The most famous scientific journal

We have already talked about well-known Russian popular science magazines, but it is not worth saying that Russia is not the whole world, and therefore there are publications abroad that can surprise no less, and often much more, than their domestic counterparts. That is why today we will talk about popular science magazines from abroad.

It is worth noting that there are a huge number of them, but not every resource or magazine can boast of special achievements or materials that they publish. In order to sift the wheat from the chaff, we will talk about the most famous and eminent, about those who have proven that the quality of the material always comes first. Let's move on to the top 5 popular science foreign magazines.

5. Scientific American

In fifth place is Scientific American - from smallest to largest, that is today's motto. And the fifth position is boldly and confidently occupied by the oldest popular science magazine in the United States, which was published back in 1845 - Scientific American.

Initially Scientific American was not a magazine as such, it was a newspaper consisting of four pages in which they wrote about new inventions. The newspaper paid most of its attention to reports from the US Patent Office, which is not surprising, since the office was the best source of useful information at that time. Over time, the magazine developed more and more, its volume increased, and they began to write not only about what discoveries had occurred.

In addition, at the beginning of the 20th century, the magazine distinguished itself by publishing the encyclopedia The Americana (which is considered one of the largest encyclopedias on English language) in 16 volumes. It is also interesting to see how the magazine changed its direction in terms of choosing the target audience.

It should also be noted that there is a domestic version of the magazine - “In the World of Science”, which was published from 1983 to 1993, and after printing stopped, it was relaunched in 2003. However, he failed to gather the same audience, this is not difficult to determine, just compare the circulation of the classic “SciAM”, which is about 500 thousand copies, and just over 12 thousand “In the World of Science”.

Along with the printed version, there is also an electronic version of the magazine; finding it on the Internet is not difficult.

4. Popular science magazine Discover

Fourth place magazine Discover- initially chose as its audience non-professionals in the world of science, however, having simplified the concept of presenting material, the magazine did not use in its publications materials about various kinds of “mysterious” phenomena such as UFOs, Bigfoot, etc. - Discover. In fact, the purpose of the magazine could initially be interpreted as a search for the “golden mean” between scientific publications and light popular science notes. First published in 1980, the magazine was able to gain the trust of its audience almost immediately. In addition to the fact that quite serious scientific materials were published here, the authors did not forget about what would help lure the reader. Articles about psychology and psychiatry became just such a bait. However, the magazine had something to interest its readers. One of the most popular columns was “Skeptical About,” in which the author tried to reveal myths and fakes of the scientific world. Thus, this section has become the most read for several years. However, after two decades (in 2006), the magazine’s policy will undergo modifications due to a change in management and many of the sections will disappear, and the design of the magazine will change.

Despite the fact that the magazine throughout its existence wrote about serious things, this did not prevent the tradition of the “April Fool's prank” from arising, when one article came out as a joke and was essentially a hoax, which was written about in the next issue of the magazine. However, it was impossible not to notice it, but even the refutation of the hoax article still caused indignation among the magazine’s readers.

The magazine is published on this moment, however, it is produced only abroad, without having Russian-language analogues. Those who speak the language can read the electronic version, and for those who do not have good knowledge of English, we can advise you to search the Internet for popular science programs in Russian from the magazine “Discover” (there are some).

3. Popular Mechanics Magazine

In third position is the magazine Popular Mechanics, which has enormous popularity both abroad and in the CIS; we have already discussed its Russian counterpart. So, meet - Popular Mechanics. There is no point in talking much about this magazine, some are known, and some we mentioned last time.

However, it’s still worth saying a few words. Popular Mechanics has been published since January 11, 1902 and is a classic representative of popular science magazines. The current circulation is more than 1 million 200 thousand copies; it publishes its publications in some countries of the world (including Russia, countries South Africa and others). There was a publication in Latin America, however, they were forced to close it.

Despite the fact that the circulation has decreased compared to the 80s of the 20th century, it cannot be said that the magazine has lost its audience. The decrease in circulation by 400 thousand is largely due not to a drop in reader interest, but to the development of the Internet, which has made it possible to create electronic versions of printed versions of publications.

By the way, the English-language Popular Mechanics has a website, and a subscription to this prestigious publication will cost you only $12 a year, but on domestic analogue You won’t be able to subscribe to the site, but you can register and buy magazines freely (old issue - 59 rubles, new issue - 99 rubles, and the annual archive will cost 590 rubles).

2. Scientific magazine Popular Science

In second place in our top is Popular Science, which is the true embodiment of popular science, is currently published in 45 different countries, in more than 30 languages, and has many awards and prizes - Popular Science.

As with the Popular Mechanics magazine, this publication does not need any additional introduction, but it is also impossible not to say anything about it. Initially, the magazine published the works of contemporary scientists such as Darwin, Huxley, Peirce, Cattell and others, but “popular science” did not immediately gain popularity. And if during its appearance the magazine managed to attract attention, then every year its popularity faded away, until, finally, at the beginning of the 20th century it was sold to a new publisher (by the way, this publisher was James Cattell, whose articles were published more than once in Popular Science). However, this did not help the magazine and in 1915 it was sold again. It was from this time that the active life of the magazine and its flourishing began. Almost a century later, Popular Science organizes an innovative project - a bookmaker platform for betting on the prediction of the newest inventions of mankind.

Now the magazine has achieved respect and popularity, which has brought it almost to the top, at least in terms of circulation (1,323,041 copies - impressive, right?), Popular Science currently occupies second place, but is it interesting or not It's up to you to judge.

1. National Geographic magazine rating winner

We decided to give the prize for first place to the magazine National Geographic- we have finally reached a publication that, in our opinion, deservedly occupies a leading position among popular science magazines in the world. National Geographic. It is published in many countries, the magazine is published in 33 languages and has achieved such popularity for a reason.

Born in 1888, its parent was the National Geographic Society, which arose just 9 months earlier. Initially published only science articles, and the illustrations did not appear in the magazine until 1905. It was in 1905 that the history of the magazine as a popular science magazine began.

The magazine has a lot to do with this year, but the most important thing is undoubtedly the appearance in the magazine issue of photographs of the mysterious and unknown Tibet in those days. And this became a key event because these photographs actually saved the magazine from ruin and created a corporate identity for it. It is noteworthy that on the territory of Russia people saw these same photographs back in 1901, and only 4 years later the authors of the photographs (Russian travelers - Buryats Gombozhab Tsybikov and Kalmyk Ovshe Norzunov) sold their works to National Geographic.

NATIONAL CIRCULATION SERVICE

"MARKET FOR POPULAR SCIENTIFIC MAGAZINES"

Analytical review

Moscow 2012

REVIEW OF A MARKET THAT IS NOT EXISTING

1.Positioning on the magazine market

2.Classification of popular science magazines

3. Circulation and audience

5. Distribution of popular science magazines

6. State policy regarding popular science magazines

7. Is there a market? (About magazine and journalistic corporations, competition and the struggle for the autonomy of this field)

REVIEW OF A MARKET THAT IS NOT EXISTING

This is the first analytical review of a separate segment of the press market prepared by the National Circulation Service. We will prepare such reviews every month.

Why did we start this project, Reviews? Over 13 years of work in the field of circulation statistics, certain material has been accumulated. There was a need to understand what is behind the numbers of subscriptions, retail, advertising budgets and the number of publications. What is the relationship between all these figures and the content of magazines, between the economics of publications and the interests of their audience.

Why did we start with popular science magazines? Firstly, this segment is not very large, only four dozen publications. Starting, for example, with women's magazines would be suicidal. Secondly, these logs perform a very obvious social function. Mission of education. Thirdly, this segment has a fairly clear and transparent internal structure, which makes it easier to describe. And finally, most of these magazines were simply interesting to read. So we had fun during working hours.

What did we get, what are the main conclusions?

Conclusion one: there is no single market for popular science magazines in Russia. That is, there is a segment of the press united by similarity of content, but there is no market as a competitive field. It falls into three isolated groups of journals.

