Moscow, March 13, 2006. – ОАО
OAO RBC Information Systems (
RTS, MICEX: RBCI), Russia's leading media and IT group, has announced the launch of a new media project in Ukraine, the
RBC Ukraine news agency (
www.rbc.ua).
"RBC Ukraine" provides independent, objective and reliable information on economic and political events in Ukraine and the rest of the world. Real-time news broadcasts include analytical comments, financial market reports, stock quotes and currency exchange rates. The project employs a team of highly professional Ukrainian reporters who enjoy successful cooperation with Ukraine's leading business media. RBC Ukraine has 60 employees, but it will increase its staff to about 100 people by the end of the year.
RBC also plans to launch the daily online newspaper Utro-Ukraina (Morning Ukraine) over the next month. The newspaper will offer broad coverage of public, cultural and political events. Other RBC projects could also appear on Ukraine's market later.
"We are entering Ukraine's media market with a full-fledged information agency, which has its own information and editorial policy," says Artyom Inutin, General Director of RIA RBC. "RBC's decision to expand to Ukraine is based on the proximity and economic integration of our countries. Besides, RBC is well known in Ukraine thanks to our online resources and the RBC TV business television channel. Ukraine's elite has been using RBC's information resources for many years already, and it is a logical step to offer our audience in Ukraine full-scale financial, economic and other mass media in both the Ukrainian and Russian languages," he said.
RBC brings its pioneering technology and software to the Ukrainian project, as well as its unique managing experience in information projects, and hopes for a significant synergy effect.
During the first two years of operation, "RBC Ukraine"`s main goal will be to earn the loyalty and trust of its audience and strengthen its position on the national media market. The main source of profit will be advertising on its own information resources.
Reference:
RBC's main resource (www.rbc.ru) has the largest business audience among Russian media resources, at between 500,000 and 800,000 individual visitors a day. The combined monthly audience of RBC's online resources tops 9 million people. A significant part of this audience is comprised of Russia's business and political elite and expert communities. All this makes RBC a unique advertising resource. RBC TV is Russia's only 24-hour business television channel broadcasting to all key regions of Russia and attracting an audience of more than 5 million people. RBC is a long-term partner of the world's top news agencies such as Bloomberg L.P., Associated Press, LEXIS-NEXIS, Factiva (Dow Jones & Reuters), CNBC and CNN.
