Traditional media remain key producers of content - TASS director general

ST PETERSBURG, June 19. /TASS/. Traditional media continue to play a key role not only as producers of information content but also as the main channels of its distribution, TASS Director General Sergey Mikhailov said at a News Agencies Summit held within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Thursday. Mikhailov cited data of the Levada-Centre polling centre saying that 75 percentf Russians get information from traditional media outlets and only 24 percent use social networks for this. "It means that in our country traditional media continue to play a key role not only as producers of information content but as the main channel of its distribution," Mikhailov said. "Traditional mainstream media maintaining the so-called mandate on reliable information will hold the title of most demanded channels in building up efficient communication between different sections of society, including communication between state power and business," the director general of Russia's oldest news agency said. However, it does not mean that these media will not change. "Multiplatformity and narrow specialisation are the main vectors for crucial transformations," he said. Along with this, "news agencies will succeed if they continue to play a classical role - the search for and output of social and political news in the interests of other - including new - media and economic news in the interests of businesses and for making business decisions," he said. "Those media will flourish which will be able to fill in the gaps of audiences’ demand with their content and do it with maximum accuracy," Mikhailov said. "At the same time, the motto Reuters once issued for itself says - how hard did we try to be first, we must be right and we must check several times what we publish - will be always topicall for new, for emerging and for traditional media outlets." Read more