Kommersant (Russian: Коммерсантъ, IPA: [kəmʲɪrˈsant], The Businessman or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia certified July 2013 circulation of the daily was 120,000–130,000.[1]
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 Front page on 27 December 2010 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Owner(s) | Alisher Usmanov |
| Founder(s) | Vladimir Yakovlev |
| Editor-in-chief | Vladimir Zhelonkin |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Language | Russian |
| Headquarters | Moscow |
| Circulation | 120,000–130,000 (July 2013) |
| ISSN | 1561-347X (print) 1563-6380 (web) |
| OCLC number | 244126120 |
| Website | www |
It is widely considered to be one of Russia's three main business dailies (together with Vedomosti and RBK Daily).[2]
History
The original Kommersant newspaper was established in Moscow in 1909, but was shut down by the Bolsheviks following the October Revolution in 1917.[3]
In 1989, with the onset of press freedom in Russia, Kommersant was relaunched under the ownership of businessman and publicist Vladimir Yakovlev.[4][5] The first issue was released in January 1990.[6] It was modeled after Western business journalism.[5]
The newspaper's title is spelled in Russian with a terminal hard sign (ъ) – a letter that is silent at the end of a word in modern Russian, and was thus largely abolished by the post-revolution Russian spelling reform, in reference to the original Kommersant.[6] This is played up in the Kommersant logo, which features a script hard sign at the end of somewhat more formal font. The newspaper also refers to itself or its redaction as "Ъ".
Founded as a weekly newspaper, it became popular among business and political elites.[6] It then became a daily newspaper in 1992.[6][7] It was owned by the businessman Boris Berezovsky from 1999 until 2006, when he sold it to Badri Patarkatsishvili.[5][7] In September 2006, it was sold to Alisher Usmanov.[7]
In January 2005, Kommersant published a protest at a court ruling ordering it to publish a denial of a story about a crisis at Alfa-Bank.[8]
In 2008, BBC News named Kommersant one of Russia's leading liberal business broadsheets.[9]
References
External links
- Kommersant, English version online
- BBC news reporting on Kommersant's protest
- Photo gallery celebrating Kommersant's 15th anniversary
- Story in the St. Petersburg Times about the sale of Kommersant
- "Kommersant" (1909–1917) digital archives in "Newspapers on the web and beyond", the digital resource of the National Library of Russia