Kurchenko's media holding will become the largest in Crimea
Moscow - Simferopol, September 24 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Stamm) - Businessman Sergei Kurchenko, who fled Ukraine after the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych, is creating a media holding in Crimea. He wants to publish local versions of central publications on the peninsula, in particular Kommersant and Komsomolskaya Pravda, RBC reports.
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Two months ago, representatives of Sergei Kurchenko approached President of Kommersant Publishing House Vladimir Zhelonkin and General Director Pavel Filenkov with a proposal for cooperation, sources told RBC in the media market. According to them, the conversation was about purchasing a license to publish Kommersant on the peninsula and attracting publishing house employees to work on a new project.
A presentation of the new media holding “Skif-Media” has already taken place in Simferopol, uniting the news agency “Crimea Media” and a number of print and electronic media of the peninsula, according to the website of the city administration. According to Crimea Media itself, the general director of the holding is Sergei Kirilenko, at a press conference he said that Skif Media has already signed an agreement with Kommersant and is discussing an agreement with Komsomolskaya Pravda. “Skif” is Kurchenko’s holding, RBC’s interlocutors clarify. At the beginning of September, information appeared that Kurchenko was creating a news agency in Crimea, which would be headed by Alexander Denisenko, reminiscent of the online publication “Meridian-Sevastopol”. It was Denisenko who became the editor-in-chief of Crimea Media.
Skif-Media LLC, according to SPARK, was registered in Simferopol in July 2014, its founder is ex-UMH employee Andrey Degtyarev. He owns and also registered in July Information Agency Crimea Media LLC, Sel Media Skif LLC (the stated main activity is the wholesale sale of newspapers and magazines) and Top Media Skif LLC (advertising activities).
An agreement has already been signed with Telenedelya, which is published in Russia by UMH, Degtyarev clarifies. According to him, agreements with Kommersant and Komsomolskaya Pravda are “in the process of being signed.” Some of the contracts will be franchises, some will be exclusively distribution, everything depends on the technical capabilities of Crimean printing houses, Degtyarev added.
A source in one of the Russian media companies clarified that Skif-Media contacted many Russian publications - AiF, Izvestia, MK, etc. “The project has too obvious political overtones, we don’t really want such projects,” – says RBC’s interlocutor.
Kurchenko is ready to invest approximately $1 million of his own funds into the new media holding, RBC’s source knows. “This project requires more significant investments,” a top manager of one of the companies doubts. – If you do not take into account the costs of paying for a license, but only for launching and maintaining it for some time, the amount should be much higher. Just launching a licensed Kommersant will require $0,6–0,7 million.” A source in one of the publishing houses estimates the cost of a franchise for publishing a regional version of a major Moscow newspaper at 4–5 million rubles. (more than $0,1 million) per year.
Skif-Media, according to its general director Sergei Kirilenko, should become the largest media holding on the peninsula. One of RBC’s interlocutors clarifies that we are talking about 55–60% of the local market.
After Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled the country earlier this year, the head of the supervisory board of the industrial group VETEK, Kurchenko, moved to Russia. Here he “was given the task” to build a media group in Crimea following the example of UMH, says a source close to Kurchenko. “Since UMH cannot exist in Crimea, Sergei is creating a new media holding,” explained RBC’s interlocutor.
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