Contemporary popular science magazines.

Hundreds of blogs and websites are opening and closing in Russia every day, most of which are for educational purposes. But really informative and interesting, and the most important useful resources only a few become.

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

• quality content
• lack of advertising (or minimized)
• convenience and simplicity of the site
• design
• layout
• uniqueness

Adme is a site about life, freedom and creativity.

The project has existed for over 10 years and has gained insane popularity over the years. The secret of the project's success is simple - unique cognitive content every day. Lack of politics, evil news feeds and obtrusive advertising, an abundance of light humor, useful posts about the life and work of great people, and a lot of everything 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 fans and fans in Russia. From a popular blog giving advice, the life hacker has grown into a successful project with over 6 million readers a month.

The secret of success is content relevance. Simply put, for example, the article "How to download a video from Youtube" was published in 2012, and it still hasn't lost its relevance. Every month, more than 70,000 Internet users ask themselves the question “how can you still download a video from YouTube” and in the search engines of Yandex and Google, an article from Lifehacker appears on this request. The result is that it has gained 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 ... A very useful resource in Russia.

The first association among the majority of users, I am sure, is physical instructor Thomas performed by Dmitry Nagiyev. However, the Foma website is a successful Orthodox magazine for the doubters. The magazine is entirely devoted to the Orthodox faith and the Church.

A lot 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 distinguishes the resource from most other religious portals. There is an opinion that industry-specific and highly specialized sites are doomed to failure, but in Orthodox Russia "Foma" 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 goes online and in a few years turns into a major international project. Originally from France, the project is rapidly gaining popularity in Europe and already in 2005 it begins to be published in Russia. Online audience of the site is estimated at millions. Feelings, interests, desires and thoughts, relationships with oneself 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 oneself and change for the better, ways to take care of one's health and beauty with pleasure - all these are Psychologies.ru topics.

A non-profit educational project dedicated to the humanities has grown over time into an online university, with real courses and lectures. A distinctive feature from all other projects - 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 a variety of materials - articles, photo galleries, maps, dictionaries, tests, games, etc. Thanks to the successful layout of the site, cool content and the absence of intrusive ads, Arzamas magazine entered very quickly in the ranking of the most popular cognitive resources in Russia.

It is noteworthy that Arzamas, as a literary society, as a circle was first opened in 1815, and 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. "From the point of view of science") is a Russian popular science journal 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 the successful layout and design, the site very quickly bypassed all its competitors. And the approach to presenting materials - “to tell about complex things in an accessible, simple and understandable way” has become the unspoken motto of the project. Be sure to visit the video section of the site - well, 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 the Russian Internet. The site daily covers business news, expresses the opinions of experts, publishes reviews and analytics ...

Like all previous portals, it differs from most of its competitors in its convenient layout and uncomplicated design, which makes the resource very attractive against the background of all the others. In my opinion, it is one of the "strongest" and most powerful cognitive resources for entrepreneurs and startups.

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

Another interesting resource on which I periodically hang up. 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 little meticulous person, makes me think - how the project lives and thrives, where does the source of funding come from. I would like to believe that the project is independent. For convenience, I will single out the section of the site - "Thematic selections" - very convenient. Again, I repeat, a vivid example of the fact that the project was made by people and for people. A solid five for the authors of the project!

- Everything about sports and a healthy lifestyle -

Today, healthy lifestyles and sports are talked about everywhere. One of the most powerful sources of encyclopedic knowledge on the web is the well-known SPORTSWIKI knowledge laboratory. 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 is different ...

MEN'S HEALTH - I used to read it regularly, now - less often, but as an educational magazine with a set and arsenal of "useful things" I cannot but recommend it. MEN'S HEALTH is more of a male portal. Main topics: men's health and fitness; workout, exercise and fitness encyclopedia; sex and psychology of relationships; proper nutrition and disease prevention; food and recipes ... Great layout and design, thousands of useful materials.

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

Unfortunately, today on YouTube there are many videos on sports topics, where there is more harm than good. Sometimes it is scary to listen to the nonsense of their creators, because these people are giving out advice with might and main, teaching and urging to follow their methodology. And we are talking about the human body, about the body, which can be very easily injured thanks to the advice of certain pseudo-certified coaches. This delicate and scrupulous topic can only be discussed by people who specialize in various sports fields. Such, as I have found out over the years, are very few.

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

Russian TV presenter, author of sports bestsellers "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.

Sergey Badyuk's video blog is no less informative. A very authoritative and wise guy. Reasoning sensibly, speaks convincingly and to the point. Interviews with Badyuk are always interesting and informative. Interests - hand-to-hand sports, boxing, "iron", yoga, powerlifting, workout, qigong ...

