The “Inspector” finally divides bloggers and journalists

Final separation

The Revizor professional skills competition opened this season with great attention to bloggers. Almost all major changes and initiatives are related to them. The nomination for bloggers appeared in 2017, and the nomination for journalists was established a year earlier. They were merged in 2024. But, apparently, the experiment failed. As a result, the bloggers and journalists were finally separated. Egor Mikhailov, a book critic and cultural editor of Afisha Daily, believes that such a division is the right decision. He himself was the winner in the Journalist of the Year nomination in 2019 from Afisha Daily, and in 2022 he was shortlisted for the Blogger of the Year nomination as the author of the telegram channel Literature and Life.

“It seems to me that there are two reasons why the separation of bloggers and journalists in this competition is a good thing. The first reason is that their jobs are different. And it's not that someone is better or worse, more influential or less. They just work for different audiences and in different genres, they have different work rates, and so on. Moreover, quite often bloggers and journalists are the same people. But since they are engaged in different business, or at least different sides of the same business, it is quite prudent to separate them. The second reason is very simple. It seems to me that if the organisers give out not one prize with one shortlist, but two prizes with two shortlists, then they highlight twice as many people who do their job well, and it turns out twice as much benefit,” Egor Mikhailov told Realnoe Vremya.

Last year, there was only one journalist on the long list in the combined nomination, the rest were bloggers. Unfortunately, the growth of new book journalists is not going at the same pace as new bloggers who write about literature. Anastasia Skorondaeva, curator of the Journalist of the Year nomination and literary columnist for Rossiyskaya Gazeta, hopes that the division of nominations will encourage the media to write about literature:

“A blogger has more freedom, and that's great. While a journalist works in the style of a particular media outlet. It is more difficult for bloggers to win over their audience, because we are talking about the reputation of one person, but if possible, many journalists will envy the coverage of his blog. The reputation of a journalist is also reinforced by the media where he works. But today, the position of a journalist is weaker, as many media outlets refuse to cover culture, and even more so literature: in pursuit of ratings and clicks, they switch to news about social life. Therefore, journalists writing about the book industry need support now more than ever. I hope the Revizor contest will help journalists pay more attention to the literary process. Yes, it won't be possible to hype, to increase the rating of the publication, but to become an educator is to introduce your readers to the wonderful world of literature — very much.”

By the way, the requirements for bloggers and journalists are about the same. The only difference is in the platforms: for journalists, this is the media in which they work, for bloggers, social networks. Both should regularly write about books and the literary process in Russia. In other words, you will not be able to limit yourself to collections of books for the New Year and major fairs. Anastasia Skorondaeva also noted that publications should be relevant. These are not only book reviews, but also review articles, as well as materials about current events. The same opinion is shared by Svetlana Zorina, editor-in-chief of the Book Industry magazine and president of the Book Distributors Association.

“It is important for us to write not only about books, but also about book events. Moreover, in recent years there have been an incredible number of book porches, markets, festivals organised by small companies, as well as federal events," said Zorina.

In addition, the publications of journalists and bloggers should have a clearly defined author's position, their texts should be quoted by other media or bloggers, and the total length of service in the profession or blogging should not be less than two years.

Content is the king!

The curators of the Blogger of the Year nomination are literary columnist, author of the telegram channel “Notes of a Punk Editor” Anastasia Shevchenko and the author of the telegram channel Books & Reviews Valery Shabashov. The main goal of the nomination is to increase the visibility of book bloggers and highlight those who make high-quality content. Quality is the criterion that is important to both curators of the nomination. Shevchenko also noted the importance of the author's position in the texts.

“Bloggers are also different: someone writes brilliant reviews, someone writes practically reviews on the marketplace (both have the right to generate what they see fit, this is, among other things, the difference between bloggers and journalists, who cannot limit themselves to a short review or an unpacking video for reasons of their own), some mostly make collections, some shoot more visual content, others repost and/or retell other people's news. It turns out that these criteria (the quality of texts and the author's position — ed.) is an attempt to single out those very participants in the literary process who write at the level of media observers and critics," Anastasia Shevchenko told Realnoe Vremya.

She also noted that many bloggers live in regions where many different festivals and book activities take place. And this nomination, according to Anastasia, will provide an additional incentive for bloggers to cover current events. In addition, the blogger is a kind of hub between the publisher and readers. “Bloggers carry information, no one asks them to speak only positively," said Shevchenko.

