Regional Community Network No. 1: city media at scale

What is Regional Community Network No. 1?

Regional Community Network No. 1 is Russia's largest network of city media on Telegram and VKontakte, and part of the News Media Holding product portfolio. It runs across 40+ cities, reaches hundreds of thousands of people a day, and works in real time — from local news and services to city analytics and partner campaigns. I built and scaled it as publisher and CEO from 2020 on — from a handful of standalone channels to a media ecosystem spanning the whole country.

How do you run a network across 40+ cities?

Running a network across dozens of cities comes down to remote coordination: shared rules and editorial standards, quality control, and a team of more than 40 people. Inside the project there are specialised departments — from sales and client service to news monitoring and editorial management. As publisher and CEO I built that structure so newsrooms and the sales team across dozens of cities work to a single standard.

How does the commercial model work?

The commercial model rests on a sales-and-service engine that handles 1000+ requests a month and delivers steady revenue growth above 20% a year. I brought in federal and regional advertisers and ran the GR side — the government-relations work with city administrations. The network's key partners are the administrations of Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Krasnoyarsk, plus Yandex, Sber, Avito and more than 500 local businesses across the country.