Vasily Gatov

University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, Emeritus

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Journalist, analyst, media manager and media investment expert.
Joined the professional circle in 1985 and still somewhere around.
Worked almost in any type of media industries - newspapers, magazines, TV/radio, media management in TV and publishing, printing, etc.
In 2005 joined a wonderful team of Promsvyazcapital (www.pscapital.ru) and still here.
In 2006-2010 served as managing director and strategy director for the Media Group of PSC, later converted into Media3 Russia - the largest Russian printed media and media services holding, that comprised such valuable assets as Argumenty i Fakty (the biggest national weekly), Trud (daily newspaper), Extra-M Group (largest network of shopper weeklies), Media-Pressa (leading national printing company), Aria-AiF (second national distribution and press retail company).
Developed both the strategy of the Group's creation, the Group's practicies, value chain and marketing message.
In 2006 was elected vice-president of the Russian Publisher's Guild (www.gipp.ru) and still hold this position.
In 2008 was elected Board Member of IFRA (www.ifra.net) and consequently became Board Member of WAN-IFRA after a merger of two major international assotiations in newspaper's world.
In 2009-2010 published a series of articles and interviews in various Russian media on future of newspaper business and the evolution of the business models. Works maily could be found at either www.slon.ru/blogs/gatov or at www.postjournalist.ru
In May 2010, assuming the Media3 crusade accomplished, resigned from a position of The Board and CEO Adviser.
From October 2010 Vasily is a managing shareholder of 625 Publishers (www.625-net.ru).
From July 2011, Vasily Gatov heads RIA Novosti MediaLab (New Media Technologies LLC) - a research and development arm of the biggest Russian news & information agency RIA Novosti. His responsibilities include innovation leadership for the company, advanced design issues and futurism.

April 2015, joined Center of Communication Leadership and Politics at USC Annenberg School of Communication

Business specializations: management, govt relations, public relations, investment analisys, mergers and acquisitions, post-M&A management, branding, editorial issues, reporting
Phone: +1(617)6521625

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Broadcasting through the (New) Iron Curtain: Practices, Challenges, and Legacies of Russia's Independent Media in Exile

Journalism Studies, 2025

The Russo-Ukrainian war and the Kremlin's military censorship have made independent reporting fro... more The Russo-Ukrainian war and the Kremlin's military censorship have made independent reporting from within Russia impossible. After a few weeks of the conflict, all institutional journalism was forced into exile. Funding sources, access to informants, and the ability to provide objective conflict coverage quickly vanished. Now in exile, Russian journalists have become entirely reliant on donor funding to sustain operations and on new technologies to reach audiences inside Russia. Over 18 months in exile, we conducted more than 50 interviews with editors-in-chief, senior correspondents, and individual journalists adapting to these new circumstances. We asked about audience access, funding opportunities, reliance on new technologies, and organisational challenges within newsrooms. This paper argues that these new conditions have underscored pre-existing issues within Russian media while introducing challenges brought about by the war and exile. However, in a global context, these issues closely mirror those faced by exiled journalists worldwide.

Contagious Tales of Russian Origin and Putin’s Evolution

Society, Oct 26, 2016

As Putin’s Russia tries to change its image in international politics, Russia also attempts to re... more As Putin’s Russia tries to change its image in international politics, Russia also attempts to re-establish the country’s importance and exceptionality. The second component involves communication efforts that are based on certain ideological narratives. This article offers a discourse analysis approach to those ideological novelties and an understanding of underlying perceptions, which it connects with historical and literary contexts. Effective communication with Russian leadership and Russia’s public sphere may not be achieved unless those narratives are addressed through political communication, even though this idea may sound irrational. These phenomena replicate, in obscure ways, traditional beliefs that are rooted in Russian culture, literature and philosophy and, though Putin did “renovate” them, such constructs will overshadow East-West relations regardless of which political regime is in power in Russia.

