Russia/Mass Media Markets

Kommersant: Mass Media 2000-2004

"The media industry in Russia has grown steadily and rapidly in the last four years, primarily through growth of the advertising market. During this time, advertising revenues have nearly tripled from $1.1 billion in 2000 to $3.1 billion (forecast) in 2004. However, the growth was generally not the result of an increase in television audiences or increased circulation but of so-called media inflation – an increase in the cost of placing advertisements caused by the recovery of the market after the 1998 crisis. This is shown, for example, by the fact that the combined circulation of print media hardly increased at all in those four years and just barely exceeded pre-crisis levels, although the number of registered publications increased 1.5 times to 41 000."