A group of successful magazine business projects. The leader of this group is the domestic magazine “Around the World”, and the bulk of this leadership group consists of licensed publications, that is, Russian analogues of foreign magazines.

The second group is Soviet popular science classics, which are trying to survive in modern conditions. It turns out difficult and poor.

The third group is RAS journals, state and departmental, which live practically outside the market and depend only on their founders.

These three groups are not interested in each other and know little about each other. They live in different conditions and do not form a single competitive space.

Conclusion two: the segment of popular science magazines has development potential. New successful players may emerge. The niche of historical journals and, in general, the broader niche of popularization of social sciences, sociology, and social psychology are not saturated. The psychological journal niche can also accommodate new players.

Where will new actors appear in the field of popular science press? Firstly, there are still large foreign magazines that can come to the Russian market. Secondly, the example of “Around the World” shows how successful the combination of Russian-Soviet popular science classics with modern management and advertising opportunities can be. The idea of “promoting” in this way and turning even “Young Naturalist” or “Chemistry and Life” into a successful media business does not look like a utopia.

Conclusion three. There is no state policy regarding popular science magazines in Russia. There are no clear criteria for allocating state support for popular science publications, and the practice of allocating targeted assistance is surprising because the choice is not obvious and subjective.

Conclusion four. The lack of a market for this segment of the press is due, among other things, to the fact that popular science magazines do not have a specialized advertising segment, like, for example, women's or automobile magazines. But there is a market for scientific ideas and texts that present them popularly. This market is generated by a huge army of consumers of these ideas and texts - these are the former Soviet intelligentsia, “educationists” and their children. The lack of infrastructure for this market, that is, a corporation of magazines and a corporation of journalists of this profile, is not an objective pattern, but simply a lack of initiative, supported by minimal resources. A dense communication environment, constant exchange of reviews and mutual professional criticism, collective defense of the popular science field from “petriks” and “fomenki”, this is far from full list current tasks of such corporations.

In understanding what is happening in the segment of popular science periodicals, we were greatly helped by the expert assessments of Igor Kharichev, general director of “Knowledge is Power”, Leonid Naumov, director of distribution and licensing of the publishing house “Around the World”, Elena Lozovskaya, editor-in-chief of the magazine “Science” and life", Egor Bykovsky, editor-in-chief of the magazine "Science in Focus", Lyubov Strelnikova, editor-in-chief of the magazine "Chemistry and Life XXI Century", Mikhail Kobylinsky, editor-in-chief of "History in Details", Maxim Borisov, scientific editor of "Science in Focus" ", producing editor of the newspaper "Troitsky Variant - Science". We thank these colleagues for their assistance in preparing this review.

Igor Yakovenko,

General Director of the National Circulation Service

MARKET FOR POPULAR SCIENTIFIC MAGAZINES IN RUSSIA

Analytical review

What happened in the 90s with popular science magazines in Russia can be illustrated by the table:

(From the article by A.G. Vaganov “Popular Science Journalism and the Prestige of Science in the Public Consciousness”, / Russian Chemical Journal (ZhRKhO named after D.I. Mendeleev). - 2007. - T. 51, No. 3. - P. 86-90.)

The sad record for a decline in circulation among popular science magazines probably belongs to the magazine “Young Naturalist,” whose circulation has decreased 320 times since Soviet times. Young Technician has approximately the same level of decline in circulation.

If in general the circulation of periodicals fell on average by an order of magnitude, then domestic popular science magazines collapsed by an average of two orders of magnitude. Apart from them, perhaps only the market for “thick” literary and art magazines experienced such a collapse.

External causes of the crisis in the domestic popular science press, such as the low prestige of science in modern Russian society and the decline in living standards (and therefore purchasing power) of the most massive readership of this type of publication, are beyond our consideration. The purpose of the review is to describe the market for popular science magazines and its internal structure.

1. Positioning in the magazine market

Various press catalogs and directories provide a variety of lists of magazines, which are placed under the “popular science” heading. Since the only and sufficient reason for a journal to be labeled “popular science” is the desire of the publisher, incidents arise. For example, the catalog "Russian Post" classifies "AIDS-info" as a popular science publication, placing this publication next to the magazine "In the World of Science". Next to “Cosmonautics News”, also marked “popular science” in the catalog, there is the magazine “UFO”, then the newspaper “HEALING”, which here also gives the following description of its content: “secret recipes, secrets of rejuvenation, the magic of money, clairvoyant advice , healers." The youth magazine “SMENA” and other publications that clearly are not considered “popular science” are classified as “popular science”. Obviously, to describe and analyze the market it is necessary to outline its boundaries, and thereby determine the list of subjects of this market.

For inclusion in this review, 5 criteria were formulated, each of which individually is neither necessary nor sufficient:

Self-positioning, that is, the magazine considers itself popular science.
External positioning. The publication includes a popular science section, catalogs and press reference books.
Based on the content analysis of the publication, it is recorded that at least 30% of the texts are devoted to science.
Based on the content analysis of the publication, it is recorded that at least 30% of the texts are written in the so-called. popular science style, that is, the authors report on the products of scientific creativity and at the same time “translate” this information into a language understandable to non-specialists.
The presence among the authors and members of the editorial boards of people known and recognized in the world of science.

A journal was included in the review if it met at least three criteria.

The market for popular science magazines comes into contact (is in relation to the intersection) with at least 6 more magazine markets:

With specialized scientific journals, with which they have a common subject - scientific knowledge, but a different audience and language, style of presentation;

With specialized magazines, such as, for example, tourism magazines, which publish popular articles on regional studies and history, but have a different range of tasks, not the popularization of scientific knowledge, but servicing the tourism industry; for the same reasons, health magazines, which form their own separate market, were not included in the review;

Children's magazines that have a cognitive function, but a different language and a different audience;

Educational and pedagogical magazines (in particular, magazines from the Shkolnaya Pressa publishing house), which are part of the infrastructure of the education system and are therefore built into the market, which operates according to fundamentally different laws;

General interest magazines (men's, women's, youth), in which popular science issues may be present, but, as a rule, they occupy no more than 5-10%;

Industry magazines.

Taking into account the above criteria, the following 36 publications were included in the review:

"In the animal world"
"In the world of science"
"Around the world"
"World Pathfinder"
"Amateur"
"Earth and Universe"
"Mirror of the World"
"Knowledge is power"
"Inventor and innovator"
"History in detail"
"Machines and Mechanisms"
"Science in Russia"
"Science and life"
"Science and Technology"
"Science at first hand"
"Science in Focus"
"Our Psychology"
"Cosmonautics News"
"Popular Mechanics"
"Potential"
"Nature"
"Nature and Man"
"Technology for Youth"
"Chemistry and life XXI century"
"Ecology and Life"
"Young Naturalist"
« Young technician»
"DISCOVERY"
"GEO"
"NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC"
"NEW SCIENTIST RU"
"PSYCHOLOGIES"
"Beasts"
"Moscow magazine. History of Russian Goverment"
"Military History Magazine"
"Motherland"

2. Classification of popular science magazines

The field of popular science magazines in Russia is divided into at least 5 bases:

By publication start time: for traditional brands that have more or less long story in Russia, and arose in last years;

For domestic and foreign (licensed);

According to the degree of scientificity, that is, according to location on the scale: “scientific-popularity”;

By the universality of the content, that is, by location on the scale: “universal-specialized” and, accordingly, by topic;

2.1. "Old" and "new brands"

OLD AND NEW BRANDS
No.	EDITION	YEAR OF THE FIRST ENTRY IN THE RF	YEAR OF FIRST EXIT ABROAD	COMMENTS
				founded by N.M. Karamzin in 1791. Renewed in 1991.
	AROUND THE WORLD
				Renewed in 1989
	SCIENCE AND LIFE			Renewed in 1994

	WORLD PATTERNER			Restored in 1998
	KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
	YOUNG NATURALIST
	INVENTOR AND RADIATIONALIZER
	YOUTH TECHNOLOGY
	MILITARY HISTORICAL JOURNAL
	YOUNG TECHNICIAN
	CHEMISTRY AND LIFE
	EARTH AND UNIVERSE
	SCIENCE IN RUSSIA
	IN THE WORLD OF SCIENCE			ScientificAmerican- name of the American version
	SPACE NEWS
	ECOLOGY AND LIFE
	IN THE ANIMAL WORLD
				Germany eponymous
	POPULAR MECHANICS			English PopularMechanics
	NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
	SCIENCE FROM FIRST HAND
	POTENTIAL
				published in 7 countries
	OUR PSYCHOLOGY
	MACHINES AND MECHANISMS
	SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY			began publishing in Kharkov
	NATURE AND MAN

	NEW SCIENTIST RU
	HISTORY IN DETAILS
	BEASTS
	MIRROR OF THE WORLD
	SCIENCE IN FOCUS			Based on ScienceFocus magazine (BBC)
	AMATEUR

This table clearly shows the history of the emergence and further dynamics of the market for popular science magazines.

