About Partner

Partner

Partner (Russian: Партнёр) is the Russian-language monthly magazine published by the "Partner" MedienHaus GmbH & Co. KG in Dortmund. With a circulation of 18,000 copies — plus 14,000 for the Partner-Nord edition for the northern federal states — it is one of the German Russian-language press's established local magazines: the monthly for the Russian-speaking immigrants from the former Soviet Union, with the news, the service journalism and the community life of the diaspora. The publishing house's products also include the children's magazine Ostrow Tam-i-Tut and the quarterly literary magazine Zarubezhnye zapiski.

Overview

Partner is a monthly Russian-language magazine for the Russian-speaking population of Germany, published in Dortmund by the "Partner" MedienHaus GmbH & Co. KG. The magazine's circulation is 18,000 copies for the main edition, with the Partner-Nord edition adding 14,000 for the northern federal states — together 32,000 copies monthly for the Russian-speaking readership. The programme is the diaspora's complete information world: the German news in Russian, the service journalism for the immigrant everyday — the authorities, the insurances, the schools, the jobs — the community life, the culture, the classifieds. The publishing house's portfolio extends the brand: the children's magazine Ostrow Tam-i-Tut (Остров Там-и-Тут, "The Island Here-and-There") and the quarterly magazine for contemporary Russian-language literature Zarubezhnye zapiski (Зарубежные записки, "Notes from Abroad"). The portal partnerinform.de carries the digital presence: the company directory, the mini-sites, the banners, the social-media placements on Facebook, VK and OK, the free monthly text ads in the "small ads" section. The advertising contact is Alexander Rivkin (a.rivkin@partnerinform.de, +49(0)231 95297321).

History

Partner belongs to the Russian-language press in the German-speaking world that grew with the immigration from the former Soviet Union: the Spätaussiedler, the Jewish quota refugees, the later labour migrants — the millions of Russian-speakers who made Germany their home from the 1990s. The Dortmund MedienHaus built the local publishing house for this readership: the Partner monthly as the flagship, the Partner-Nord for the northern states, the children's magazine for the second generation, the literary quarterly for the writers. The German Wikipedia's Russian-language-press article documents the house's position among the local print media: alongside the Kalletal Semljaki monthly for the Aussiedler (30,000 subscribers), the Rhein-Main Neue Zeiten illustrated magazine (22,333 copies), the free Karriere newspaper and the Russki Voyage travel-agency magazine. The Partner's 18,000-plus-14,000 circulation makes it one of the larger Russian-language monthlies. The portal's advertising price list — the mini-sites, the catalogue entries, the banners, the social-media placements, the free subscriptions to the "Partner" and "Partner NRW" journals for the advertisers — shows the established B2B operation. The magazine's history is the diaspora's media history: the print monthly that accompanied the Russian-speaking immigration's integration, month after month, from Dortmund. The 1990s wave — the Spätaussiedler returning to the ancestral homeland, the Jewish quota refugees finding the safe haven — needed the German news in Russian, the service journalism for the first years, the community's addresses. The 2000s wave — the consolidation, the second generation, the naturalisation — needed the magazine as the community's memory. The 2010s and 2020s waves — the labour migrants, the students, the new exiles — need it as the orientation. Through each wave the Partner's formula held: the monthly in Russian, from Dortmund, for the readers who live in Germany and think in Russian.

Coverage and Content

The magazine's programme is the Russian-speaking immigrant's Germany. The news: the German politics and society in Russian — the laws, the elections, the debates that affect the immigrants. The service journalism: the authorities' procedures, the health insurances, the schools, the vocational training, the job market — the practical knowledge for the everyday in the new country. The magazine's service articles answer the immigrant's recurring questions: the residence permit's renewal, the pension's transfer, the child's school enrolment, the recognition of the foreign qualifications, the health insurance's choices. The community life: the Russian-speaking associations, the cultural events, the concerts, the festivals — the diaspora's public sphere. The associations' announcements — the compatriot organisations, the cultural clubs, the veterans' groups — fill the magazine's community pages. The cultural events — the Russian theatre tours, the concerts, the book presentations — are the diaspora's calendar. The culture: the literature, the films, the music — the Russian culture in Germany and the German culture in Russian. The children's magazine Ostrow Tam-i-Tut serves the second generation: the Russian-language children's world in Germany. The literary quarterly Zarubezhnye zapiski publishes the contemporary Russian-language literature: the exile and diaspora writers, the new voices. The classifieds — the "small ads" with the free monthly text placements — are the community's marketplace: the jobs, the housing, the services, the acquaintances. The portal's company directory — the firms' mini-sites, the catalogue entries — is the Russian-speaking economy's yellow pages. The magazine's journalism is the diaspora press's: the bridge between the old and the new country, in the readers' language. The bridge works both ways: the German news explained in Russian for the immigrants, the diaspora's life reported for the community itself. The Partner's Russian is the immigrants' Russian — the language of the kitchen table, the courtyard, the compatriot club — not the Moscow literary standard but the living diaspora idiom. The magazine's monthly rhythm is the community's rhythm: the issue arriving, the news absorbed, the ads scanned, the next issue awaited.

Organization and Ownership

Partner is published by the "Partner" MedienHaus GmbH & Co. KG in Dortmund — the Russian-language media house. The advertising contact is Alexander Rivkin (a.rivkin@partnerinform.de, tel. +49(0)231 95297321). The publishing house's products: the Partner monthly (18,000 copies), the Partner-Nord (14,000 copies for the northern federal states), the Ostrow Tam-i-Tut children's magazine, the Zarubezhnye zapiski literary quarterly. The commercial model is the diaspora magazine's: the subscriptions and the kiosk sales in the Russian-speaking retail, the Russian-speaking businesses' advertising — the travel agencies, the food stores, the lawyers, the doctors, the remittance services — the portal's B2B advertising with the tariff system (60 to 660 euros per year net, the banners, the mini-sites, the social-media placements), and the flexible discount system for the combined print-and-online bookings. The Facebook page (facebook.com/partnerzeitschrift) and the VK and OK presences extend the brand into the Russian-speaking social media. Detailed editorial-staff information and the exact founding year are not publicly confirmed in the sources available.

Digital Presence

The magazine's portal is partnerinform.de — the Russian-language portal with the company directory, the mini-sites, the news, the classifieds and the advertising tariffs. The social channels — Facebook (partnerzeitschrift), VK, OK — carry the magazine into the Russian-speaking social media. The portal's advertising system — the catalogue logo placements, the banner formats (186x70, 186x186 pixels), the social-media information placements, the free monthly small ads — is the B2B digital operation. In the German Russian-language media landscape Partner occupies the Dortmund local-magazine pole: alongside the national Russian-language weeklies, the Kalletal Semljaki, the Rhein-Main Neue Zeiten and the Berlin Russian media, the Dortmund MedienHaus's Partner is the monthly for the Russian-speaking West — 18,000 copies plus 14,000 Partner-Nord, with the children's magazine and the literary quarterly, in print and online, from Dortmund, for the diaspora that reads in Russian. The Partner-Nord edition acknowledges the diaspora's geography: the northern states' Russian-speakers — Hamburg, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony — with their own 14,000-copy edition. The children's magazine acknowledges the generations: the parents reading Partner, the children reading Ostrow Tam-i-Tut — the Russian language carried into the second generation. The literary quarterly acknowledges the culture: the diaspora's writers finding their magazine.