One of the most informative channels about martial arts, martial arts, self-defense ... Release formats - sharp interviews with masters of different martial arts, useful and funny video lessons ... A lot of informative material. Issues are published twice a week.

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

One of the most informative and interesting boxing channels in Russia. A sense of humor, combined with professional advice and master classes from Bigaev Alik, made the channel bright and rich, and most importantly, useful. Channel chip in the duration of videos. They are all short and informative. Material feeding is easy and affordable. These are not just boxing videos - this is a small show. A special character on the channel - Alexander Yurievich - is another feature of the channel. I recommend to everyone.

Yoga Journal is the leading yoga and healthy lifestyle website in Russia. The portal provides readers with access to thousands of articles on yoga, philosophy, health and nutrition, yoga complexes, meditations, video tutorials, interviews with famous masters ... Daily news is published on the site, from which you can learn all the most relevant from the world of yoga.

From the video channels on yoga, I can highlight: Unagrande YogaClub and daYoga.ru- professionally, efficiently, accessible and very informative.

Found a bug? Highlight it and press left Ctrl + Enter.

The pursuit of advancing progress is a rather complicated matter, however, it cannot be said that it is impossible. The Internet, television and, of course, scientific journals - all this helps us to be, as they say, in shape and allows us to have an idea of ​​which peaks in the scientific world have conquered, and which still need to be conquered.

On the territory of the post-Soviet space, this kind of "helpers" existed for a relatively long time, and the first who decided to share with people about scientific discoveries, technological innovations and various kinds of theories were magazines. It is about them that will be discussed today, or rather, about some of the most popular scientific journals in Russia.

Popular science magazine "Around the World"

Let's go straight from words to deeds and tell you about the oldest popular science and regional geography magazine "Around the World". This magazine appeared during Russian Empire, in 1861. However, the “birth” of the magazine can be considered from 1860, because it was then that the first issue of the magazine went on sale. It is not surprising that St. Petersburg turned out to be the place where the publication was opened. The editor of the magazine was a book publisher-merchant, Mavriky Osipovich Wolf. Later the magazine was moved to Moscow.

Initially, the magazine included stories, stories and observations of travelers, their comments, however, this is what made the name of the magazine in those years, since it contained not only the stories of our compatriots, but also Western researchers and naturalists. Having gained considerable popularity, the magazine functioned for ten years, until 1870. The break was not small - until 1884, when thanks to the brothers Mikhail and Eugene Verner, it resumed its activity. The magazine was moved to Moscow and the name was slightly changed, now it was called “Around the World. Travel and Adventure Magazine on Land and Sea ”. It is worth noting that after its "revival", the magazine increased the number of copies printed, the number of which amounted to 50 issues per year, compared with 12 issues per year, which were published under Wolfe. The Werners managed to change the magazine, make it more attractive to the reader and create its own, exclusive look for the magazine.

However, another break was not far off, and already in 1917 the journal ceased its activities again. Here is how the editorial board of the magazine comments on its decision:

The lull lasted until 1926 (1927), when two editions appeared at once. One of them had the same name and was based in Moscow, while the magazine was a free supplement to the World Pathfinder, which was published by the state joint-stock publishing company Zemlya i Fabrika. And the second was in Leningrad and had the name "Journal of Story Literature, Revolutionary Romance, Science Fiction, Adventure, Travel and Discovery" in the publishing house "Krasnaya Gazeta".

Until 1941, the magazine managed to change several publishers, including "Young Guard", " TVNZ"," Pravda ", and in June 1941 the release was again discontinued, but at the end of the Second World War, in 1946 it resumed its work, returning to 12 issues a year, but changing the name to" Monthly Geographic Popular Science and Literature -Art magazine "Around the World". Only by 1993 the magazine changed its publishing house to ZAO Vokrug Sveta, having worked in this way until 1999, after which, during 2000, it was published only on the territory of Ukraine, since 2001 it has been renewing its work in Russia, still existing. The circulation of the magazine is 250,000 copies, 12 issues per year are published with a frequency, respectively, once a month. The history of the magazine is full of ups and downs, but despite all this it remained and remains one of the most famous popular science magazines in Russia.

Scientific journal "Popular Mechanics"

This magazine, which is known to everyone who is interested in news in the world of science and technology, first appeared in 1902 in the United States, but only a century later was able to reach the territory of Russia. It was in 2002 that the magazine was first published in Russian and contains science news, development in the arms industry, aviation, space and automotive news. The magazine has its own website, allowing registered users to blog or discuss in thematic communities.