Of the 36 publications included in the review, 4 have a pre-revolutionary history, 9 are Soviet, 4 were founded in the 90s, 11 appeared in the 2000s, and 3 publications appeared in the last 3 years.

That is, the market for popular science magazines in Russia is young, emerging, and it is likely that its formation is not yet complete. The arrival of new players is possible, especially since there are relatively free niches, the presence of which we will consider in the subsequent thematic analysis.

2.2. Domestic and foreign

There are 7 foreign brands on the popular science magazine market, and one (“Science and Technology”) is published in Kharkov and distributed in Russian in Russia and Ukraine.

The only foreign brand that appeared in the USSR in 1983 was Scientific American (magazine “In the World of Science”), the rest of the Western players came to the Russian market in the post-Soviet era - in the late 90s and in the 2000s, when the Russian advertising market matured and its magazine segment.

DOMESTIC	FOREIGN
MOSCOW MAGAZINE. HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN STATE	IN THE WORLD OF SCIENCE
AROUND THE WORLD
	POPULAR MECHANICS
WORLD PATTERNER	NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
YOUNG NATURALIST	SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
INVENTOR AND RADIATIONALIZER	NEW SCIENTIST RU
YOUTH TECHNOLOGY	SCIENCE IN FOCUS
SCIENCE AND LIFE
MILITARY HISTORICAL JOURNAL
YOUNG TECHNICIAN
CHEMISTRY AND LIFE
EARTH AND UNIVERSE
SCIENCE IN RUSSIA
SPACE NEWS
ECOLOGY AND LIFE
IN THE ANIMAL WORLD
SCIENCE FROM FIRST HAND
POTENTIAL
OUR PSYCHOLOGY
MACHINES AND MECHANISMS
NATURE AND MAN
AMATEUR
MIRROR OF THE WORLD
HISTORY IN DETAILS

Appeared in the 2000s Russian market Domestic versions of foreign popular science magazines dominate today, having almost one and a half times the total circulation and dominating the advertising market.

The total one-time monthly circulation of seven licensed popular science magazines is 964,500 copies. The total one-time circulation of 28 Russian popular science magazines is only 628,847 copies. That is, on average every Russian analogue the foreign magazine has a circulation of 107,166 copies, and the domestic one has a circulation of 33,097. (DISCOVERY magazine was excluded from this analysis because it is a Russian magazine using a popular foreign brand without a license)

At the same time, the absolute leader in this market both in terms of circulation, audience and advertising is the domestic magazine “Around the World”. Its circulation is almost 40% of the total circulation of domestic (unlicensed) publications. If you do not take into account “Around the World,” then all other domestic popular science magazines have an average one-time circulation that is 5 times less than licensed magazines in this category.

However, it would be simplistic to believe that Western content and brand alone guarantee success in the Russian market. In the 2000s, there were several unsuccessful attempts to publish licensed popular science magazines in Russia. For example, the Russian versions of PopularScience, ScienceIllustrated, or NewScientist/Lomonosov, which tried to be published, but did not survive on the market.

The participation of popular science magazines in competition in the advertising market will be discussed in more detail in the fourth section of this review. Here we will limit ourselves to dividing into groups based on the presence or absence of advertising in them. There are three such groups: “A”, “B” and “C”.

These are 7 popular science publications that are successful in the advertising market. The advertising market is their main source of income.

Name
Around the world
Psychologies
National geographic
Popular mechanics
GEO
Science in Focus
DISCOVERY

(TNS measurement data for 6 publications are presented. Since DISCOVERY magazine is not in the TNS panel, a content analysis of the July issue of this magazine was carried out and the data was extrapolated for half a year, so perhaps the advertising volumes of this magazine are slightly higher.)

This group includes publications that take certain steps to enter the advertising market, but the volume of advertising in them, as a rule, does not exceed 2-5 pages.

These are the magazines: “Dilettant”, “Science and Technology”, “In the World of Science” (affiliate advertising, therefore can be classified in group “C”), “Cosmonautics News” (also affiliate advertising or advertising of the founder), “World Pathfinder” , “Mirror of the World”, “Science and Life” (also on the border of groups “B” and “C”), “Chemistry and Life”, “NewScientist.ru”, “Science First Hand”, “Motherland”, “Potential "(sponsorship).

“Knowledge is power”, “Nature and man”, “History in detail”, “Ecology and life”, “Nature”, “Earth and Universe”, “Inventor and innovator”, “History in detail”, “Moscow magazine” , “Science in Russia”, “Technology for Youth”, “Chemistry and Life”, Ecology and Life”, “Young Technician”, “Young Naturalist”.

2.4. Scale: “scientific-popularity”

It should be noted that the place on this scale does not correlate in any way with the place on the scale: “interesting - boring”, or “bad - good” magazine. This is the topic of another review. We analyzed the formal features of the content, not its taste characteristics.

To determine the place on the scale: “scientific – popularity”, three criteria were used in this review:

Share of scientific topics in the total volume of publications;

Popular science style of presentation;

The presence of scientists and famous popularizers of science among the authors and members of editorial boards,

Based on these criteria, three groups of journals can be distinguished:

Group “A”. Popular science classics. Publications in which the share of popular science topics is above 50%, more than half of the authors are active scientists, most of the materials are written in a popular science style. This group includes, for example, publications:

“Knowledge is power”, “Science and life”, “In the world of science”, “Chemistry and life of the 21st century”, “History in detail”, “Science and technology”, “Science in focus”, “Popular mechanics”, “ NEWSCIENTIST.RU". At the “pole of science” are the publications of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “Nature”, “Science in Russia”, “Earth and the Universe”, in which the style of presentation of materials combines elements of popular science (journalism, imagery) and scientific (formulas, graphs, tables, lists literature used, etc.)

Group "B". Balance of science and popularity. Scientific topics do not exceed 50% of the total volume of the magazine, at least half of the authors are journalists, not scientists, popular science style does not exceed 50% of the materials, genres such as essays, reportage, etc. are widely represented. This group mainly includes publications that have had great commercial success:

“Around the World”, “GEO”, “NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC”, “PSYCHOLOGIES”, “DISCOVERY”, “Ecology and Life”. At the “pole of popularity” you can place, for example, “Amateur”, the authorship of which is made up of journalists and guests of “Echo of Moscow” , as well as all animal magazines aimed primarily at teenagers.

Group "C". Conditionally popular science. The publications included in this group do not fully meet the criteria of popular science magazines. The reasons for each of the three publications are different, so we provide comments on each magazine.

"World Pathfinder" Despite its presence in most catalogs and reference books under the heading “Popular Science Publications”, as well as the corresponding self-positioning, it is more of a travel magazine. There are practically no materials popularizing science.

"Nature and Man". Positions itself as a “popular science magazine for popular reading.” The style of most publications is not popular science, moralizing intonations dominate, and there are religious themes. This is the only magazine in which you can publish your poems and essays for money. The “Springs” section, in which poems are published, is more appropriate in a literary and artistic publication, or in a regional newspaper.

