About 24News.am

24News.am

Overview

24News.am is an online news outlet based in Yerevan, founded in 2018 as 24 News LLC. It publishes news and political interviews in Armenian on its website and on its YouTube channel, and it is best known for interview programming rather than for a large text news wire. Its flagship programme is Profzruyc, meaning Proftalks, an interview format hosted by its founder with political figures and experts. Media Ownership Monitor Armenia describes the company as a small-scale media operation that has positioned itself primarily as a video-content focused outlet.

Yerevan is the centre of Armenian journalism, and almost all national online outlets are based in the capital. Since the late 2000s, as internet access spread, web-only news sites have overtaken print newspapers in reach, publishing continuously through the day rather than to a daily print deadline. Readers in Armenia and in the large Armenian diaspora follow these sites for fast political news, and international monitors including Freedom House and the Yerevan Press Club regularly include the leading portals in their studies of Armenian media pluralism, ownership and press freedom. 24News.am belongs to the generation of outlets created in the year of the 2018 Velvet Revolution, when political change and growing online audiences encouraged a wave of new digital projects. Its video-first model reflects how Armenian political discussion has moved onto YouTube and social platforms.

Founding and Company History

24 News LLC was established in 2018 as a news agency operating the 24news.am platform. Its founder is Narek Galstyan, who has served as the company's director and editor since its establishment and remains its public face. Galstyan conducts interviews with political figures and experts that are published on both the website and its YouTube channel, particularly through Profzruyc, which he has co-hosted with Turkologist Ruben Melkonyan according to Media Ownership Monitor Armenia.

The outlet's format was distinctive from the start. Rather than competing with large portals on the volume of short news items, it built its identity around longer conversations about politics and public affairs, distributed online. That choice kept the operation small and recognisable, closely identified with its founder's interviewing style and political background.

Ownership

Media Ownership Monitor Armenia records that the company was originally established by Narek Galstyan, who held 60 percent, and France-based Kevork Sachlean, who held 40 percent. The ownership composition changed significantly in January 2025, when Galstyan transferred most of his stake to Krzysztof Smyk, a resident of Poland. Following that change, Smyk held a controlling 50 percent interest, Sachlean retained 40 percent, and Galstyan retained 10 percent, while continuing to serve as director and editor.

That evolution raises questions that the monitor itself notes about editorial control and decision-making authority, because the founding editor-director now holds a minority stake while two shareholders based abroad control 90 percent of the company. Public information about the majority shareholders' backgrounds and interests is limited, so the practical effect of the change on editorial policy cannot be established from available sources, and this profile does not speculate about it.

Founder: Narek Galstyan

Narek Galstyan's career spans journalism, media entrepreneurship and political activism. He led Radio Liberty's Maxliberty youth programme from 2003 to 2006, an early link to the same broadcasting tradition as Azatutyun. In 2009 he founded HayNews.am, serving as its editor until 2012, so 24News.am was his second online news venture. His government experience includes working as an assistant to Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan from 2012 to 2013.

His political involvement began in his student years as chairman of the Sargis Tkhruni student union affiliated with the Social Democratic Hnchakyan Party. Media Ownership Monitor Armenia records that in 2007 he was physically assaulted after distributing leaflets opposing then President Serzh Sargsyan, an incident he attributed to political persecution. Following splits within the party in 2009, he became party chairman in 2013, resigning from his government position to take the role. These political connections are part of the public record and form the background against which the outlet's editorial positioning is usually discussed.

Programming and Format

The centrepiece of the outlet is Profzruyc, the interview programme through which Galstyan questions politicians, analysts and public figures about current affairs. Interviews are published as video on YouTube and as material on the website, making the programme the main route by which most audiences encounter the brand. Long-form conversation suits the Armenian market, where televised and online talk formats have long been a principal venue for political argument.

Alongside interviews, 24news.am publishes news in Armenian. The balance between the two is what distinguishes it from conventional news websites: Media Ownership Monitor Armenia explicitly contrasts its emphasis on interview programming and political commentary with traditional text-based journalism. For readers and viewers, the value of the outlet lies less in breaking-news speed than in access to extended statements by political actors in their own words.

Coverage and Editorial Focus

Coverage centres on Armenian politics: government and opposition, foreign policy including relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey, and the domestic debates that followed the 2020 war and the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh. The presence of a Turkologist as co-host of its flagship programme reflects the weight given to regional and foreign-policy questions in its interview agenda. Guests are drawn from across the political spectrum of public life, and the programmes are frequently cited or excerpted by other Armenian outlets.

Because the director's own political history is well documented, media researchers treat the outlet as a politically engaged rather than neutral platform. That does not distinguish it from much of the Armenian market, where ownership and political alignment are closely connected, but it does mean audiences typically read its interview choices and framing in that context.

Audience and Distribution

Distribution is digital only. The website serves readers who prefer text, while the YouTube channel reaches viewers who follow Armenian politics through video, including in the diaspora. Interview clips circulate further on social media, which is how individual programmes often reach audiences far larger than the channel's regular viewership. This model requires no broadcast licence and no printing or transmission infrastructure, which is why a small company can sustain a recognisable national profile.

No independently verified audience figures for 24news.am are published in the sources used for this profile, and none are invented here. Its significance is measured instead by the calibre of guests willing to appear on its flagship programme and by the attention its interviews receive in wider Armenian political discussion.

Place in Armenian Media Research

24News.am is documented in detail by Media Ownership Monitor Armenia, the research project that maps who owns Armenian media. Its inclusion there, with a company profile and a separate profile of its founder, reflects the transparency value of studying even small outlets: in a market where many sites disclose little about ownership, the documented history of 24 News LLC, including its 2025 ownership change, is unusually complete. The outlet also appears in statements by Armenian journalistic organisations, where its director is listed among editors and directors of national outlets.

That documentation matters for readers trying to judge credibility. Knowing who founded an outlet, who now owns it and what political experience its editor has allows audiences to make their own assessment, which is precisely the purpose of ownership monitoring in Armenia.

Challenges and Outlook

The challenges facing 24News.am are typical of small video-focused outlets: dependence on a single presenter, the cost of sustaining regular production, competition from larger portals that have also expanded into video, and the commercial weakness of the Armenian online advertising market. The 2025 change in majority ownership adds a further question about long-term direction that only future practice will answer.

Public information about the outlet's finances, staffing and audience is limited, and this profile is confined to what Media Ownership Monitor Armenia and the outlet's own output establish. Within those limits, 24News.am is a clear example of the post-2018 Armenian pattern: a founder-led, interview-driven digital outlet whose influence comes from personality and access rather than from the size of its newsroom.