History

The Independent Media Sanoma Magazines publishing house (IMSM, Independent Media before 2005) was established in 1992 with the launch of The Moscow Times, Russia's first English-language newspaper. Since then, the Russian publishing business has taken giant steps forward, transforming and modernizing along the way. We are proud to say that IMSM newspapers and magazines have contributed to the transformation of the industry, as well as that of Russian journalism and society as a whole.

Glossy publications became IMSM's main business in 1994, with the launch of Cosmopolitan, the first glossy magazine in Russia. After Cosmo, IMSM launched a series of magazines, conquering new market segments and setting new standards of quality.

Today, IMSM's glossy block includes women's (Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Good Housekeeping group, Mamas&Papas), weekly (Grazia), men's (Men's Health and Esquire), teen (Yes!, Yes!-Stars), design (Seasons and Interni) and semi-popular magazine (Popular Mechanics), travel editions (National Geographic Russia, National Geographic Traveler and Prime Traveller) and local newspapers (Na Rublevke, Na Novoy Rige). Another important focus of the publishing house is business press, which includes magazines (Harvard Business Review, Agroinvestor) and leading newspapers (The Moscow Times, Vedomosti, The St. Petersburg Times).

IMSM is keeping up with the times by developing various Internet projects. An entire range of websites was launched one after another (www.cosmo.ru, www.mhealth.ru, www.bazaar.ru); they are not only online versions of popular magazines but independent editions with their own audience and content. The portfolio of lifestyle websites includes successful projects like Ameno.ru and Webpark.ru. The business block of online editions is represented by the websites Vedomosti.ru, RB.ru.

Another successful IMSM business is Custom Publishing, which publishes customized editions at the request of client companies. The publishing house also owns a photo agency Fotoimedia, which sells the works from publishing house's archive and its partner's collections.

IMSM owns a publishing house Alpina Business Books.