Media Space

Republic of Moldova: Media Space

BDR Associates, a Hill and Knowlton Associate

The main features of the mass media in the R. of Moldova 

Mass media in Moldova is continuously developing and covering all types of media channels: TV, radio, written (magazines, newspapers), press agencies and online

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Lately, the increasing quality and role of the online mass media was noted, but mainly at Chisinau level

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The main language of publications is Romanian, but an important segment of the market is occupied by the publications issued in Russian language and multilingual media channels;

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The multilingual mass media:

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Almost all main TV channels broadcast news in both Romanian and Russian.

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Recently, trilingual media channels appeared: Romanian-Russian-English (mainly press agencies and web portals).

The range of specialized mass media is not very large and it covers, mainly, the following areas: 

Daily newspapers (the most developed);

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Business / Economy: 2 magazines, Profit. Banci si Finante and Business Class, 2 newspapers: Logos Press and Economist, 1 press agency: InfoMarket;

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Entertainment

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Constructions & real estate

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IT (at the beginning)

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Others (accounting & audit, for children and youths)

The most developed media segments 

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Central mass media versus regional one: 

Central media is much more developed than regional media

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However, because of its low buying – power, a significant portion of rural population prefers the regional media

The most popular media categories among the general public (decreasing in importance): 

TV & Radio

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Online media (web portals, online TV, blogs). Online media started to be more popular beginning with last year. A kind of launching in this respect belongs to Unimedia web portal, which was launched in 2009.

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Written (printed) press

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Press agencies

The most popular mass media by area of operation 

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Economic & business 

Newspapers: Logos Press, ECOnomist

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Magazines:

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Press agencies: Infomarket

Profit, Business Class

General interest 

Newspapers: Vedomosti

Timpul, Jurnal de Chisinau, Nezavisimaya Moldova, Moldavskie

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Press agencies: Infotag, Info-Prim Neo

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TV (news): Prime TV, PRO TV, TV7, Moldova1, Publika TV, Jurnal TV

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Radio (news): Radio Moldova, Europa Libera, Vocea Basarabiei

Entertainment: Punkt, VIP Magazin, Aquarelle magazines; Komsomoliskaia Pravda newspaper

International mass media on Moldovan market TV channels (with local programs) From Romania: 

PRO TV

Press agencies (subsidiaries) 

AGERPRESS - Romania

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NEWSIN – Romania

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RIA Novosti – Russia (local name – Novosti-Moldova)

Radio channels (with local programs)  

FREE EUROPE – Czech Republic Radio France International

Newspapers (Russia):  

Kommersant plyus Komsomolyskaya Pravda

Foreign investments in the Moldovan mass media Foreign investments in the Moldovan mass media:  

Publika TV (Romanian investments) Jurnal Trust Media (German investments)

Other international media with a major impact on the local market:  

PRIME TV channel (local name) - Pervii Kanal channel of Russia TV7 (local name) - NTV channel of Russia

Media organizations 

Associations of media channels:    

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CENTRE FOR INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM - supports professional journalism, promotes qualitative, impartial and independent press ASSOCIATION OF THE INDEPENDENT PRESS – comprises regional publications, two press agencies and the Centre for Independent Journalism ECONOMIC PRESS ASSOCIATION – comprises most of economic media from RM JOURNALISTS UNION OF MOLDOVA – its members are journalists from the entire country, it is the oldest mass media association in Moldova. It supports independent & professional journalism Other associations (not influential), i.e. Electronic Press Association, Health Press Association etc.

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AUDIOVISUAL COORDINATING COUNCIL (CCA) - a national regulatory body that supervises audiovisual media outlets. Its members are appointed by the Parliament of Moldova;

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Others: the Audit Bureau of Circulation, it is just being launched in Moldova and its members are several media channels and private enterprises, interested in the real value of circulation of the press;

Media ownership 

Public media channels: Moldova 1 TV and Radio Moldova

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Other mass media institutions from Moldova are founded by journalists, business units, town halls, local executive public institutions, or are local representatives of foreign mass media institutions (ProTV, Free Europe)

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Moldovan mass-media is not transparent in disclosing its owners

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The only official media trust in Moldova is Jurnal Trust Media.

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Media analysts divide Moldovan media in ‘media groups’, taking into consideration the editorial policy of media outlets. The most developed are media ‘groups’ controlled by political parties: i.e. communist press, the liberal and liberal-democratic parties press and the independent one (very few)

Press ‘‘groups” & trusts

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AnaliticMedia-grup (the same management team). This group is mainly focused on economic, business and social areas. Political news are reflected impartially.   

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Euronova Media Grup (the same management team). This ‘group’ is focused mainly on anticommunist topics.  

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Infotag press agency TV7 channel Profit magazine

Vocea Basarabiei radio station Euronova TV channel (Nisporeni raion)

Jurnal Trust Media:     

Jurnal de Chisinau newspaper ECOnomist newspaper Apropo newspaper JurnalTV – TV channel Jurnal FM (radio channel)

Appendixes 1.

Particularities of Moldovan media environment (2 slides)

2.

Print & online media development

3.

Print market structure (the most popular newspapers)

4.

