OREANDA-NEWS. July 10, 2014. The number of participants in the Annual Rating of Young Russian Media Managers, conducted by top management recruiters Odgers Berndtson in collaboration with PwC Russia and with the support of communications company Mikhailov and Partners, is growing year-on-year and has surpassed 200 for the first time ever.

Personnel changes on the media market at all levels and in virtually all of the largest holding companies have resulted in replenished management teams with the appearance of many new names. For instance, 40% of the participants in the third annual rating made an appearance for the first time.

In 2013 the Third Annual Rating of Young Russian Media Managers represented 209 mangers under the age of 35 years with the highest growth potential. As compared to the first rating, the list of participants has increased by about 30%, as there were 146 media managers on the list in 2011. Eighty-two participants (40%) are newcomers. Furthermore, this growing involvement is indicative not only of the new stars appearing in the arena but also of high demand for specialists in the industry. The media market remains one of the fastest growing industries.

Traditionally, participants are distributed among four key categories: "Top management (CEO)", "Content production", "Commerce" and "Company/product promotion", which are further categorised by industry segment. This year there have been changes in several of the segments. In order to make an assessment of media manager achievements and growth as objective as possible, the rating’s Methodology Committee has divided the Internet segment into two sectors, "Internet mass media" and "Internet services", which is more in line with current market trends. The "Press", "Radio" and "TV" segments remained unchanged. In addition, a "CEO award" has been included in the methodology for this year. This award is a coefficient that increases the total result and is attributed to participants demonstrating professional growth and who have reached a CEO position in the reporting period.

In 2013 new CEO appointments (Yuliana Slascheva joined STS Media, Petr Zakharov joined Afisha-Rambler and Jean-Emmanuel de Witt joined Sanoma Independent Media, etc.) had a significant impact on the rating. In most cases, this resulted in a change of the management teams. The most noticeable events were Afisha-Rambler's team joining Yandex and RBC and the RIA Novosti team coming out on to the labour market.

This year the youngest participants were managers born in 1989, including Ignat Aleynikov, announcement service director at PBC, Ashot Gabrelyanov, general director at LifeNews TV Channel, and Kirill Vorobyev, digital media monetisation and trans-media project department director at STS Media. All three of these young managers are engaged in the TV industry. Today, it is TV channels and TV companies which are ready to open up opportunities to young people so that they can develop as managers.

The number of managers engaged in the “Press” segment has decreased from 55 people last year to 44 this year. Young people are continuing to move to the Internet project sector as it is more attractive in terms of career development. In addition, it should be noted that the printed press industry is gradually getting older and less populated.

Radio remains the most depopulated category in the rating. As in past years, this is due to the relatively closed nature of the industry and its conservative HR policy. It should also be noted that the number of participants from this sector in the rating has grown year-on-year from 10 to 15, mostly thanks to an increase in PR directors and new managers from ProfMedia Broadcasting Corporation (VKPM).

Internet mass media and Internet services sectors along with the TV segment are the most populated in the rating. RBC is a leader in the Internet mass media sector in terms of young talent employment (seven people), followed by Sports.ru and Look at Media representatives (six people each). Leadership in Internet services is shared primarily by Yandex and Mail.ru employees. In the past year, e-commerce, video services and Smart TV professionals were in greatest demand.

Roman Tyshkovskiy, Managing Partner, Media Practice Leader, Odgers Berndtson, Project Visionary: "The past year was not easy for the sector and did not generate a lot of positive developments. Many were disappointed and lost heart. However, such sentiments are temporary and there will by a recovery cycle. Furthermore, we can approach it in a better way professionally and take advantage of the current situation correctly. Today young media managers need to understand the industry and learn how to skilfully dodge the traffic on the current market. These skills will always be useful."

Natalia Yakovleva, PwC Russia Partner and TICE Leader: "Young and talented media business professionals are clearly attracted by digital sources, Internet projects and the TV industry as the most challenging market segments. Such reliance is not unreasonable - according to PwC’s recent Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2014-2018 survey, digital content will account for almost every two of three dollars in the total income of the entertainment and media industry companies (less expenses for Internet access) by 2018. Employers are also interested. This year we see bright young managers engaged in the digital business ranks of brick-and-mortar media holdings in this rating.

Svetlana Gorevaya, General Director, Mikhailov and Partners, Strategic Communications: "We are closely watching the media market and see how much its structure changes through rapid development of Internet and trans-media projects. This year's rating illustrates the trends which deserve attention not only among media industry leaders but also in other related sectors because the impact of these changes will only grow in future. We all need to be ready to operate in the new environment."

The data for the period from January 2012 to December 2013 were used to calculate the ratings. The rating does not include achievements and transfers which occurred in 2014. Media mangers who were born after 1 July 1977 could participate in the rating for this year.

The full list of the rating participants, calculation methodology and previous rating results are published on the website http://www.youngmediaman.ru/.