The procedure for the sale of state-owned media in Kuban has been suspended

The privatization of media owned by the regional administration, launched last year, has actually been frozen. The previously adopted privatization plan assumed that 46 district and city newspapers, two radio stations and three television companies would be sold. The publications included in the list have undergone reorganization from a state unitary enterprise to an LLC, but preparations for their sale are not underway. Experts note that Krasnodar officials have traditionally hastily responded to the federal center’s initiative to sell non-core assets. At the same time, the authorities are interested in maintaining control over the media on the eve of elections to the regional parliament.

Sources in several regional government publications reported to Kommersant that the procedure for privatization of newspapers, radio stations and television companies has practically stopped. According to them, most of the media outlets that were previously included in the plans for the privatization of regional property were transferred from the status of unitary enterprises to the status of LLCs during the year. The sole owner of the new legal entities remains the regional administration. “After changing the form of the legal entity, no signals were received from the regional administration. In private conversations, regional officials say that the sale of publications to new owners should not be expected,” an employee of one of the media noted in an interview with Kommersant.

According to the heads of publications, at least half of the district and city newspapers included in the privatization list found themselves in a difficult economic situation after the reorganization procedure. The editorial offices interviewed by Kommersant explained that the reorganization involved an increase in the authorized capital of the publications. As a result, many newspapers reported losses for the past year. “If the editorial offices again show losses, then bankruptcy proceedings may well be launched. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of rubles were spent on reorganization on a regional scale that had become meaningless,” noted one of the sources.

The Department of Property Relations of the Krasnodar Territory confirmed that a change in the form of legal entities has occurred, and in the near future the latest publications from the privatization list should go through this procedure. The department also said that the decision to sell the media to private owners “was not made.” The regional media department found it difficult to comment yesterday.

Media owned by the regional administration were included in the property privatization plan in July last year. The list included 46 district and city newspapers, two radio stations and three television companies. In particular, it was planned to privatize the second largest television company in the region, the State Unitary Enterprise “New Television of Kuban” (the first largest is the regional branch of VGTRK). However, at the end of last year, deputies of the Legislative Assembly excluded this asset from the list. The average staff of district and city newspapers, according to the regional media department, was about 20 people at the time of preparation of the privatization plan. Each newspaper had from 2 thousand to 6 thousand subscribers. The media department explained that the decision to sell was made after President Dmitry Medvedev delivered a message to the Federal Assembly in November 2010. In the message, the head of state recommended that the regions get rid of non-core assets.

“Perhaps the regional authorities decided to maintain a high level of media activity in the region. Without government funds, many publications simply would not have survived,” suggests political scientist, director of grant programs at the Southern Resource Center, Mikhail Savva. Also, as he noted, it may be important for the authorities that a new cycle has started before the elections to the regional Legislative Assembly, scheduled for October this year. “The Krasnodar Territory traditionally responds quickly to federal initiatives.

It seems that with the privatization of non-core assets, the regional authorities were running “ahead of the locomotive.” The initiative was not continued,” says Vladimir Kasyutin, secretary of the Union of Journalists of Russia. According to his observations, in some regions of Russia, on the contrary, there is now a consolidation of state media. “Newspapers and other media are merging into enlarged companies. In this form, it is easier for regional authorities to manage them and control their work,” adds Mr. Kasyutin.

Sergey Surzhenko

Privatization did not go to press