"Beasts" This children's magazine, which tries to adapt information on zoology, animal ethology, and paleontology for children. They can do it.

2.5. Scale: “universal-specialized”. Classification by subject

By topic, Russian popular science magazines are divided into 5 groups:

a) historical; b) psychological; c) about animals; d) technical; d) universal.

A. Historical. This group includes 5 popular science magazines.

1. “Moscow magazine. History of Russian Goverment". The oldest historical and local history magazine, founded by N.M. Karamzin in 1791. In the 18th century it was the first Russian magazine with critical-bibliographic and theatrical-critical departments. Renewed in 1991. Circulation 5,000 copies. 96 stripes. Published with the financial support of the Moscow Department of Media and Advertising.

2. “Motherland” has been published since 1879. In today's format since 1989. 160 stripes. State publication established by the Government of the Russian Federation and the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. The Board of Trustees consists of 15 governors, member of the Federation Council Stroev E.S. and Vice President of AFK Sistema V.V. Kopyev Competitive advantages are derived from government status. Additional competitive advantage: the journal is included in the list of the Higher Attestation Commission for publishing the main results of dissertations. The circulation is not published in the imprint.

3. “Military Historical Journal” has been published by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation since 1939. The publication was resumed in 1959. 80 stripes. Competitive advantages arise from government status. Like Rodina, it is included in the list of the Higher Attestation Commission. Circulation 4,200.

4. “History in detail.” Published since 2010. Included in the Russian Science Citation Index. 98 stripes. No advertising. Circulation – less than 1,000 copies.

5. “Dilettant” has been published since January 2012 with the support of the radio “ECHO of Moscow”. Circulation 15,000 copies. Advertising – 2, 3 and 4 page covers.

The niche of popular historical magazines is rather poorly filled. There is a clear discrepancy between the widespread interest in history and the comparatively small circulations and audiences of the popular history magazines on the market. “Dilettant” has a chance to fill this niche, since it is promoted based on the million-strong audience of “Echo of Moscow”. If “Amateur” does not take advantage of this chance, it is likely that new players will appear in this niche.

B. Psychological. There are only two popular science magazines in the group:

1. “PSYCHOLOGIES” is the Russian version of one of the most popular French magazines, published since 1970. It has been published in Russia since 2005. 162 stripes. Focused mainly on a female audience. Published by one of the largest publishing houses in Russia, HEARSTSHKULEVMEDIA/INTERMEDIAGRUP, which is an important factor in increasing competitiveness in the advertising and distribution markets. The campaign to promote the magazine during the launch period was one of the largest events of its kind in Russia. It ranks second after “Around the World” in terms of advertising volume among all popular science publications. The actual circulation of each issue imported into Russia in the first half of 2012 amounted to 196,368 copies. (average).

2. “Our psychology.” Publisher "NOOSPHERE". 156 pages, of which 20 pages on average are devoted to advertising, including advertising of psychological services. The actual circulation imported to Russia is 29,200 copies. The authors are domestic practicing psychologists.

Psychological magazines have the greatest success of all thematically specialized groups of popular science publications. They collect advertising much more than others. They have the largest circulation and audience compared to other popular science magazines (except, of course, universal ones). This is explained by the fact that the structure of interest in psychology is fundamentally different from interest in most other sciences. If interest in physics, astronomy or history is based on curiosity, then interest in psychology is dominated by the practical component. The slogan of PSYCHOLOGIES “Find yourself and live better” and the very name of another magazine: “Our Psychology” speak about the motivation of readers better than any commentary.

However, despite the enormous commercial and readership success of emerging psychological journals, they most likely do not cover all the needs for information on this topic. New publications still have a chance to succeed in this niche.

V. About animals. The group includes 3 popular science magazines (magazines about dogs, cats, aquarium fish, since they relate to publications about hobbies):

1. “Young Naturalist” has been published since 1928. Volume 48 strips. The dynamics of the magazine's circulation are indicative:

1929 - 6,500 copies.

1978 - 2,600,000 copies.

2003 - 19,000 copies.

2012 - 8,000 copies.

2. “In the Animal World” has been published since 1998. One of the founders is the host of the popular TV show of the same name N.N. Drozdov. Circulation 20 thousand copies. 48 pages, of which an average of 5-6 pages are sold for advertising. Profile advertising: food and animal exhibitions.

3. "Beasts". Publishing house "Warbuz", Nizhny Novgorod. Circulation 30,651 copies. 20 pages, of which advertising is present on the 1st cover page. The target audience– children of primary and secondary school age.

A special feature of this thematic group is their focus primarily on teenage and children's audiences and their extremely low circulation compared to their Western counterparts. The reasons are most likely objective. Love and interest in animals is much less widespread in Russia than in Western countries and is, indeed, largely the province of children and adolescents. The emergence of new successful players in this niche is unlikely.

G. Technical. The group includes 4 journals:

1. “Inventor and Innovator” has been published since 1929. Circulation 3,112 copies. 32 stripes. No advertising.

2. “Technology for Youth” has been published since 1933. Circulation 48,920 copies. 64 stripes. No advertising. Published with the financial support of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications.

3. “Young Technician” has been published since 1956. Circulation – 4,033 copies. In the period 1956 – 1961, the circulation ranged from 300,000 to 2 million copies. 80 stripes. No advertising. Competitive advantage: The magazine is approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for use in the educational process of various educational institutions.

4. “Cosmonautics News” has been published since 1991 under the auspices of Roscosmos and the Aerospace Defense Forces with the participation of the permanent mission of ESA in Russia, the Association of Space Museums and RSC Energia named after S.P. Korolev. Circulation 8,500 copies. 74 pages, of which advertising is placed on the 2nd and 4th pages of the cover.

This thematic niche is most likely filled. The relatively small circulation and audience of magazines in this group are explained by the fact that interest in the most attractive technical object - the car - is satisfied by hundreds of specialized automobile magazines. The prestige of the engineering profession has decreased significantly compared to Soviet period, which led to a decrease in interest in technology, which today has transformed into an interest in computers, software, etc.

D. Universal or multidisciplinary. The group includes the bulk of popular science magazines, 22 publications.

UNIVERSAL EDITIONS
	EDITION	BEGINNING OF EDITION	CIRCULATION	COMMENTS
	IN THE WORLD OF SCIENCE			License magazine
	AROUND THE WORLD			Journal of the Russian Geographical Society
	WORLD PATTERNER			More touristic than n.-p. magazine
	EARTH AND UNIVERSE		no data	Journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences
	MIRROR OF THE WORLD
	KNOWLEDGE IS POWER			Classic n.-p. magazine. Rospechat grant
	MACHINES AND MECHANISMS			Despite the name, a multidisciplinary journal
	SCIENCE IN RUSSIA		no data	Journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences
	SCIENCE AND LIFE			Classic n.-p. magazine
	SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY		6 183	Published in Kharkov. Priority of military-technical topics
	SCIENCE FROM FIRST HAND
	SCIENCE IN FOCUS			License magazine
	POPULAR MECHANICS			License magazine
	POTENTIAL			Recommended by the Ministry of Education
	NATURE		no data	Journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences
	NATURE AND MAN			Doesn't quite match the style of n.p. Rospechat grant
	CHEMISTRY AND LIFE			Classic n.-p. magazine
	ECOLOGY AND LIFE
	DISCOVERY			Uses the name of a popular channel without a license
	GEO			License magazine
	NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC			License magazine
	NEW SCIENTIST RU			License magazine

3. Circulation and audience

Data on the circulation of popular science magazines according to the degree of reliability can be divided into 3 categories: reliable (certified and audited by the NTS), declared (the information in the output data is not certified) and false (the circulation declared by the publisher does not correspond to the real one, established by the NTS examination) :