Broadcast media

5.

The most important TV channels

6.

The ratings of the most important TV channels

Particularities of Moldovan media environment 

None of the private media institutions declare its sources and amount of funding, while public institutions do not offer access to reports on how public funds are spent. In most cases, founders of media outlets are not known by the public. There are no laws ensuring transparency on media funding and ownership.

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Mass media in Moldova isn’t positioned as a business in the good meaning of the word, thus independent press almost doesn’t exist. Although rare, there are cases of self-financed newspapers. Several publications have managed to establish a good reputation both as credible information providers and as enterprises that can cover their publishing expenses and even be profitable. Among these publications one can mention Logos Press newspaper and Profit magazine. The regional press also has success stories with the weekly SP in Bălti, Unghiul in Ungheni, Cuvantul in Rezina and Observatorul de Nord in Soroca.

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Public access to diverse sources of information is extremely precarious in the rural areas, where most Moldovans live. Despite the formally high number of media, population does not have access to diverse news sources in all regions of Republic of Moldova.

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The most vibrant media scene is undoubtedly in Chisinau. Moldova’s capital is home to 54.5% of the outlets identified throughout the study, and boasts a variety of media.

Particularities of Moldovan media environment 

The CSR projects, developed in Moldova, are not correctly approached neither by mass media, who thinks that CSR projects are only promotional activities of its developers, nor by developers, who demand from press to release media materials in the content and ‘shape’ they provide (conclusions made during the last conference organized on this topic with the participation of mass media and business’ representatives).

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Investigative journalism is not developed, too. This domain is only at the first stage of development and now exists only due to the international organization programmes, i.e. Centre for Investigative Journalism. Usually journalists publish this kind of materials due to participating in special competitions.

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Most journalists in Moldova are called “universal journalists”. Only a few media workers are specialized in covering a certain area.

Print & online media development 

The impact of printed media is still limited (according to a poll published in July 2009, 34.1% of Moldova's population did not read newspapers at all in the last 3 months, while only 9.9% of the population read newspapers on a daily basis and 25.1% several times a week).

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Online media is developing fast during this year: 

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Unimedia and Stirea Zilei web portals are the most popular, due to the rapid reflection of the political events in Moldova, mainly in the period of time related to the parliamentary election campaigns (in 2009 ). Other recently created web portals : Politik.md, OMG.md, Hotnews.md. The blogging trend is represented by a narrow circle of persons. One cannot divide blogs on a certain specialization.

Print market structure (the most popular newspapers) The circulation of the most important newspapers, ex.

w eekly, Jurnal de Chisinau (Friday edition) 19537

w eekly, Flux

10000 w eekly, Saptamana

11232

w eekly, Logos press

8530

w eekly, Kishineovskie Novosti

8121

w eekly, ECOnomist

6500 1

5372

w eekly, Jurnal de Chisinau (Tuesday edition)

3000

3 ed./w eek, Moldavskie Vedomosti

4618

4 ed./w eek, Moldova Suverana

4277 4 ed./w eek, Nezavisimaya Moldova

42150

daily, Komsomolyskaya Pravda (the highest circulation - Thirsday edition)

43750

daily, Timpul de dimineata 0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

Source: Newspapers’ information

45000

Broadcast Media 

The Moldovan broadcasting market has continuously developed since its very beginning. The number of private radio stations increased from 20 in 1999 to 44 in 2008, and today there are 166 cable TV operators and 38 ground TV stations.

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Moldovans, however, prefer foreign programmes. According to AGB Moldova, PRIME is the most popular TV channel in Moldova, and 90% of its programming is rebroadcasts from the Russian station Pervii Kanal. It rated 10 audience points in Chisinau in prime-time compared with 3 to 6 points for the other TV channels (PRO TV, TV7, NIT, etc.) Newscasts are the most popular local programmes.

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According to Public Opinion Barometers, the press is one of the three most trusted social institutions in the country. When it comes to information, 87% of respondents said TV was their primary source. Radio was on the second place, with 48%.

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According to the legislation in force, advertising in newscasts is prohibited. Almost all media programmes, i.e. talk shows, are on commercial basis.

The most important TV channels in Moldova

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Public television 

Moldova 1 TV channel belongs to the public national broadcaster company Teleradio-Moldova

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Moldova 1 (TVM) has a wide range of shows (social-political, economic, entertainment)

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Teleradio-Moldova has founded the Moldova International TV & Radio channels, broadcasted by satellite

Private TV channels 

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TV7, PRO TV, Publika TV, Jurnal TV, NIT, EU TV, 2PLUS, N4 and others

Other relevant information  

Regional TV channels are in continuous development (about 28 channels in various raions) TV channels broadcasting: 43 – ether TV studios; 7 – broadcasted by satellite TV;

The ratings of the most popular TV channel May TV Rating % 4,50 4,00

3,993,95

3,50 3,00 2,50

Moldova

2,00

Chisinau 1,33

1,50 1,00

0,54

1,12 0,73

1,29 0,52

0,50

0,150,28

0,00 PRIME

TV7

NIT

MOLDOVA 1

Source: AGB Moldova, www.allmoldova.md

PRO TV