FREE, BUT FADING

As the glory days of glasnost recede into history, the media that helped win the great struggle against communism are losing another battle -- with the market.

Pravda's decision to temporarily suspend publication in mid-March was just one indication of the gravity of the situation. The "shock therapy" of Boris Yeltsin's economic program has brought most major newspapers in Russia to the brink of bankruptcy. By some estimates, seven out of eight journalists in Moscow could find themselves out of job by the end of the year.

Raised on subsidies, the media were ill prepared for the wrenching realities of market forces (see "Letter from Moscow," CJR, January/February). In January, higher subscription rates brought about by inflation led to major losses for most national publications. Total circulation of daily and weekly newspapers published in Moscow dropped 20 percent below 1991 levels, with some newspapers losing as much as 75 percent of their subscribers.

Meanwhile, the relaxation of price controls has increased the cost of newsprint -- from the official 700 rubles a ton to ten and then twenty times that amount. At the same time, transportation and distribution costs have tripled. Ironically, newspapers with the highest circulation and all-commonwealth distribution -- such as the trade union newspaper Trud, the nonpartisan Argumenty y Fakty, and the youth-oriented Komsomolskaya Pravada -- have suffered much more than the small-circulation and local publications. To add insult to injury, nationalist and pornographic publications, which are sold at premium prices, have no difficulty paying even the black-market cost of paper and printing.

Radio and TV are also having a hard time making ends meet, what with the general inflation of wages and the rising cost of electricity and other services.

Aware of the importance of not alienating the press in a time of painful economic reform, Yeltsin has responded to pleas for aid by imposing a fixed low price on 70 percent of the paper going into newsprint and providing a subsidy to the agency responsible for the delivery of publications. While welcoming the support, many journalists worry that it will lead to dependency. There is some justification for this fear: fixed-price supplies of newsprint will only go to "leading" publications -- those on a list the government is compiling.

Most news organizations, meanwhile, have established departments to sell advertising space and time. With Western currencies so high in comparison with the ruble, foreign advertisers are particularly sought after. So are foreign partners. But Westerners complain that they have difficulty finding partners who understand the concepts and technology of Western-style business.

A solution to that problem could come in the form of a U.S.-based institute that would conduct training programs for journalists on business and technology. But so far such efforts have not gone beyond the talking stage.

Meanwhile, under the ruthless pressures of the market, many publications that contributed so much to the triumph of democracy in the U.S.S.R. now risk death or degeneration into second-rate tabloids.

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