RBTH celebrates five years!
On Aug. 25, 2012, the international media project Russia Beyond the Headlines celebrated its fifth anniversary. Five years ago, British newspaper the Daily Telegraph, American daily the Washington Post and the Times of India published the first supplements about Russia produced by RBTH.
Since then, RBTH has grown into a global, multilingual and multimedia project. Today it publishes 22 editions in 20 countries in 12 languages and maintains websites in 10 languages along with a mobile version and iPad application in English. Partners of the project include the New York Times (United States), Le Figaro (France), Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), La Nacion (Argentina), Politika (Serbia), Mainichi Shimbun (Japan) as well as leading papers in Italy, Spain, Begium, Brazil, India, China, Bulgaria, Uruguay, Singapore and Taiwan. The total circulation of the project is approximately 8 million, and the audience – more than 22 million.
RBTH attempts to show foreign readers the Russian reality, adapting material to the needs of the partner paper in each country. “Our model includes the work of professional sub-editors – native speakers in each language. They adapt the texts to local lingustic and journalistic standards. Our editorial staff also works with audio-visual content such as photogalleries, video, infographics and podcasts,” said Vsevelod Pulya, executive editor for online products.
“The way the project has grown over time is simply amazing. This has taken a lot of work. We are very proud to have been partners with RBTH all this time,” said Dave King, executive director of the Telegraph Media Group.
According to annual surveys carried out by the Daily Telegraph, half of its audience – around 50 percent of readers – are aware of Russia Now. Every fourth reader surveyed said that the supplement has improved his or her opinion of Russia and two out of three say that the supplement has increased or deepened their understanding of the country. Fifty-one percent of readers believe that Russia Now gives them an alternative view of Russian than is available in the local press. In 2010, this number was 35 percent.
This year, the project plans to launch new editions with the American business daily the Wall Street Journal as well as with partners in South Korea, Australia and South Africa, among other countries, as well as the release of new tablet editions in other languages.