The presentation of the material in the magazine is quite interesting, in addition, some issues of the magazine may be completed with additional items. For example, in one of the April issues of Popular Mechanics, 3D glasses were attached to the magazine. They were attached, of course, for a reason - the entire issue could be viewed in volume. It should be noted that the magazine is quite "serious" about its April issues and for several years now it has been trying to surprise, ridicule or throw readers into a stupor. The April Fools' rallies were articles about nuclear cartridges, skiing at your fingertips, moose cavalry, and more. Naturally, on April 2, a refutation of this news is published on the site (in addition, an additional refutation is published in the May issue of the magazine). At the moment, the edition is published every month with a circulation of 200 thousand copies, the editor of the magazine is Sergey Apresov.

Popular science magazine "Discovery"

If you have confused this name with a well-known TV channel, then we hasten to dissuade you from this. However, this magazine does not need a special introduction and is known to many, despite the fact that it has been published for only four years. In the materials of the magazine you can learn about the traditions and cultural heritage of various peoples, expeditions, modern achievements of science and the development of the Universe.

The exact date of the journal's appearance is 2009, and the early materials of the journal can be classified as "dubious" and pseudoscientific. For example, in the December 2009 issue of the magazine, the author of the article, Andrei Belikov, writes: "Panov's bipyramid" Galina "is capable not only of stabilizing the human biofield, protecting it from unwanted influences, but also energetically charging water." Such material is rather difficult to call scientific and is rather similar to the stories of "alternatives" that are familiar to many.

However, judging by the materials that Discovery is now publishing, they have abandoned the tendency to post dubious content, and therefore have increased the overall quality of the magazine. However, the general impression was nevertheless spoiled, in addition, conflicts periodically arise between the magazine and readers, such as, for example, the rather well-known conflict between the editorial board of the magazine and the traveler, photographer, blogger, Dmitry Saparov. Meanwhile, the magazine continues to enjoy considerable popularity. It is published monthly with a circulation of 140 thousand, the editor of the magazine is Natalya Shtaeva.

In the following publications, we will try to tell you about other Russian journals dedicated to science and technology.

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 you no less, and often much more, than domestic counterparts. That is why today we will focus on 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 weed out the wheat from the chaff, we will talk about the most famous and eminent, about those who proved that the quality of the material always comes first. Let's move on to the top 5 popular scientific foreign magazines.

5. Scientific American magazine

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

Initially Scientific american it was not a magazine as such, it was a four-page newspaper in which they wrote about new inventions. Most of the newspaper's attention was devoted to the reports of 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 in English) in 16 volumes. It is also interesting to see how the magazine changed its direction within the selection of 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 the printing was stopped, it was re-launched in 2003. However, he did not manage to collect the same audience, it is not difficult to determine, it is enough to compare the circulation of the classic "SciAM", which is about 500 thousand copies and slightly more than 12 thousand copies of "In the world of science".

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

4. Popular science magazine Discover

4th place magazine Discover- initially chose as its audience non-professionals in the world of science, however, simplifying the concept of presenting the 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 journal could initially be interpreted as a search for a "golden mean" between scientific publications and light popular science notes. First published in 1980, the magazine was able to win the audience's trust almost immediately. In addition to the fact that it was here that rather serious scientific materials were published, the authors did not forget about what will help to lure the reader. This is exactly the kind of bait that articles on psychology and psychiatry have become. However, the magazine had something to interest its readers. One of the most popular rubrics was "Skeptical about", in which the author tried to reveal the myths and forgeries of the scientific world. Thus, this section has become the most widely read over the years. However, two decades later (in 2006) the journal's policy will undergo changes associated with a change of leadership and many of the headings will disappear, and the design of the journal will change.

Despite the fact that the magazine throughout its existence wrote about serious things, this did not prevent the emergence of the tradition of the “April Fools' rally”, when one article came out as a joke and, in its essence, was a hoax about what was written in the next issue of the magazine. However, it was impossible not to notice it, but even the refutation of the rally article still aroused indignation among the readers of the magazine.

The magazine is still being published, but it is published only abroad, having no Russian-language counterparts. Those who speak the language can read the electronic version, and for those who did not work out with knowledge of English, we can advise you to search the network for popular science programs in Russian from the magazine "Discovery" (there are such).

3. Popular Mechanics Magazine

The third position is occupied by Popular Mechanics magazine, which has tremendous popularity both abroad and in the CIS, we have already discussed its Russian counterpart. So, meet - Popular Mechanics... It makes no sense to talk a lot about this magazine, some are known, and some we mentioned last time.

