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Interfax
Native name	Интерфакс
Company type	Private limited company
Industry	News media
Founded	September 1989
Headquarters	1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya str. 2, Moscow, Russia
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Mikhail Komissar [ru]; (chairman and CEO); Vladimir Gerasimov; (executive director; Interfax Group. general director)
Products	Wire service
Owner	Senior management
Number of employees	Over 1,000
Website	interfax.com

Interfax (Russian: Интерфакс) is a Russian news agency.^[1]^[2] The agency is owned by Interfax News Agency joint-stock company and is headquartered in Moscow.

History

As the first non-governmental channel of political and economic information about the USSR,^[3] Interfax was formed in September 1989, during Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost period, by Mikhail Komissar and his colleagues from international broadcasting station 'Radio Moscow', a part of Soviet Gosteleradio system. Interfax originally used fax machines for text transmission, hence the company name.^[4]

By 1990, Interfax had 100 subscribers and the agency quickly began to attract the attention of conservatives within the government, who attempted to shut down the agency. This saw the agency gain prominence in major western media, a position strengthened by its coverage of the 1991 August Putsch and the collapse of the Soviet Union.^[5]

Interfax continued to expand in the 1990s, adding subsidiary agencies for financial, metallurgical, oil and gas markets, information products on agriculture, business law, transport, telecommunications,^[4] and the market data terminal 'EFiR information system' for stock market players to its general news coverage.^[6] Interfax also opened subsidiaries across the post-Soviet states, first in Ukraine (1992), Belarus (1993) and Kazakhstan (1996), and later in Azerbaijan (2002),^[7] during this time bringing the number of local offices across the regions of Russian Federation to 50.^[8]

To promote its information products abroad, Interfax opened its first company outside the former USSR in 1991, when 'Interfax America' was opened in Denver, CO. This was followed by the opening of London-based 'Interfax Europe Ltd.' (1992), 'Interfax Germany GmbH', based in Frankfurt (1993), and the 'Interfax News Service Ltd.' in Hong Kong (1998).^[7]

In 2004, Interfax created the 'SPARK system' designed to check business agents in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan,^[9] Interfax also launched media monitoring services through its 'SCAN system'.^[10] In 2011, the company added London-based project, 'Interfax Global Energy', which reports on the energy markets worldwide.^[11]

Partnerships

In 1999, Interfax launched a rating agency in partnership with Moody's Investors Service to provide rating services on the Russian market.^[7] SPARK system became the basis for a joint venture with Dun & Bradstreet, a provider of business credit information and credit reports.^[12] Also in 1999, Interfax and Reuters signed a cooperation agreement.^[13]

Since 2001, Interfax has collaborated with Business Wire, which distributes corporate regulatory disclosures and press releases.^[7] Interfax also offers consumer credit reports via a joint venture with Experian and Sberbank of Russia.^[10]

Management

'Interfax Group' senior management includes Mikhail Komissar as chairman of the board and CEO, Vladimir Gerasimov, executive director and general director of financial and business information service, Georgy Gulia, executive director of general information service.^[14]

Content

Interfax provides general and political news, business credit information, industry analysis, market data and business solutions for risk, compliance and credit management. The company employs over 1,000 staff in over 70 bureaus worldwide and publishes over 3,000 stories each day.^[15]

Dissemination

Interfax controls around 50% of the Russian corporate data market.^[16] Subscription-based business and financial intelligence contribute to the bulk of the revenues generated by Interfax with IT-analytical business solutions accounting for approximately 75% of revenue.^[17]

Interfax's holding company^{[clarification needed]} comprises more than 30 news producing and marketing companies in Russia, Ukraine (Interfax-Ukraine), Kazakhstan, Belarus, Azerbaijan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and China.^[18]

Awards

In 2015, Interfax was awarded the Runet Prize in the category "Culture, Media and Mass Communications"^[19] by the Russian Federal Agency for Press and Mass Media.

In 2016, Interfax was awarded the Runet Prize in the category “Economy, Business and Investment".^[20]

References

^ Watanabe, Kohei (2017-03-20). "Measuring news bias: Russia's official news agency ITAR-TASS' coverage of the Ukraine crisis". European Journal of Communication. 32 (3): 224–241. doi:10.1177/0267323117695735. ISSN 0267-3231. S2CID 151984613.
^ Воронов А. (2005-12-17). Интеллектуальная собственность (in Russian). — Kommersant. Archived from the original on 2014-05-20. Retrieved 2011-01-29.
^ "группа "Интерфакс"". group.interfax.ru. Archived from the original on 2020-07-09. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
^ ^a ^b Михаил Комиссар: задача «Интерфакса» — быть номером один. — TV-channel 'Russia-24', 9 September 2009. (in Russian)
^ Корпоративный бюллетень «Ваш Интерфакс». — #10/2009. (in Russian)
^ About Archived 2019-04-26 at the Wayback Machine. — Official site of EFiR system. (in Russian)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Our history Archived 2015-12-26 at the Wayback Machine. — Official site of Interfax Group. (in Russian)
^ Михаил Комиссар: «Надеюсь, в России установится баланс между либеральным и государственным». — Politcom.ru, 1 September 2006. (in Russian)
^ Информация по юридическим лицам РФ, Украины и Казахстана Archived 2022-04-08 at the Wayback Machine. — Official site of Interfax Group. (in Russian)
^ ^a ^b About Archived 2016-08-28 at the Wayback Machine. — Official site of United Credit Bureau.
^ Interfax Global Energy. — Official site of Interfax Global Energy.
^ Информация по компаниям всего мира Archived 2016-07-10 at the Wayback Machine. — Official site of Interfax Group. (in Russian)
^ "Новости". www.kommersant.ru (in Russian). 1999-04-18. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
^ Management Archived 2014-02-01 at the Wayback Machine. — Official site of Interfax Group. (in Russian)
^ "About Interfax". — Interfax Group official site. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
^ Информационно-справочные системы Archived 2016-09-16 at the Wayback Machine. - RBC.Marketing. (in Russian)
^ Комиссар М. Успеть первыми. - Корпоративный бюллетень «Ваш Интерфакс», #16/2014. (in Russian)
^ Гавшина О., Товкайло М. Из списка подлежащих раскрытию бенефициаров сделали исключения. — Vedomosti, January 19, 2012. (in Russian)
^ "Итоги «Премии Рунета 2015»". SHOPOLOG.RU. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
^ "SPARK project wins Runet Prize in "Economy, business and investment" nomination". interfax.com. Retrieved 2020-07-14.

Literature

Boyd-Barrett O. Interfax: Breaking Into Global News. — Scotforth Books, 2014. — p. 184. — ISBN 978-1909817135
Shrivastava K. News Agencies: From Pigeon to Internet. — Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 2007. — p. 208. — ISBN 978-1-932705-67-6
Герасимов В., Ромов Р., Новиков А., Бондаренко С., Бабиченко С. Технология новостей от Интерфакса / Под ред. Ю. Погорелого. — Moscow: Аспект Пресс, 2011. — 160 с. — ISBN 978-5-7567-0608-6 (in Russian)