The representative of the holding explained the changes in the editions to the new market needs and the need to reorient the youth audience. To do this, the owner of the holding was advised in the Kremlin, says the source of the Rain.

From "Gazety.ru" for the last month, several leaders of the directions have resigned at once. In particular, the staff of the publication was left by the editor of the "Society" department, the editor of the "Army" department, which produces an editor and a special correspondent. Two more employees, including another editor of the direction, said about their intention to quit the rain soon.

According to several employees of the holding, the management of "Gazety.ru" did not become anyone to hire for vacated rates - the seats were frozen. In addition, according to two interlocutors of Rain in the holding, the management of "Gazety.ru" reduced the rates of proofreaders.

The team Lenta.ru also left several leaders of directions and deputy editor-in-chief. In their place, they did not take anyone, they told Rain two interlocutors in the holding. Part of the dismissal in Lenta.ru is connected with the change of command, the source says in the publication. In August, Lenta.ru was headed by Vladimir Todorov, 23, who previously headed the Internet and Media department.

Olga Alekseeva, editor-in-chief of Gazety.ru, declined to comment, referring to the vacation and diverting questions to the director for external communications of Rambler & Co, Matvei Alekseev. Glavred Lenta.ru Vladimir Todorov told Rain that he was not authorized to comment, advising him to contact the press service of choling.

Alekseev said that six people left Gazetu.ru for the past two months and these are "ordinary summer personnel reshuffles". Eight employees left Lenta.ru during this time, he added.

At the same time, Alekseev acknowledges that the management of the holding has decided to optimize. "Having carried out a deep analysis of our media and the market as a whole, we came to the conclusion that changes are needed," he said, adding that now "the consumption of news content is transforming from the usual view."

"In a purely quantitative expression, the number of employees may be reduced, but primarily because of the fact that in modern realities the production scheme is changing," Alekseev explained. "In the era of Yandex.Dzena, breaking news from Youtube, bloggers have to look to the future," he said, clarifying. that "there are no global cuts in speech".

"We are rebuilding our media, partly we are betting on attracting a young audience and redistributing money among advertisers," he said, answering questions about the changes taking place in Gazeta.ru and Lenta.ru. At the same time, there are no cuts in the holding due to falling revenues, on the contrary, revenue is growing very well, Alekseev assured.

Owner of Rambler & Co Alexander Mamut decided to optimize the resources in the holding, since he believes that three large similar media (Gazeta.ru, Lenta.ru and Rambler) are too many, the source in the holding knows. According to him, Mamut discussed the future of the holding in the Kremlin, and there he was recommended to focus on the youth. "In the case of Lenta.ru it turns out that they decided to focus on the Internet and cut back on the policy," he said. According to him, many decisions were made to refuse altogether. In particular, it has been decided to cover much less events in Ukraine.

The representative of Rambler & Co called the information on consultations in the Kremlin "nonsense".

According to political scientist Andrei Kolyadin, the decision to cut back on the number of political materials and the reorientation to the youth audience is rather a personal initiative of Mamut. Politics in a politically oriented year is the most dangerous topic for a media owner, and his desire to distance himself from it is logical, and the Kremlin at this time will rather seek information from a certain angle, rather than abandon the topic, the expert explains. Mamut could discuss his idea in the presidential administration, but the initiative most likely came from him, he believes.

"Gazeta.ru" and Lenta.ru are members of the group of companies Rambler & Co, owner and CEO of which is Alexander Mamut. In total in Rambler & Co - more than 35 publications, including "Afisha", Livejournal, RNS and "Championship". The audience of "Gazeta.ru" in July, according to Mediascope, was 8.3 million people, the audience Lenta.ru - 6.4 million. According to SPARK, Gazeta.ru revenue for 2016 is 427.6 million rubles, net profit is 23.6 million rubles. The revenue of Lenta.ru for 2016 was 630 million rubles, and the loss - 1.5 million rubles.