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

Despite the fact that the circulation has decreased in comparison with the 80s of the XX century, it cannot be said that the magazine has lost its audience. The decrease in circulation by 400 thousand is to a greater extent connected not with a drop in the interest of readers, but with the development of the Internet, which 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 per year, but you won't be able to subscribe on the domestic analogue of the site, but you can register and buy magazines freely (old number - 59 rubles, a new one - 99 rubles, and an annual archive will cost 590 rubles).

2. Scientific journal Popular Science

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

As with the Popular Mechanics magazine, this publication does not need additional presentation, but it is also impossible not to say anything about it. Initially, the magazine published the works of contemporary scientists such as Darwin, Huxley, Pierce, Cattell and others, but popularity, "popular science" did not gain immediately. And if during its appearance the magazine managed to attract attention to itself, then every year its popularity waned, until, finally, at the beginning of the 20th century it was sold to a new publisher (by the way, this publisher was James Cattel, 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 began and its heyday. Almost a century later, Popular Science is organizing an innovative project - a betting platform for betting on the prediction of the newest inventions of mankind.

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

1. Rating winner by National Geographic magazine

We decided to give the prize for the first place to the magazine National Geographic- finally we got to the publication, which, 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 it is not just that it achieved such popularity.

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

The magazine has a lot to do with this year, but the most important thing is undoubtedly the appearance in the magazine's issue of photographs of the mysterious and unknown at that time Tibet. 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 the 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

"THE MARKET OF POPULAR SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS"

Analytical overview

Moscow 2012

OVERVIEW OF THE MARKET WHICH DOESN'T

1. Positioning in the magazine market

2.Classification of popular science journals

3. Circulation and audience

5. Distribution of popular science magazines

6. State policy in relation to popular science journals

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

OVERVIEW OF THE MARKET WHICH DOESN'T

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"? For 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 numbers 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. To start with women's magazines, for example, would be suicidal. Secondly, these journals have an obvious social function. Mission of education. Thirdly, this segment has a fairly clear and transparent internal structure, which makes it easier to describe. Finally, most of these magazines were just fun to read. So we enjoyed working hours.

What did we get, what are the main conclusions?

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

A group of successful magazine business projects. The leader of this group is the domestic magazine Vokrug Sveta, and the bulk of this leading group is made up of licensed publications, that is, Russian analogues of foreign magazines.

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

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

These three groups are uninteresting to each other and know little about each other. They live in different conditions, do not constitute a single competitive space.

Second conclusion: the segment of popular science magazines has a potential for development. The emergence of new successful players is possible. The niche of historical journals and, in general, the broader niche of popularizing social sciences, sociology, and social psychology is not saturated. The niche of psychology journals can also accommodate new players.

Where will the new actors in the popular science press come from? First, there are also large foreign magazines that can enter the Russian market. Secondly, the example "Around the World" shows how successful it can be to combine Russian-Soviet popular science classics with modern management and advertising opportunities. 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.

Third conclusion. There is no state policy in relation to popular science magazines in Russia. There are no clear criteria for allocating state support to popular science publications, and the practice of allocating targeted aid surprises with the non-obviousness and subjectivity of the choice.

Fourth conclusion. The lack of a market for this segment of the press is caused, among other things, by 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 in a popular way. This market is generated by a huge army of consumers of these ideas and texts - these are the former Soviet intelligentsia, "educated people" and their children. The lack of the infrastructure of this market, that is, the corporation of magazines and the corporation of journalists of this profile, is not an objective law, but simply the absence of initiative, backed up by a minimal resource. A dense communication environment, constant exchange of reviews and mutual professional criticism, collective protection of the popular science field from "petriks" and "fomenoks", this is not a complete list of the urgent 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 for Distribution and Licensing of Publishing House Vokrug Sveta, Elena Lozovskaya, Editor-in-Chief of the Science Magazine and life ”, Yegor Bykovsky, editor-in-chief of the magazine“ Science in focus ”, Lyubov Strelnikova, editor-in-chief of the magazine“ Chemistry and Life of the XXI century ”, Mikhail Kobylinsky, editor-in-chief of History in Detail, Maxim Borisov, scientific editor of Science in Focus ", The issuing editor of the newspaper" Troitsky Variant - Science ". We thank these colleagues for their help in preparing this review.

Igor Yakovenko,

Director General of the National Circulation Service

THE MARKET OF POPULAR SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS IN RUSSIA

Analytical overview

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 (ZhRHO named after D.I. Mendeleev). - 2007. - T. 51, N 3. - S. 86-90.)

The sad record for the decline in circulation among popular science magazines belongs, possibly, to the magazine Yunyi Naturalist, whose circulation has decreased 320 times since Soviet times. Approximately the same level of circulation decline in "Young Technician".