EDITION	CIRCULATION, copies	COMMENTS
Around the world		The circulation is certified by NTS
Popular mechanics		Declared circulation
PSICHOLOGIES		In the output data, the false circulation is 238,571 copies (average for the 1st half of the year)
NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC		Declared circulation
DISCOVERY		Declared circulation
Science in Focus		Declared circulation
GEO		Declared circulation
Our psychology	29 200	The imprint contains a false circulation of 65,000 copies
Mirror of the world		Declared circulation
Technology for youth		Declared circulation
Science and life		Declared circulation
Animals		Declared circulation
Machines and mechanisms		Declared circulation
Science and technology	6 183	The imprint contains a false circulation of 22,000 copies
Ecology and life		Declared circulation
In the animal world		Declared circulation
Amateur		Declared circulation
World Pathfinder		Declared circulation
In the world of science		Declared circulation
NEWSCIENTISTRU		Declared circulation
Cosmonautics news		Declared circulation
Young naturalist		Declared circulation
Knowledge is power		Declared circulation
Chemistry and life XXI century		Declared circulation
Moscow magazine. Story		Declared circulation
Military history magazine		Declared circulation
Young technician		Declared circulation
Potential		Declared circulation
Inventor and innovator		Declared circulation
Nature and man		Declared circulation
History in detail	less than 1,000	According to the editors
Science first hand		According to the editors
Earth and Universe		According to the editors

The magazines “Nature”, “Rodina”, “Science in Russia”, “Earth and Universe”, in violation of the law “On the Mass Media”, do not publish information about their circulation in their imprint. By a strange coincidence, it is precisely those publications whose founders are either the Government of the Russian Federation and the Presidential Administration, or the Russian Academy of Sciences who violate the law.

There are no reliable data on the audience of popular science magazines in Russia, and for most publications there is no data at all. Therefore, market analysis is best done based on data on the circulation of publications. The main media meter, whose data on the audience of press, TV and radio is recognized by the market as the main currency, is TNS. Analysis of the TNS methodology and comparison of TNS data about the audience with the actual circulation of publications shows that TNS does not provide information about the audience, but most likely about the brand awareness of the publication. This is also an important indicator, although such a substitution of the subject of research in itself is a serious problem in the advertising market.

However, in the absence of other data, we present TNS figures about the “audience” of 6 popular science magazines that were included in the TNS measurement panel in September 2011 – February 2012:

	Magazine name	Audience (thousand people)
	AROUND THE WORLD
	NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC
	DISCOVERY
	POPULAR MECHANICS
	GEO
	PSYCHOLOGIES

4. Popular science magazines in the advertising market

Information about the volume and profile of advertising in magazines is much more transparent and reliable, since the method of calculating it (content analysis based on price lists) is clear and verifiable. In this review, there may be an inaccuracy that arises due to the fact that the calculation is made without taking into account discounts. According to TNS data for 6 months of the 1st half of 2012, the volumes of advertising in the most advertising-intensive popular science magazines were as follows:

	MAGAZINE NAME
	AROUND THE WORLD
	PSYCHOLOGIES
	NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
	POPULAR MECHANICS
	GEO
	SCIENCE IN FOCUS
	DISCOVERY

Absolute leadership in the Around the World advertising market requires separate analysis. Some success factors lie on the surface: a 150-year-old Russian brand, providing 5 million audience recognition, plus modern management and focus on business promotion in the advertising market. But the main success factor that allowed the publication to use all the mentioned advantages and convert them into commercial success was, undoubtedly, a change of owner in 2000, when the magazine was acquired by the general director of Video International, Sergei Vasiliev. Thanks to the connection of the capacities of the largest advertising seller, it was possible to create a modern publishing concern with a powerful sales department that produces several magazines, guidebooks and other products.

The fundamental difference between popular science magazines and many other segments of the press is that they do not have a corresponding specialized advertising segment. Women's magazines correspond to women's products, men's magazines correspond to men's products. The automotive segment of the press is quite obviously focused primarily on the market for cars and related products. Etc. Popular science magazines do not have such a specialized market for advertised goods. You can't live on telescope advertisements.

	AROUND THE WORLD	POPULAR MECHANICS	NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC	PSYCHOLOGIES	SCIENCE IN FOCUS
TOBACCO
HOMEOPATHY, PHARMACEUTICALS, MEDICINE
PET FOOD
AUTO, TRANS SALE SERVICES, AUTO PARTS
GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS
PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION
ALCOHOL
SPECIAL EVENTS
MEDIA (TV, RADIO)
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SERVICES
CLOTHING, FOOTWEAR, ACCESSORIES, HABERSHINES
DIGITAL, HOUSEHOLD, LARGE HOUSEHOLD, PHOTO, VIDEO EQUIPMENT
CONNECTION
INTERNET RESOURCES
PRINTED EDITIONS AND OTHER PRINTING
FOOD, GROCERY
SPORTS GEAR, EQUIPMENT
FURNITURE
TOURISM AND REST
EMPLOYMENT SERVICES
PERFUMERY, COSMETICS
BRAND ADVERTISING
Fuel and lubricants
MASS SPECTACLES
PUBLIC FUNDS
ELECTRONIC GAMES, IT, SOFTWARE, COMPUTER ACCESSORIES
SERVICES IN THE EDUCATION SYSTEM
JEWELRY
TRADE ORGANIZATIONS
HAIRDRESSING AND BEAUTY SALON SERVICES
HOUSEHOLD CHEMICALS
TOTAL SHARE OF BANDS, %

5. Distribution of popular science magazines

PRICES
No.	EDITION	PRICE RETAIL	SUBSCRIPTION PRICE FOR 1 month.	NUMBER OF OUTPUTS
	AROUND THE WORLD		159.04 — Russian Post	12 TIMES A YEAR
			800 – Russian Press	12 TIMES A YEAR
	WORLD PATTERNER		62.10 — Russian Press	10 TIMES A YEAR
	KNOWLEDGE IS POWER		133 – Russian Post	12 TIMES A YEAR
	YOUNG NATURALIST		247.67 — Russian Post	12 TIMES A YEAR
	INVENTOR AND RADIATIONALIZER		182.62 — Russian Post	12 TIMES A YEAR
	YOUTH TECHNOLOGY		114.56 — Russian Post	12 TIMES A YEAR
	SCIENCE AND LIFE		209.07 — Russian Post	12 TIMES A YEAR
	YOUNG TECHNICIAN	NO	224.24 — Russian Post	12 TIMES A YEAR
	CHEMISTRY AND LIFE		178.03 — Russian Post	12 TIMES A YEAR
	EARTH AND UNIVERSE	NO	800 – Russian Press	6 TIMES A YEAR
	SCIENCE IN RUSSIA		700 — Russian Post	6 TIMES A YEAR
	IN THE WORLD OF SCIENCE		136.38 — Russian Post	12 TIMES A YEAR
	SPACE NEWS		226.40 — Russian Post	12 TIMES A YEAR
	ECOLOGY AND LIFE		315.19 — Russian Post	12 TIMES A YEAR
	IN THE ANIMAL WORLD		61.20 — Russian Press	12 TIMES A YEAR
			147.81-Press of Russia	12 TIMES A YEAR
	POPULAR MECHANICS		95.20 – Russian Press	12 TIMES A YEAR
	NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC		87 – Russian Press	12 TIMES A YEAR
	SCIENCE FROM FIRST HAND		240.30 – Russian Press	12 TIMES A YEAR
	POTENTIAL		79.88 – Russian Press	12 TIMES A YEAR
			74- Press of Russia	12 TIMES A YEAR
	OUR PSYCHOLOGY		75- Press of Russia	12 TIMES A YEAR
	MACHINES AND MECHANISMS		116.45 — Russian Post	12 TIMES A YEAR
	SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY		62.40 – Russian Press	6 TIMES A YEAR
	NATURE AND MAN	NO	304.92 — Russian Post	12 TIMES A YEAR
			213.49 — Russian Post	12 TIMES A YEAR
	NEW SCIENTIST RU		81.12- Russian Press	10 TIMES A YEAR
	SCIENCE IN FOCUS		121.20 – editorial	10 TIMES A YEAR
	AMATEUR		113 – editorial	12 TIMES A YEAR
	MIRROR OF THE WORLD		150- Russian Press	12 TIMES A YEAR
	HISTORY IN DETAILS		370.89 - to home ROSPECHAT	12 TIMES A YEAR
			147.33 — Russian Post	12 TIMES A YEAR
	MILITARY HISTORICAL JOURNAL	NO	180 – Russian Press	12 TIMES A YEAR
			27.82 — Russian Post	24 TIMES A YEAR
	MOSCOW MAGAZINE. HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN STATE		144.69 — Russian Post	12 TIMES A YEAR

