Russian Information Agency Novosti Unveils Its New English Language Wire, RIAN News Service, Targeting Western Information Markets

Russian News and Information Agency Novosti has unveiled its new English language wire, RIAN News Service, targeting Western information markets. The presentations of RIA Novosti’s new newswire were held consecutively in Moscow, London, New York and Washington D.C. earlier this month.

(PRWEB) November 15, 2005 -- Russian News and Information Agency Novosti has unveiled its new English language wire, RIAN News Service, targeting Western information markets. The presentations of RIA Novosti’s new newswire were held consecutively in Moscow, London, New York and Washington D.C. earlier this month.

“RIAN News Service is a must-have source that provides media professionals, academia, the business community and government experts with the most comprehensive coverage of daily news in Russia, the Baltics and the CIS,” RIA Novosti Deputy General Director Dmitry Surkov told PRGroup at the New York presentation. “Seven days a week RIAN News Service provides first-hand, real-time coverage of political affairs, the economy and markets, business and investment, events in the Russian regions, sports and culture.”

Surkov said the newswire also provides essential in-depth background reporting, expert commentary and interviews for a complete picture of key events.

RIAN News Service replaces the previous English-language newswire put out by RIA Novosti, which, by most accounts, lacked quality in comparison to the competition. The number of stories, which hovers around 100 items per day, will be gradually increasing. To improve the content, British and American editors have been added to the team, which is directed by Irina Demchenko, a seasoned media professional who previously worked at Reuters as Russia managing editor. In addition to the upgraded measures already taken, business coverage will become much more extensive. Features like companies’ ticker symbols, hyperlinks in the texts and indexing stories by industry are also currently being planned.

Presentations of RIAN News Service in Russia and overseas have been attended by more than 300 representatives of the leading international media, government officials, experts and members of the business and expatriate communities, demonstrating interest.

RIA Novosti English-language web-site has posted a notification to current readers, saying that “as of January 1st, 2006, the number of news reports on the RIAN Web site /http://en.rian.ru/ will be significantly reduced and posted with a delay.” The new service, which is now running in free trial mode, will be available for subscription to media organizations, including online media, foreign embassies in Russia, government organizations, businesses, universities, research centers, think-tanks, NGOs and English-language content integrators.

RIA Novosti operates an extensive correspondent network in Russia, the CIS and more than 40 other countries. The agency produces newswires in French, German, Spanish, Arab and Japanese. Upgrades of these wires are planned as well.

RIA Novosti was established in 2004 on the basis of Russian Information Agency Novosti (est.1991), which had its roots in the Novosti Press Agency (1961) and Sovinformburo (1941).
A free trial of the full real-time version of RIAN News Service can be requested at 0-117-095-981-65-02, 0-117-095-201-34-84.

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