Ekran
| |
| Type | Daily Newspaper |
| Owner | Ekran Publishing Ltd. |
| Founded | May 12,1992 |
| Headquarters | 4 Zhukov Square Coocoobad |
| Circulation | 22 million print, 10 million online |
| Country | Coocoostan |
Ekran(roughly translated as Shield) is the most prominent Russian-language newspaper in Coocoostan. The paper is based out of the north-end of Coocoobad, but is published in several locations across the city. The paper formally ended publishing in five other centres in 2005, opting instead to publish an online edition, which resulted in a small drop in circulation.
The paper was founded by a partnership of both former Communist as well as underground publishers in May of 1992, shortly after the end of transition to a free media. The conglomerate wanted to attempt to create a fair and balanced newspaper, to counter the many heavily slanted, if not slanderous alternatives. The paper has resisted several takeover attempts by Billionaire Konrad Schultz, who reportedly offered ten times the actual value of the paper, but failed to sway any of the board's members. The paper is so successful that it is reportedly considering buying the Coocoobad Post, to produce a paper in English.
The paper is popular for several reasons besides its large budget, which results in a larger paper, especially on weekends. The paper takes a largely apolitical stance on issues and does so not by moderating columns, but instead, featuring a wide variety of sources and writers, which represents most of the political and social spectrum. The paper's political opinion section also has a strict code of conduct, barring writers from using offencive language, or more remarkably, stereotyping opponents. This has drawn many to see the paper's method of political business far more preferable than the Parliamentary Congress, leading for many entertaining quotes from political figures.
The paper is also widely noted for having an extensive culture/events page, which seemingly has every event in the city, from a concert expected to draw tens of thousands, to a small gathering at a local cultural centre. In the city a common joke when a friend shows at a party surprisingly is for the guest to say they found out about it by reading Ekran. Often, this is not far off the mark.