There are 3 main strategies for popular science magazines in the circulation sales market:

The publications are commercially successful, the main income of which comes from advertising revenues. Accordingly, the income from the sale of the circulation is not critical, the circulation and the audience are important, which means the retail and subscription prices are reduced as much as possible. Retail – 80-130 rubles; subscription – 70 -160 rubles).
Publications for which circulation sales constitute a significant part of the budget. Price policy of these publications depends on the choice of tactics: sell a little less, but at a higher price, or increase sales by lowering the price level. As a result, this category is characterized by a wide range of prices: retail from 25 to 300 rubles, subscription from 28 to almost 700 rubles.
Publications that, for a number of reasons, are outside market competition. These are, first of all, 3 popular science magazines of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which have a guaranteed readership, since they are included in the list of the Higher Attestation Commission and the motivation structure of their readership includes not only curiosity, but also pragmatism. These magazines are distributed almost exclusively by subscription and have the highest subscription price: 700 - 800 rubles per issue.

Due to the current situation in the retail market, all popular science magazines that do not have high advertising income (and these are all classic “Soviet” popular science magazines except “Around the World”) were actually cut off from retail chains, that is, from their mass readership . In order to place a magazine in 1 (one) kiosk of the Metropress agency network, you need to pay 3,000 (three thousand) rubles. Kiosks of less “tasty” agencies are cheaper, but not less than 2 thousand rubles for placement in one kiosk. The kiosk will take a maximum of 10 magazines with a selling price of 100 rubles. That is, retail sales for publishers are a rather serious expense item, unaffordable for most popular science publications. Only powerful publishing business concerns can overcome this barrier. The only exception is Science and Life, which is present in all retail chains along with the Magnificent Seven. But this exception only confirms the rule.

6. State policy regarding popular science magazines

Russia is a signatory to a number of international agreements in support of science and culture, including the Florence Agreement on duty-free import of materials on education, science and culture.

In relation to popular science magazines, state policy is manifested in 5 various forms Oh:

Direct financing. Grants from Rospechat, with the support of which popular science magazines are currently published, include: “Knowledge is Power”, “Nature and Man”, “Technology for Youth”, and “Young Technician”. "Moscow magazine. History of the Russian State” is published with the support of the Moscow Department of Media and Advertising. “NewScientist.ru” is published with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science.
Foundation by government agencies. “Rodina” was established by the Government and the Presidential Administration, “Military Historical Journal” was founded by the Ministry of Defense, “Cosmonautics News” is published “under the auspices” of Roscosmos.
Founded by the Russian Academy of Sciences are “Nature”, “Science in Russia”, “Earth and the Universe”; from the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences - “Science at First Hand”.
Inclusion in the List of the Higher Attestation Commission and the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI). The List of the Higher Attestation Commission includes “Nature”, “Earth and the Universe”, “Motherland” and “Military Historical Journal”. The RSCI includes: “Inventor and innovator”, “History in detail”.
Recommendations of the Ministry of Education and Science for use in the educational process educational institutions have “Technology for Youth”, “Ecology and Life”, “Young Technician”.

All of the listed forms of state support for popular science magazines, except, perhaps, direct founding by government agencies, have the right to exist and could have a beneficial effect on the development of this segment of periodicals, since they create a counterbalance to the influence of the advertising market and thereby increase the autonomy of the field of popular science press.

However, the above lists of recipients of various forms of state support cause some bewilderment because, to put it mildly, they are not obvious. The support of such publications as “Knowledge is Power” or “Young Technician” is unlikely to raise questions. But why did Rospechat officials fall in love with, for example, the magazine “Nature and Man,” which leaves a lot of questions regarding its belonging to the category of popular science publications and publishes articles for money? To eliminate subjectivity in this matter, the criteria for state support must be clearly formulated. In the Order of Rospechat dated February 27, 2012 “On approval of criteria for selecting recipients of state support in the field of media,” there is no mention of publications that popularize scientific knowledge and, accordingly, there are no criteria for assistance to these publications.

The lack of a clear and articulate state policy regarding popular science magazines can hardly be considered the main problem of the Russian media, but for the majority of popular science magazines this problem is very relevant.

7. Is there a market? (About magazine and journalistic corporations, competition and the struggle for the autonomy of this field)

Concluding the review, I will try to answer a somewhat sacramental and rhetorical question: “Is there a market for popular science magazines in Russia?”

Under the market in in this case refers to a certain competitive environment in which actor-producers (in this case, producers of popular science content) fight among themselves to obtain maximum quantity readers and money. One of important functions market is an information function, that is, knowledge of market subjects and the products they produce. Within this study we conducted an expert survey, in which we invited editors-in-chief and general directors all journals included in the review. In the expert questionnaire it was asked to give brief description each market entity. Not everyone responded, which is understandable. People are extremely busy. But we received a dozen and a half responses. Almost all experts, with one single exception, were unable to characterize more than 3-5 publications out of three dozen included in the review. Moreover, in a number of cases, evaluations of our the best experts(and who could know the publication better than a competitor) turned out to be wrong. Not errors of opinion, but errors of fact. That is, leading experts in the field of the popular science magazine market do not have information about the subjects of this market. This can only mean one thing: they do not need this information. And this, in turn, means that there is no single market for popular science magazines.

The publications that we examined in this review do not see each other point-blank. Even those that are obviously in the same niche. On the website of the Rodina magazine, the first phrase of the presentation sounds like this: Rodina is the only popular historical magazine in Russia.” The magazine “Diletant”, which was born in January 2012, presents itself on the website “Echo of Moscow” as the “First Historical Magazine”. What kind of competition? What market? Each of the 36 magazines is one and only!

The “Magnificent Seven” of popular science magazines, successful in the advertising market, compete with each other, and also, no less, with other advertising-successful publications from the categories of women's, men's, consumer, automobile, etc., since the advertiser does not buy the content of the magazine, and its audience. There are no separate segments of advertising producers specific to popular science publications, and if there are, these are crumbs that the market cannot survive on.

Classic, “former Soviet” popular science magazines are fighting for survival by fighting for subscriptions and building relationships with officials to receive government subsidies.

Journals of the Russian Academy of Sciences and state publications in general are outside any market and do not depend on anyone except the authorities who founded them.

There is no single market for popular science magazines, since it is divided into several sub-markets in accordance with the categories of publications.

However, there is a market for scientific ideas and a market for texts that present them popularly. This market has a huge army of consumers. Its development requires infrastructure, magazine and journalistic corporations. Simply put, it’s good when those who write and publish texts read each other and write reviews of each other. When they sometimes say to a fellow author: “Well done, old man! I read your article twice.” It’s useful if they sometimes say: “You, friend, let the rooster fly in the last text.” All this happened: the Club of Scientific Journalists (still exists today) and the Centaur competition. The competition seems to have dissolved, and it would be good for the Club to give a new impetus, try to transform it into a collective reference group, which, in a mode of constant discussion and discussion, works to raise the bar of scientific journalism.

An attribute of development in any social sphere is the presence of a dense communication environment. The field of popular science journalism is no exception.

Hundreds of blogs and websites open and close in Russia every day, most of which are pursued for educational purposes. But really informative and interesting, and most importantly useful resources only a few become.