kremlin Operates on Its Most Demoralized Patient: The Media

The current digest of the Russian press, May 2, 2016

(By Vasily Gatov, media researcher, analyst, media investment expert and board member of WAN-IFRA... more (By Vasily Gatov, media researcher, analyst, media investment expert and board member of WAN-IFRA [magazine]. The Moscow Times, May 5, 2016, p. 2. Complete text:) Five years ago, then-president [of Russia] Dmitry Medvedev met with leading representatives of Russia’s online media community - digital entrepreneurs, executives, scholars, authors and some opposition-minded bloggers. The gathering took place in a refurbished Moscow Youth Library, and it had the look and style of a US town hall meeting. ... Back then, exactly one year before President Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin, the reality of Russian media seemed so different. The participants addressed matters of the future; they spoke about innovation and openness, competitiveness and globalization. Of course, they talked about problems: about free speech, media development and excessive state participation. But the assumption was that government was open for discussion. After all, Medvedev had promised an innovation economy. Today, however, the Russian media have been transformed from head to toe. Over five difficult years, state doctors have taken a scalpel to any "organs" noncompliant with the new rules - like RIA Novosti in December 2013. They applied "legal chemotherapy" to the rest, literally expelling foreign capital from the media business. Aesculapian authorities practiced laparoscopic manipulations to remove undesirable journalists and editors from news outlets. And under a "genetic" treatment, the principles of editorial independence and freedom of expression were replaced by values of censorship, loyalty, manipulative propaganda ... and agenda-setting. ... Roughly half of the participants in the famous Medvedev meeting in May 2011 are now either expelled from mass media, or live under scrutiny and legal persecution. Svetlana Mironyuk works for a bank, Anton Nossik had been charged for supposed "extremism" in a blog post, while the Russian startup leaders are now mostly based in California’s Silicon Valley. ... An even bigger change has occurred outside the media business. Over these five years, the Kremlin has learned a trick or two about its public. It now understands that propaganda works only when you have reframed and primed your audience. Academics have yet to study the mass social manipulation that has taken place between 2012 and 2016. But we can say with some certainty that Russia has witnessed a shift from relatively pluralistic and open media to a new form altogether. Today Russian media [outlets] channel a "besieged fortress" mindset, and represent a jingoistic and socially conservative tribe that negates any kind of "foreign values." The demand for neutral journalism has all but disappeared. ... This transformation could not have happened without pressure from above. But it has also taken on an energy of its own. In order to satisfy the demand for a conservative mindset, major Russian news outlets have become even more nationalistic, anti-Western and conservative than required. ... There are few truly independent media companies operating in Russia today, and even fewer influential ones. Within dependent (controlled by the state or its oligarchic agents) newspapers and television stations, laparoscopic exercises continue. This is the case with RBC (RosBusinessConsulting), arguably Russia’s most thorough and independent news organization, but ultimately dependent on the wider business interests of its billionaire owner, Mikhail Prokhorov. Whatever the reasons that have been given regarding the departure of editor in chief Yelizaveta Osetinskaya, it is safe to assume the Kremlin pushed Prokhorov to appoint a less combative editor to head the publication. ... Putin’s five-year plan to conquer the media and free speech is celebrating an undoubted success across all traditional, broadcast and digital media. The commercial press, whether progovernment, oppositional or neutral, has been forced to adopt his agenda. It is an agenda that considers Russia more important than Russians, the state superior to citizens and power better than freedom. ... You may pray for it or you may condemn it. But you can’t avoid it. As a journalist, author or editor in Russia, you act under the scenario of Putin’s playbook, leading down a road of no return, right up to the media cemetery. ... Yet, with all such apocalyptic pictures in mind, there is a professional resurgence in some distinct areas - like the Latvia-based Meduza news Web site, the advocacy-based Takiye Dela [Such Matters] and Mediazona, and the education-based Arzamas Academy, Open Lectures and Open University. Those startups feature innovative ideas, advanced journalism and creative use of content - and employ the creme de la creme of modern Russian journalists. ... Smaller and less ambitious in scale than earlier democratic media, these experiments, in fact, secure the future of socially responsible communication in Russian society.

Conspiracy Theories and Fake News

Routledge eBooks, Feb 17, 2020

Медиафакультет будущего. Круглый стол, Центр медиаисследований при Институте истории культур, сентябрь 2010 г

Voprosy obrazovaniâ, Oct 19, 2013

При Институте истории культур в Москве открылся Центр медиаисследований, созданный с целью активи... more При Институте истории культур в Москве открылся Центр медиаисследований, созданный с целью активизировать научный обмен между российскими и европейскими специалистами в области медиаобразования. Среди тем первой сессии, которая прошла 22-23 сентября 2010 г., были подготовка специалистов по массмедиа в вузах в соответствии с требованиями отрасли, перспективы участия в Болонском процессе, а также проблемы издания специальной литературы по теории и социологии коммуникаций.

Vasily Gatov

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