People Who Innovate: Anna Chervyakova

Independent and innovative online media are not exactly what Russia is famous for.

However, there are exceptions to the rule. The kublog.ru project in Krasnodar in southern Russia was developed around the idea to build communities interested in the local events. Some three months after its launch, kublog.ru has reached around 1000 unique daily users and has sparked a lot of controversy over its independent critique of the local media, restaurants and art events.

DW Akademie’s Natalia Karbasova talked to editor-in-chief Anna Chervyakova about kublog’s development and locally focused internet communities in Russia.

How did Kublog come to life?

Boris Maltsev, local online entrepreneur, decided it was high time to develop a new online project. He understood that regional internet has a big future and saw that such a project hadn’t existed before. That’s when we sat together and discussed it.

What’s so different about Kublog?

Kublog is not a medium or a blog. We are a website which contains blogs and articles – and they are treated on par. We keep people updated on the latest events in the city.

We post announcements of upcoming events, reports from the events which already took place and we publish blogs and comments of people who were at those events. We concentrate on events and people around them, such as event organizers, creative class and locations. That is, we are talking about the unofficial side of the city life. We don’t write about the governor and where he spends his time. We report equally on big professional and small private events. An event itself is important, not how big or small it is.

Also, we have a database on all the locations in the city and offer critique and reviews of the local events, restaurants, websites, blogs and other local activities. What we did was to create a platform with a lot of professional critique on a regular basis.

Are you happy with the project?

Yes! Three months after the launch, we have reached the mark of 1000 unique daily users, social media virtually exploded following the launch of our review series. We notice that people know us, we are invited to almost every event in the city. Moreover, reporters and photographers want to work for us, not because we pay much (we don’t really pay much), but because Kublog means something interesting, fresh and unusual.

After two months we started to sell ads, which is a real success for a local online project in Russia. Every month, we publish a report on our expenses and income, so that everyone can follow the development of the project.

How many people are working for Kublog?

We have three staffers and 20 freelance photographers and reporters. Each month, we publish 170 photo reports. I guess there’re no precedents in this regard.

Which is the main lesson learned?

We discovered that Kublog is a real cash cow. The regional internet communities niche in Russia is almost empty.

What’s your advice for journalists who want to launch an innovative project?

I guess they should try and find very specific and concrete information about every event and then make universal summaries. It’s also important to know that users are uniting around social networks where they can follow their specific local interests. That’s a great chance.

About Anna Chervyakova:

Before launching Kublog, Anna worked as a correspondent for the local business newspaper Delovaja Gazeta. Yug   Business Newspaper. South and for the regional website Zhivaja Kuban. She has also authored a book about the Krasnodar Region. Before that, she’d worked in the police press service, in an NGO, in the local administration and in sales and advertising. She’s also worked as cinema projectionist.