The portal site offers a selection of the 10 most popular, interesting and informative sites in Russia, to which millions of readers in the country are hooked. What criteria were used to choose:

quality content
no advertising (or reduced to a minimum)
convenience and simplicity of the site
design
layout
uniqueness

Adme is a site about life, freedom and creativity.

The project has existed for more than 10 years and over the years has gained incredible popularity. The secret to the success of the project is simple - unique educational content every day. Lack of politics, angry news feeds and intrusive advertising, an abundance of light humor, useful posts about the life and work of great people, and a lot of things and everything that makes a person happy, kind, smiling... In general, created by people and for people.

Lifehacker is no less successful and useful project than “adme”, with a whole army of admirers and fans in Russia. From a popular blog dispensing advice, the life hacker has grown into a successful project with more than 6 million readers per month.

The secret to success is the relevance of the content. Simply put, for example, the article “How to download videos from Youtube” was published in 2012, and has still not lost its relevance. Every month, more than 70,000 Internet users ask the question “how can I download a video from YouTube” and in the Yandex and Google search engines this request the article by Lifehacker appears. The result is that it has received 1.7 million views since 2012!

The main directions are articles about health and sports, how to use gadgets, websites and new technologies and much more... Very useful resource in Russia.

The first association most users have, I’m sure, is physical education teacher Foma, played by Dmitry Nagiyev. However, the Thomas website is a successful Orthodox magazine for doubters. The magazine is entirely dedicated to Orthodox faith and the Church.

Lots of useful material in a cool format. Convenient layout and ease of navigation of the site, as well as high-quality, easy-to-read material, sets the resource apart from most other religious portals. There is an opinion that industry and highly specialized sites are doomed to failure, but in Orthodox Russia “Thomas” is just gaining its popularity, because the number of believers in Russia has increased in recent years (based on statistical data).

One of the most popular sites in Russia, the main topic of which is psychology in all its manifestations.

Like most glossy magazines, Psychologies plunges headlong into online and in a few years turns into a major international project. Originally from France, the project is quickly gaining popularity in Europe and already in 2005 it begins to be published in Russia. The site's online audience numbers in the millions. Feelings, interests, desires and thoughts, relationships with yourself and other people, the experience of contemporaries and the expert opinion of the best psychologists and psychotherapists; new sources of joy and energy, opportunities to realize yourself and change for the better, ways to take care of your health and beauty with pleasure - all these are the topics of Psychologies.ru.

A non-profit educational project dedicated to humanitarian knowledge eventually grew into an online university, with real courses and lectures. A distinctive feature from all other projects is that all courses and lectures are absolutely free. The main topics of the site are history, literature, art, anthropology, philosophy. Arzamas consists entirely of courses, each of which is dedicated to a specific topic. A new course is published every two weeks on Thursdays. Each course consists of several 15-minute video lectures (episodes), as well as various materials - articles, photo galleries, maps, dictionaries, tests, games, etc. Thanks to the successful layout of the site, cool content and the absence of intrusive advertising, Arzamas magazine quickly became a in the ranking of the most popular educational resources in Russia.

It is noteworthy that Arzamas, as a literary society, as a circle, was first opened in 1815, and the members of “Arzamas” were such famous people as V. A. Zhukovsky, P. A. Vyazemsky, A. A. Pleshcheev, A. S. Pushkin...

Naked Science (translated from English as “From the point of view of science”) is a Russian popular science magazine published since 2013 in Russian. Main topics: science, aviation, new technologies, future technologies, space, cars, photography, psychology. The main task of the popular science Internet portal is to popularize science.

Thanks to successful layout and design, the site quickly surpassed all its competitors. And the approach to presenting materials - “to talk about complex things in an accessible, simple and understandable way” became the unspoken motto of the project. Be sure to visit the video section of the site - there are a lot of educational video materials.

vc.ru is a magazine about internet business, startups, innovation and online marketing. Today it is the largest platform for entrepreneurs in RuNet. The site daily covers business news, expresses expert opinions, publishes reviews and analytics...

Like all previous portals, it differs from most of its competitors in its convenient layout and simple design, which makes the resource very attractive compared to all the others. In my opinion, it is one of the most “strong” and powerful cognitive resources for entrepreneurs and startups.

The Village is on this list for a reason. A useful and educational portal with a really cool design and high-quality content, as an example for everyone - “how to do it” successful projects" The portal is dedicated to the life of Russian megacities, talks about cultural and social life, entertainment, services, food and people in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other megacities. On the pages of The Village, interviews with officials harmoniously coexist with reviews of cafes or bars. The project also has “two little brothers” - a magazine for young, energetic and free-thinking women, Wonderzine, and a youth magazine, FURFUR. Definitely, these are sites worth visiting.

Another interesting resource that I periodically hang out on. Newtonew is an educational magazine about education. It will be useful and interesting for schoolchildren and students, teachers, parents and all those who love and want to engage in self-education. The project, as an educational resource, has suspiciously many advantages - high-quality and interesting material, convenient layout and cool design, lack of advertising and “imposed opinions dictated from above.” The combination of all of the above, as a somewhat meticulous person, makes me think about what makes the project live and thrive, where is the source of funding. I would like to believe that the project is independent. Among the conveniences, I would like to highlight the section of the site - “Thematic Collections” - it is very convenient. Again I repeat, shining example that the project was made by people and for people. High five to the authors of the project!

- All about sports and healthy way life -

Today, healthy lifestyles and sports are talked about everywhere. One of the most powerful sources of encyclopedic knowledge on the Internet is the well-known knowledge laboratory SPORTSWIKI. Thousands of interesting, useful materials are collected here. There is no need to talk about the design of the site, but the exclusivity of the sports encyclopedia lies elsewhere...

MEN’S HEALTH – I used to read it regularly, now less often, but as an educational magazine with a range and arsenal of “useful things”, I can’t help but recommend it. MEN’S HEALTH is more of a men’s portal. Main themes: man's health and physical fitness; workouts, exercises and fitness encyclopedia; sex and relationship psychology; proper nutrition and disease prevention; food and recipes... Excellent layout and design, thousands of useful materials.

I also want to highlight several useful educational video blogs. All of them are time-tested, the authors of which do not talk nonsense, they are well versed in the anatomical processes of the body, dietetics, metabolism...

Unfortunately, today there are a lot of sports-related videos appearing on YouTube that do more harm than good. Sometimes it’s scary to listen to the nonsense of their creators, because these people give out advice with all their might, teach and encourage you to follow their methodology. And we are talking about the human body, a body that can be very easily injured thanks to the advice of certain pseudo-certified coaches. This delicate and sensitive topic can only be discussed by people specializing in certain sports fields. There are very few of them, as I have discovered over the years.

So, video blogs dedicated to sports and a healthy lifestyle that I would recommend without a shadow of a doubt.

Russian TV presenter, author of the best-selling sports books “Fitness is Easy!” and “Fitness. Life Guide Denis Semenikhin is a guru in the world of fitness and healthy lifestyle. The most visited sports video blog in Russia, and most importantly, one of the most informative.

Sergei Badyuk’s video blog is no less informative. A very authoritative and wise guy. Reasons sensibly, speaks convincingly and to the point. Interviews with Badyuk are always interesting and informative. Area of interest: hand-to-hand sports, boxing, iron, yoga, powerlifting, workout, qigong...

One of the most educational channels about martial arts, martial arts, self-defense... Issue formats - sharp interviews with masters of various martial arts, useful and funny videos lessons... A lot of educational material. Issues are published twice a week.

More than a million subscribers, informative video content, but before I liked the channel more. Nevertheless, there is a lot of useful material - I also recommend it.

One of the most educational and interesting channels boxing in Russia. A sense of humor, combined with professional advice and master classes from Alik Bigaev, made the channel bright and rich, and most importantly, useful. The trick of the channel is the length of the videos. They are all short and informative. The presentation of the material is easy and accessible. These are not just videos about boxing - this is a small show. A special character on the channel - Alexander Yuryevich - is another feature of the channel. I recommend to everyone.

