Newspapers in Russia
Today Russia can be proud of the variety of newspapers circulating throughout the country. On the news stalls one can find newspapers of all kinds: national and local, official and private, quality and popular; newspapers issued for children, teenagers, people of different trends, for all kind of fans: sport-fans, car-fans, etc. The freedom of press has become real today.
The Russian government continues to exercise control over the newspaper industry, but at a lower scale.
Most of the newspapers can boast their independence, their individual styles, their peculiarities. Now it is almost impossible to classify all the Russian newspapers into two big groups: quality and popular. It is possible to name the newspapers and the bodies responsible for the issue of this or that newspaper to illustrate the variety of the modern Russian press. "Arguments and Facts" is an independent newspaper; "The Evening Club" is a newspaper of Moscow intellectuals; "Evening Moscow" is an independent people's newspaper; "The Red Star" is the newspaper of the Defence Ministry.
There are a lot of local and professional newspapers. Today people have a chance to have full information - about events in their own country and abroad, they can compare the positions and programmes of different political parties and make their own choice. Various genres and forms are used in the Russian newspapers. The most space is taken by topical information and public pieces.
Usually there are four or eight pages in a newspaper, but some newspapers have twelve or sixteen pages. There is no need to read all the articles. People can look through the newspapers and read the columns they are interested in.
Newspapers come out all the time to provide people with the fresh and objective news. Newspapers have become a daily and essential necessity with all Russian people. Russian press calls the readers' attention to outstanding issues of the day, reports about various aspects of life.