December 2020

This publication continues the topic of information security in the Republic of Belarus in the face of tough obstacles to the activities of Belarusian media with a non-state form of ownership.

In the last publication , the aggregate reach and socio-demographic characteristics of 4 groups of news sites (Russian news sites, Russian-language news aggregators, Belarusian news sites of media resources with state ownership and the aggregation of all news feeds tut.by and the title page of the main Belarusian news portal) were studied on based on October data from gemiusAudience media research.

Reach of the Belarusian computer audience of Russian-language news aggregators presented in the November results of a media research:

The total reach, taking into account the duplication of service audiences, amounted to 23.97% , i.e. every fourth Belarusian computer user aged 15-74 visited one of the presented resources at least once during November 2020. In humans, this is 1,023,939 people.

Let's study the behavior of the audiences of recommendation services with a reach of the Belarusian computer audience of more than 5% , which means more than 200,000 people in people:

1. Fb.ru

The graph shows that the audience of this service is interested in the websites of Russian glossy magazines aimed at both female and male audiences, ahead of, for example, visiting the Russian-language version of Wikipedia.org

2. News-fancy.com

The audience of this service makes up the majority of the audience of other recommendation services - mgid.com, smi2.ru, 24smi.info, news-ks.info

3. Novate.ru

In this case, apart from the duplication with the audience of online versions of the glossy publications maximonline.ru, femmie.ru, popmech.ru, which are ahead of social media and major portals, it also draws attention to the duplication of sb.by and mir24.tv located nearby.

4. Mgid.com

This is the oldest recommendation service. Duplication of the audience with similar recommendation services is expected, including the new project kulturologia.ru

5. Syl.ru

Online versions of glossy publications and recommendation services again in the set of the most overlapping websites

6. Topnews.ru

Greater duplication with news resources such as mk.ru, reform.by, life.ru and the Russian-speaking Israeli TV channel - 9tv.co.il. If you look at the socio-demographic characteristics of this site, then 30% of the audience lives in Minsk and 25.5% in small towns and rural areas.

For all the sites reviewed, more than 30% of the audience belongs to the older age group - 55-74 years old and about 20% of the audiences by occupation are retirees.

As a result of the analysis, it can be seen that the audience of Russian-language recommendation services constitutes a significant share in Russian news resources and online versions of print media. It can be assumed that the general socio-demographic characteristic of computer audiences is an older age group that does not have the opportunity to purchase or does not want printed versions for various reasons, of course, more likely due to the cost and a limited choice of printed Russian publications in retail (Belsoyuzpechat kiosks , specialized departments in shops, train stations and so on). The solution to this problem could be, in the future, when the Belarusian media returns to a peaceful life, the publication of local, Belarusian versions of popular glossy publications belonging to global media groups, for example, as Scandinavian - Bonnier, Schibsted or German - Bertelsmann, Springer, which improved the quality of the Belarusian media product and improved the standards of journalism

Author: Mikhail Doroshevich
The publication is prepared by the Baltic Internet Policy Initiative

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Information Policy Blog