Yoga Journal is Russia's leading website about yoga and a healthy lifestyle. The portal provides readers with access to thousands of articles about yoga, philosophy, health and nutrition, yoga complexes, meditations, video lessons, interviews with famous masters... News is published daily on the site, from which you can learn all the latest from the world of yoga.

From video channels on yoga I can highlight: Unagrande YogaClub And daYoga.ru- professional, high quality, accessible and very informative.

Found a mistake? Select it and press left Ctrl+Enter.

Not long ago, we brought to the attention of our subscribers an article rating popular science magazines in Ukraine. This material provoked lively discussion from readers. Many of them shared their thoughts about what else from popular science periodicals is worthy of reading and available in Ukraine. Today is the time to announce the results of this discussion.

So, we present the top popular science magazines from the Scientific Social Community audience.

1. Popular Science

This American product with a very long and fascinating history. It has been published since 1872 and to this day has changed several owners, which, on the whole, has not greatly shaken its popularity and authority. Since 1999, the magazine has been presented on the Internet, its official website: http://www.popsci.com.

The magazine has a very interesting monetization model. Since 2007, the editors of Popular Science founded the Popular Science Predictions EXchange project, which is, in essence, a bookmaker's exchange. Here registered users are asked to guess the date of appearance of a certain technical innovation or scientific discovery. As it turns out, science is a passionate process with numerous “fans.”

Many articles on the publication's website are devoted to young scientists and inventors and their unpredictable successes. For example, 15-year-old Brooke Martin, who developed a device for telecommunications with pets, or her peer Mihir Garimella, who won the Google Science Fair for creating a drone designed like a fruit fly. Equally inspiring is the story of their senior colleague Madeline Gannon, who is developing a more human-centric interface for 3D modeling.

Among the “hot” news on the magazine’s website you can read who was awarded this year and for what Nobel Prizes. Interesting information about the results of the World Maker Faire 2015, held in New York.

The word “maker” has traditionally been used to designate representatives of “garage science,” whose achievements can literally amaze and stun. So at the World Maker Faire 2015, among the exhibits were a 30-meter robot designed by Shane Evans from several broken airplanes, an underwater drone with a virtual cockpit proposed by David Lang, and a robot made of glass-coated plasma performed by Wayne Stratman.

If “geographical difficulties” may arise with a subscription to the paper version of Popular Science, then its regularly updated website is always at the service of the Ukrainian audience. There is no language barrier - read and stay up to date with global innovations!

2.National Geographic

This publication also turned its first page in history in the century before last. National Geographic was founded by the National geographical society USA in 1888. However, the turning point for the publication was 1905, and specifically the publication of a report on a trip to Tibet with a huge number of photographs. From this day on, high-quality illustrative material is the “calling card” of the magazine.

National Geographic is published in many countries and in many languages. Official website of the magazine: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/. A special feature of the English version of the magazine is the “children's page”. The Russian-language version is available at the link: http://www.nat-geo.ru. The Ukrainian version of the publication, unfortunately, was recently closed due to financial difficulties.
Recent archaeological finds, little-explored places on the planet, closed human communities, the energy of natural elements, practical advice travelers and incredible secrets of the animal world - all this can be found on the pages and website of National Geographic.

Personally, while preparing this article, I discovered that the idea of worker ants is a myth. Among these insects, 2.5% of individuals demonstrate hard work, the rest only reap the benefits ().

Perhaps you should double-check the information and think about changing the picture on the main page of the Scientific Social Community with ants and the motto “Teamwork is the path to success!” :)))

3. Around the world

The Internet page “Around the World” has several headings: travel, food, history, people, animals, science. In principle, these sections reveal a wide range of problems raised in the popular science publication.

The latest issue of “Around the World” covers such issues as: the secret of the UAE’s prosperity, the prototypes of the heroes of I. Repin’s painting “Cossacks Write a Letter to the Turkish Sultan”, new archaeological finds in Denmark during the Bronze Age, the life of noble prisoners in the Middle Ages and early modern times, digestive system like a bioreactor, the secrets of the paparazzi.

“Around the World” also responded to the recently released science fiction film “The Martian”, trying to figure out whether it is realistic to live a year on the Red Planet.

In short, the magazine is educational in every sense and can satisfy the scientific interest of a fairly wide public. On my own behalf, I recommend an article about why in Lately The beard entered men's fashion and how eras of shortage of women were reflected in the appearance of men: .

4. BBC Focus

A relatively young (published since 1992) British popular science magazine. Published in Bristol, circulation - 70 thousand copies, official website of BBC Focus: http://www.sciencefocus.com/
Recent articles on the site include: “Where is the coldest part of the refrigerator?”, “The most inspiring photos from the world of science”, “How can such a small bird like a robin make such noise?” loud noise?", "Can aliens breathe a gas other than oxygen?", "What is the powder on the wings of a night moth?", "Do plants really grow faster if they hear human voice and music?

As we see, many articles provide scientific answers to questions that children ask at the age of “why,” but which, as a rule, the adults around them are not competent to answer.

The current issue of the magazine tries to figure out whether humanity can avoid mass extinction, what healing effect music has, what things a person’s face can tell about a person, and whether we can grow plants without sunlight.
As you can see, “The Martian” inspired this editorial team to think about agronomy in extreme conditions. Or maybe not him...

5. Universe. Space. Time.

Ukrainian magazine published since 2003. It has a narrow and at the same time comprehensive focus, as it is devoted to issues of astronomy and space exploration. Official website of the publication: http://universemagazine.com

Magazine headings: Universe, Solar System, Earth, Life in the Universe, Life on Earth, Cosmonautics, Astronomy, Amateur Astronomy, Science Fiction.
Last number dedicated solar system in his "young years". In addition, he reveals the secrets of dwarf planets, nebulae and the “storm sea” in the constellation Sagittarius.

The editors of the magazine often organize popular science events, in particular, on September 26, a creative meeting was held called “Evening of Sidewalk Astronomy”, a photo report from which can be seen on the page “Universe. Space. Time" on Facebook.

Progress, which is moving by leaps and bounds and brings with it the reformatization of acquiring knowledge through electronics, has never been able to supplant one of the main paper sources for receiving and transmitting information. Scientific journals began their history back in the 19th century and are still in demand all over the world. A movement contrary to modern trends. Why and how the most famous magazines do this is further in the article.

The 19th and early 20th centuries marked primarily the growth overall indicator education of the population. Not only in the Russian Empire, but throughout the world. But many lacked textbooks and existing literature, which could have been stored in libraries for years, and no one could claim the relevance of the data. So, in 1885, the idea came to create a popular science magazine that would be published with a certain periodicity and carry exclusively relevant and, for many, sensational information.

This is how I became National Geographic, which has been considered the most popular scientific journal for more than 100 years. The fame of this publication is constantly confirmed by exclusive materials: both articles and photos.

The most authentic and oldest publication of a popular science nature is Scientific American. The magazine began publication in 1885 and is still one of the most popular. In addition, at the beginning of the 20th century, the publishing house published the largest encyclopedia in English. 16 volumes of exclusively popular scientific information.

Popular Science– magazine number 3 on the list of generally recognized ones in the world. Scientists such as Huxley, Darwin and Peirce published their innovative works in it, which served as the proper impetus for gaining status among the public.

Concerning Russian magazines, then the top three can be marked by the magazine "Around the world", which dates back to 1861.

Initially, stories and stories of travelers, which helped to dilute the “dry” scientific component, and which played the greatest role in popularizing the publication.

"Popular Mechanics" And "Discovery"- in the territory Russian Federation are considered the next in popularity and circulation. However, even in a global context, our magazines can compete well with Western ones.

According to the Spanish research center, the TOP 10 scientific publications from around the world are as follows:

Nature Genetics
Scientific American
Discover
Popular Mechanics
Discovery
Around the world
Popular Science
Nature
Nature Genetics
Russian Journal of Mathematical Physics

Read and be educated to keep up with modern times.