About Kontakt-Chance

Kontakt-Chance

Kontakt-Chance is a Russian-language weekly news magazine published in Germany, one of the largest and most widely read Russian-language publications in the country. Founded in October 1994 in Hanover, it appears weekly in the Pali Deutschland Verlag in Cologne and, according to the German Audit Bureau of Circulation, sells around 67,910 copies weekly, subscribed by more than 63,000 households, making it the most-subscribed Russian-language magazine in Germany. It serves the estimated 3.5 million Russian-speaking people in Germany: the Spätaussiedler from the former Soviet Union, the Jewish quota refugees, and the Russian-speaking immigrants of the post-Soviet decades.

Overview

Kontakt-Chance appears weekly as a Russian-language news magazine for the whole of Germany. Its sold circulation of around 67,910 copies per week, with annual sales of some 2.6 million copies, places it among the largest Russian-language print media in the German-speaking world. The magazine is distributed by subscription and through Russian-language shops, kiosks and community outlets across the country, reaching the Russian-speaking diaspora in every German state. Its readership, in a German market for Russian-language print media that is larger than ever, includes the ethnic German resettlers, the Jewish immigrants of the 1990s quota programme, and the later waves of Russian-speaking immigration.

The magazine's audience is united by language rather than by origin: the readers come from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and the other successor states of the Soviet Union, and their common medium is Russian. The magazine's editorial mix addresses the everyday life of this diaspora: the German news that matters to Russian speakers, the politics of the countries of origin, practical advice on life in Germany, culture and community life. Its readers include the older generation that reads the paper in print and the middle generation that combines the weekly with the magazine's digital offerings.

History

Kontakt-Chance was founded in October 1994 in Hanover, in the era when the Russian-language press in Germany was taking shape. The first new Russian-language newspaper in Germany, Jewropazentr, had been founded in May 1993 by the Moscow journalist Juri Sarubin, and the weekly Kontakt-Chance joined it in October 1994 as one of the pioneering titles of the new diaspora press. In 2001 twelve Russian-language newspapers were already distributed across Germany, most of them publicly financed information papers for resettlers and Jewish quota refugees; the commercial competition was fought between Jewropazentr and the later Russkij Berlin, the regional edition of Russkaja Germanija founded in 1996 by the Riga-born Feldman brothers.

Kontakt-Chance established itself in this market as the subscription magazine of the Russian-speaking diaspora, published by the Pali Deutschland Verlag in Cologne. The German Audit Bureau of Circulation records its weekly sold circulation at 67,910 copies in the first quarter of 2009, with more than 63,000 households subscribing, making it the most-subscribed Russian-language magazine in the Federal Republic. The Werner Media Group's 2002 merger of Jewropazentr and Ost-Ekspress into the Jewropa-Express, with a claimed circulation of 100,000, reshaped the competitive landscape, but Kontakt-Chance maintained its position as the subscription weekly. The magazine continues to appear weekly from Cologne, serving the Russian-speaking communities of Germany.

Coverage and Content

Kontakt-Chance covers the news that matters to the Russian-speaking diaspora in Germany with the mix of a weekly news magazine. The German politics and society that affect its readers' everyday lives form a core beat: the immigration law, the social benefits, the education system, the labour market and the integration debates, reported in Russian for readers whose German may not suffice for the German press. The politics of Russia, Ukraine and the other countries of origin are covered as the diaspora's second homeland news, alongside the international news of the week.

The magazine gives particular attention to practical advice: the readers' questions on pensions, health insurance, housing, taxes and legal matters, the service pages that guide through the German bureaucracy, and the cultural pages with the Russian-language cultural life in Germany, from the theatres to the bookshops. The community life of the diaspora, the Russian-speaking associations, the churches and the cultural centres, and the personal stories of the immigrants fill the magazine's pages. The classified advertisements, from the Russian-speaking businesses to the personal ads that gave the paper its name, complete the weekly, making Kontakt-Chance the marketplace and the noticeboard of the Russian-speaking Germany.

The magazine's classified section is one of its most characteristic features: the personal ads that gave Kontakt-Chance its name, the Russian-speaking businesses' offers, the job market for Russian speakers and the community announcements make the weekly the marketplace of the diaspora. The paper's role for the older generation is particularly important: for readers whose German never sufficed for the German press, the weekly is the window on both Germany and the countries of origin. The magazine covers the Russian-speaking cultural life in Germany's cities, from the Russian theatres to the bookshops and the concert tours, and its community pages report on the associations, the churches and the cultural centres. In a market that includes the Jewropa-Express and the Russkaja Germanija with its regional editions, Kontakt-Chance has held its position through the loyalty of its subscribers: more than 63,000 households receive the weekly, and its annual sales of some 2.6 million copies make it one of the largest Russian-language print media in the German-speaking world.

Russian-language shops, travel agencies and medical practices advertise in its pages, reaching a community that mainstream German media rarely address directly.

Organization and Ownership

Kontakt-Chance is published by the Pali Deutschland Verlag in Cologne, the publishing house that has produced the weekly since its Hanover founding in 1994. The magazine's position as the most-subscribed Russian-language magazine in Germany, certified by the German Audit Bureau of Circulation, rests on its subscription base of more than 63,000 households and its distribution through the Russian-language retail and community network. The publishing house's editorial work is directed at the Russian-speaking diaspora as a whole, across the regional and generational divides of the immigrant communities.

The magazine operates in a market that includes the Jewropa-Express of the Werner Media Group, the Russkaja Germanija with its regional editions in Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Hamburg, and the Jewish monthly Evreyskaya Gazeta, but Kontakt-Chance's subscription model distinguishes it from the kiosk-oriented competitors. Financial details of the privately held publishing house are not publicly disclosed; the magazine's economics rest on subscriptions, the advertising of Russian-speaking businesses, and the loyalty of a readership that has sustained the weekly for three decades.

Digital Presence

Kontakt-Chance is present online at chance.de, where the weekly's Russian-language journalism is available digitally alongside the print edition. The portal carries the magazine's news for the Russian-speaking diaspora, extending the weekly's reporting to readers on desktop and mobile devices, and the magazine's content circulates through the digital channels that serve the Russian-speaking communities in Germany. An e-paper or digital edition serves the readers who have replaced the printed weekly with the tablet or the phone.

As a subscription weekly, much of the digital content is reserved for registered and paying readers, while selected stories remain freely accessible. For the Russian-speaking readers across Germany, the digital Kontakt-Chance is the online companion to the printed weekly: the diaspora's news in Russian on the phone during the week, the magazine in the letterbox at the weekend, and the chance.de portal as the continuous service for the Russian-speaking Germany between editions.