Available in Russian
English Editor Ivan Kolpakov | Headquarters Riga, Latvia | |
Type of site News aggregator
Online newspaper Slogan(s) The news returns
also
The real Russia, today Website Russian: meduza.io
English: meduza.io/en/articles | ||
Meduza is a Riga-based online newspaper and news aggregator in the Russian language, headed by Galina Timchenko, the former editor-in-chief of Russian news website Lenta.ru.
Contents
Conception
Meduza is an aggregator of news and texts in Russian, to be selected in manual mode, unlike the automatic rankings of Yandex News. The main criterion for the published content should be the relevance and reliability of the information, not the status of the source. Also, Meduza will create its own materials. The site includes 5 main topics, no sections and columns. One of the formats of the publication will be the analysis of complex issues using cards, similar to the American project vox.com. The basis of the media will be free mobile app for iOS, Android and Windows Phone.
In February 2015, the website also launched a version in the English language. In January 2016, founder and CEO Galina Timchenko handed over the role of chief editor to her deputy Ivan Kolpakov.
Structure
Meduza is run by a team of around 20 journalists who resigned from their jobs at Lenta.ru following Galina Timchenko’s unexpected removal from her post by the website’s owner and Vladimir Putin ally, the oligarch Alexander Mamut. There are no Latvian journalists in the project.
Timchenko told Forbes that the decision to base Meduza in Latvia was made since "right now, establishing an independent Russian language publishing house in Latvia is possible, while in Russia it is not." Russian businessman and former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and telecommunications magnate Boris Zimin had been considered as passive investors; however, they parted ways “for strategic and operational reasons”.
Censorship
According to Timchenko, Meduza will not only serve as an aggregator, but also produce its own content. Thus, it aims to fill a market niche which exists due to "a long list of forbidden topics which Russian media do not raise for various reasons – due to direct and indirect censorship."
On the second day Meduza was launched, the portal was blocked in Kazakhstan probably due to article about the city of Oskemen (Ust-Kamenogorsk).
The site has also been blocked in Uzbekistan. The reasons for this are unclear.