Lenta.ru is a Russian languageonline newspaper. Based in Moscow, it is owned by Rambler Media Group which belongs toProf-Media. In 2013, the companies "SUP Media" and "Rambler-Afisha" united in the combined company "Afisha.Rambler.SUP". The online newspaper is one of the most popular Russian language online resources with over 600 thousand visitors daily.
History
In 1999Anton Nosik launched Lenta.ru together with the Foundation for Effective Politics. It was a sister e-news project under the brand gazeta.ru. Nosik served as its chief editor till 2004. A Berkman Center 2010 study found it to be the most cited news source in the Russian blogosphere. In 2013, Lenta.ru was ranked in 5th place in terms of traffic among European news sites by comScore-study. In January 2013, the website was relaunched with a new design and significant changes to the rubricating system. This was the most serious update of the site since 2004.
Interview with Tarasenko
Following a March 10, 2014, Lenta.ru interview by of from the Right Sector's Kiev branch, Roskomnadzor immediately issued a press release on March 12, 2014, in which Lenta.ru was implicated in violating numerous Russian media laws, information laws, and laws to counter extremism because the interview allowed a leader from the group to appeal to Ukrainian citizens to support pro-Ukraine causes and that the article contained a link to Dmytro Yarosh's March 1, 2014 appeal. Since the warning by Roskomnadzor was the second issued in a 12-month period, Roskomnadzor would ask the courts to terminate Lenta.ru's mass media license.
On March 12, 2014 the owner, Alexander Mamut, fired the Editor-in-Chief Galina Timchenko and replaced her with Alexey Goreslavsky. 39 employees out of the total 84, including Director-general Yuliya Minder, lost their jobs. This includes 32 writing journalists, all photo-editors and 6 administrators. The employees of Lenta.ru issued a statement that the purpose of the move was to install a new Editor-in-Chief directly controlled by the Kremlin and turn the website into a propaganda tool. Dunja Mijatović, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, referred to the move as a manifestation of censorship. Galina Timchenko, together with a team of around 20 journalists who resigned from their jobs at Lenta.ru, started the new internet newspaper Meduza.
Lenta.ru has taken first place four times in the Rotor contest in the category "Information site of the year" and once, in 2000 in the category "News site of the year". Maxim Moshkov has won the Rotor twice.
