thousand copies. He said the investment in the project would be “reasonable.” “Basically, they are necessary for free distribution of the newspaper in Aeroflot, expensive hotels and other places, which is important for our potential advertiser,” he said. The issue of resuming the distribution of part of the circulation of Russian Thought in Russia is also being studied. “We will study this issue in detail,” emphasized Vladimir Evstafiev.

Maxim BALUTENKO