"This is, to be honest, a disaster"

From the "Vedomosti" the whole leadership was gone, protesting against the appointment of a new editor -in -chief. Interview with chief editor Dmitry Simakov (he also leaves)

On June 15, all the deputies of the editor-in-chief announced their departure from Vedomosti-after the new board of directors of the publishing company, with the help of the new owner of the newspaper Ivan Eremin, approved Andrei Shmarov, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, He appeared in the publication as well. O. Glavred three months ago, when preparing a deal with other customers, and soon the editorial office openly stated that she could not work with him. Vedomosti chief Dmitry Simakov, in an interview with Medusa, told what the editors hoped for and why her leadership is now leaving.

- Have you already written a letter of resignation?

- We did not write in our statement that we had already quit until we just physically do it. Our statement was a reaction to today's news about the appointment of Andrei Shmarov as an editor -in -chief, but, of course, physically, we have not went anywhere and did not write applications for dismissal, and formally we are still listening to Vedomosti employees. It all depends on when the HR department [personnel department] is in place. Now we will find out how to technically complete all this - and we will do everything. But we are configured to complete this process as quickly as possible.

-Since you have not yet quit, is it possible that you will still agree with the new owner of the newspaper and the chief editor to stay on some conditions?

- The time of conversation has already passed. We talked, reported our position for almost three months - we were not heard. Now the final decision has been made, with which we disagree. Prior to this, since March 17, we still lived in some uncertainty - we had the acting editor -in -chief, so hope to explain to the investors and convey our position to them, we tried to do this, but the investor eventually made a different decision. The two previous potential investors [Alexey Golubovich and Konstantin Zyatkov] after all these conversations, they considered that it was better not to participate in this deal. It turns out that they heard us, but not to the end.

- Why have you been waiting for all these months, and decided to leave only now?

- It was immediately clear that the situation is bad, that it would be difficult to work with such a leading composition, even impossible. The calculation, in fact, was only one-to convey their position and try to explain to people what to leave as it is now is to ruin the publication, fundamentally revise his philosophy, and to leave for something else from independent journalism. Since until today we did not know about the final decision, there was some hope. Now there is nowhere to pull, why sit and sit down further? In the current situation, we cannot continue to work.

- In your opinion, why did not listen to the editorial office regarding the candidacy of the new editor -in -chief?

- If you reason logically, it is obvious that it was an independent, objective publication, and from what has happened to us recently, it is clear that these principles want to trample. Therefore, someone does not need an independent and objective publication, apparently they are going to make something servile from it under the respectable sign of Vedomosti.

- In a number of publications in different media there was information that Andrei Shmarov, according to information from sources, is the creature of the Kremlin. In your opinion, was his candidacy for the editor -in -chief of Vedomosti agreed with the presidential administration?

- I don't know for sure, but there is such a version. Now it does not matter, the appointment has taken place, and it is obvious that the publication will change for the worse, it is regrettable.

- And Ivan Eremin tried to explain to you why his decisive voice was not for the candidate from the editorial office Anfisu Voronin, but for Andrei Shmarov?

-Personally-no, today in the editorial office of Eremin called the General Director of Business News Media, Gleb Prozorov, our lawyer and HR specialist, he was presented with a protocol of the meeting of the board of directors, which, as I understand it, was held closer to midnight on June 11. Colleagues reported this to us, and at this moment we decided that we were not here, we are leaving. If you saw, Yeremin still wrote a column for Vedomosti, but in it he does not explain at all why he appointed Shmarov, while not a single person in the editorial office even suggested nominating him for the post of editor -in -chief.

- What is the mood of the journalists in the editorial office?

- We all sit on our homes and communicate only in chats, so it is difficult to draw unequivocal conclusions. The people, of course, are sad, because hope dies the last, and until recently they still hoped that common sense would triumph. Not everyone has a luxury to get up and leave-they will have to work at least for some time in Vedomosti until they find another job. I am very sorry that everything works out. Such a beautiful story as in Ukrainian Forbes, when Sergey Kurchenko bought them a few years ago, and after the transaction was closed, the entire editors got up and left, in this case there will be no. But, by the way, there was an awesome story with the Ukrainian Forbes: after that, a license was withdrawn after this, and this spring Forbes Ukraine started again led by Volodya Fedorin, who initially launched Forbes in Ukraine. This is a very instructive story about what happens and this, everything can change for the better.

What is happening is, frankly, a catastrophe, including in human terms. For example, I worked in the newspaper exactly 18 years - yesterday, June 14, there was the next anniversary of my arrival at Vedomosti. There are people who have worked in the publication for 20 years, there are those who are more than 10 years old. And if we did all this for so many years, then someone needed it. And if someone needs high-quality, objective, independent journalism, then someone else will simply take this niche. Some resource will simply take the audience of “Vedomosti”, and all the actions of the new leadership will simply turn out to be “a shot in milk”.

- And why, in your opinion, at the last moment Vedomosti was bought by Ivan Eremin, and not those who were originally declared as potential buyers?

- In my opinion, all these potential buyers were approximately one field of the berry - that the senacons, that is Eremin. It is clear that in Russia there are no professional investors in the media, with the exception of, possibly, the Forbes investor Magomed Musaev, who acted as a “white knight” and saved the editorial office. This is perhaps the only such example.

- What do you plan to do next?

- First of all, get to the editorial office and apply for dismissal, and in parallel I will look for work. I have not done this for 18 years, I will have to recall the old skills.

- You did not think to find an investor and make your media?

-In Russia, and in my opinion in the world, too, investors are not trying to invest in the media now. Yes, we tried to find someone, but in the current situation this is a very difficult task. The sphere in which we work is not very beneficial for investors, since the prospects are not very large, and losing money is very simple. Yes, and this coronavirus mixed everything in general, it’s hard to do something when everyone is sitting on their homes. Yes, we are trying until it turns out. In recent years, new media - The Bell, “project” have appeared in the Russian market, but this is not the history of this year, and in Russia the situation in the media is becoming more and more toxic every year.

Maria Kolomychenko