Valery Shabashov added that bloggers are now “full-fledged participants in the literary process, whom publishers treat as partners.” But periodically (not in the industry, but rather in the layman's environment) bloggers face neglect. For example, Anastasia Shevchenko “feels it all the time," although she is far from just a blogger.

“The disparaging attitude towards book bloggers has migrated from blogging as an activity. But literary bloggers have long resisted this status. The dam was broken when lifestyle bloggers migrated to Telegram, where aesthetics often outweigh the content aspect. And endless giveaways, contests, sweepstakes, etc. began," commented Valery Shabashov.

Shevchenko believes that bloggers who rely on the content part just lack visibility: “And they (we) are a little in the shadow of those who blog professionally, including with marketing intentions, which is moderately frowned upon in the enlightened industry, because marketing is often more than literary analysis and judgment of taste.” But there is also a category of authors who engage in blogging for money. “Maybe someone writes reviews for money, but we are not here for such bloggers," Anastasia added.

A new “bun” for bloggers

“Next to the Revizor, a separate trend was born, created specifically for bloggers — the Book Worlds Award through the Eyes of Bloggers within the framework of the Book Worlds program. Its goal is to support and give an impetus to the development of bookstores throughout the country. The program is designed for four seasons, for which bookstores will make interesting calculations and promotions. We want to attract bloggers to this program so that they can participate in it and talk about its events," Svetlana Zorina explained the establishment of the new award.

The bookstore-blogger link is no coincidence. Often the problem with popularising reading is very simple — no one knows about the events that are taking place. “Book bloggers are participants in the book market who dictate trends and set new trends. The contribution that bloggers make to events cannot be silenced, reduced, or underestimated," said Olga Kole, chairman of the award's jury and a writer. According to her, when bloggers are involved in event coverage, then attendance reads off scale.

There will be two nominations in the Book Worlds through the Eyes of Bloggers award. The first is “The most active coverage of events in bookstores.” The number of publications, coverage, and originality of the submission will be taken into account here. The second nomination is “The best event held by a blogger.” These can be lectures from a blogger, book clubs, or any other book activity that requires a room. The organisers of the award here act as an intermediary between bloggers and bookstores across Russia, where the event can be held. In this nomination, the evaluation criteria are a little more complicated: the jury will take into account the format of the event, audience engagement and the number of participants.

There will be three prizes in each nomination. The winner will receive 75 thousand rubles, for the second place they will give 50 thousand rubles, for the third — the publication of the blogger's materials in the magazine Book Industry and on the website of the Association of Book Distributors.

This is not the first award where bloggers are awarded. Yasnaya Polyana and The Big Book have similar nominations. But Anastasia Shevchenko believes that they do not need to be compared: “Different tasks, different criteria, different categories of competitors, if only because critics from the V.Y. Kurbatov School participate in Yasnaya Polyana, Litblog is aimed at increasing the visibility of modern Russian-language prose, and Book Worlds appeared under the auspices of the Book Distributors Association. These are all different metro lines, but the passengers may be the same — who's going to forbid it?” Valery Shabashov noted that “the mechanics of the new competition are more interesting, it can involve participants.”

Book clubs went around the country

Since 2022, a boom in book clubs has begun in Russia. So far, no one has counted them, but the trend is noticeable to everyone involved. Book clubs conduct online and offline, friendly and corporate, from publishers and bloggers, on fiction and non-fiction. “There are already modifications of book clubs that combine book discussion with other activities. It is impossible to pretend that book clubs are unimportant, because they move a wave of interest in books. The role of such book communities is very important, because the entire book business is primarily about people," said Irina Antonova, Marketing Director of Alpina Publishing Group. She also initiated the creation of a guide to book clubs.

They didn't come to the book club guide right away. At first, we wanted to make a rating, but this idea seemed incorrect, because book clubs can be completely different and quite specific. “With this guide, we want to show what kind of book clubs there are now, who they are aimed at, and in what formats they take place. In other words, we want to make a kind of list that will help both readers and publishers navigate. The latter will be able to offer their books for discussion and invite the authors of the publishing house," Antonova added.

If there are specific deadlines for submitting applications for the Book Worlds through the Eyes of Bloggers award and for participating in the Revizor competition, then you can get into the guide at any time. It will be constantly updated. “Our ultimate goal is to create a community of book clubs so that we can communicate, offer our ideas and events to publishers and bookstores. As part of the book club guide, we want to be useful to all participants. I think this will be an important initiative for the entire book community," concluded Svetlana Zorina.

Ekaterina Petrova is a literary columnist for the Realnoe Vremya online newspaper, the author of the telegram channel Buns with Poppy Seeds.