Major Russian news agency to be headed by Simonyan

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – David Burghardt – December 31, 2013) Margarita Simonyan has been named editor-in-chief of the newly founded Rossiya Segodnya, previously called RIA Novosti, the news agency’s general director, Dmitry Kiselyov, announced on Tuesday.

Simonyan was appointed editor-in-chief of the Moscow-based English-language television station RT in 2005.

“This key position could only be held by a person with a brilliant journalistic reputation and contemporary managerial skills,” Kiselyov said.

Simonyan will retain her post at RT and will head up Rossiya Segodnya at the same time.

On December 9, the Kremlin announced the dissolution of RIA Novosti, the country’s major state-run news agency, amid a significant reorganization of several state-owned media assets to raise efficiency and turn the focus towards broadcasting for a foreign audience.

According to Putin’s decree, RIA Novosti and the state-owned Voice of Russia radio will be scrapped and absorbed into a new media conglomerate called Rossiya Segodnya. RIA Novosti also publishes The Moscow News, Russia’s oldest English-language newspaper. It is not clear how the changes will affect the publication.

RIA Novosti’s previous editor-in-chief, Svetlana Mironyuk, was sacked in the same presidential decree after 10 years of heading the organization. Dmitry Kiselyov, a prominent conservative Russian television presenter, was appointed to head Rossiya Segodnya. According to the decree, the head of Rossiya Segodnya is appointed directly by the Russian president.