If, on the whole, circulation of periodicals fell by an order of magnitude on average, 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 has experienced a similar collapse.

The external causes of the crisis in the domestic popular science press, such as the low prestige of science in modern Russian society and the fall in the standard of living (and hence the purchasing power) of the most massive readership of this type of publications, are beyond our consideration. The purpose of the review is to describe the market for popular science journals and its internal structure.

1. 1. Positioning in the magazine market

Various catalogs and reference books of the press provide a variety of lists of magazines, which are placed under the heading "popular science". Since the only and sufficient reason for a journal to be labeled as "popular science" is the publisher's desire, incidents arise. For example, the Russian Post catalog refers to the popular science editions of AIDS-info, placing this edition next to the magazine In the world of science. Next to Novosti Kosmonavtiki, also marked "popular science" in the catalog, there is the UFO magazine, then the HEALING newspaper, which here also gives the following description of its content: "secret recipes, secrets of rejuvenation, the magic of money, advice from clairvoyants , healers. " The youth magazine "SMENA" and other publications that are clearly not such are classified as "popular science". Obviously, in order 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:

1. Self-positioning, that is, the magazine classifies itself as a popular science one.
2. External positioning. The publication includes a popular science section, catalogs and press reference books.
3. Based on the content analysis of the publication, it is recorded that at least 30% of the texts are devoted to science.
4. 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.
5. The presence in the number of authors and members of 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 is in contact (is in relation to intersection) with at least 6 more magazine markets:

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

With specialized magazines, such as, for example, travel magazines, which publish popular articles on regional studies and history, but have a different range of tasks, not popularizing scientific knowledge, but serving the tourism industry; for the same reasons, the review did not include health journals, which form their own separate market;

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

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

General interest journals (men, women, youth), in which popular science issues may be present, but, as a rule, it takes no more than 5-10%;

Industry magazines.

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

1. "In the animal world"
2. "In the world of science"
3. "Around the world"
4. World Pathfinder
5. "Amateur"
6. "Earth and the Universe"
7. "Mirror of the World"
8. "Knowledge is power"
9. "Inventor and innovator"
10. "History in detail"
11. "Machines and mechanisms"
12. "Science in Russia"
13. "Science and life"
14. "Science and technology"
15. "Science at first hand"
16. "Science in focus"
17. "Our Psychology"
18. "Cosmonautics News"
19. "Popular Mechanics"
20. "Potential"
21. "Nature"
22. "Nature and Man"
23. "Technology - for youth"
24. "Chemistry and life of the XXI century"
25. "Ecology and Life"
26. "Young Naturalist"
27. "Young technician"
28. "DISCOVERY"
29. "GEO"
30. "NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC"
31. "NEW SCIENTIST RU"
32. "PSYCHOLOGIES"
33. "Beasts"
34. “Moscow magazine. History of Russian Goverment"
35. "Voenno-istoricheskiy zhurnal"
36. "Motherland"

1. 2. Classification of popular science journals

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

By the time of publication start: on traditional brands that have a more or less long history in Russia, and have emerged in recent years;

For domestic and foreign (licensed);

According to the degree of scientific character, that is, according to the location on the scale: "scientific popularity";

By the universality of the content, that is, by the location on the scale: "universal-specialized" and, accordingly, by subject;

2.1. "Old" and "new brands"

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

Of the 36 publications included in the review, 4 have pre-revolutionary experience, 9 are Soviet, 4 were founded in the 90s, 11 appeared in “zero” and 3 in the last 3 years.

That is, the market for popular science magazines in Russia is young, emerging, and it is quite possible that its formation is far from 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 market of popular science magazines 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 is ScientificAmerican (the 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 "noughties", when the Russian advertising market matured and his magazine segment.

The domestic versions of foreign popular science magazines that appeared on the Russian market in the 2000s now dominate, having almost one and a half times the total circulation and dominating the advertising market.

The cumulative 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, each Russian analogue of a foreign magazine comes out with a circulation of 107,166 copies, and a domestic circulation of 33,097 copies. (DISCOVERY magazine was excluded from this analysis, since it is a Russian magazine that uses a popular foreign brand without a license)

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

However, it would be an oversimplification 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 publish, but did not hold out on the market.

More details about the participation of popular science magazines in competition in the advertising market will be discussed in the fourth section of this review. Here we will restrict ourselves only to the division 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 for them is the main source of income.

(The given TNS measurement data for 6 editions. Since DISCOVERY is not in the TNS panel, a content analysis was made for the July issue of this magazine and the data was extrapolated for half a year, so, perhaps, the volume of advertising for this magazine is slightly higher.)

This group includes publications that are taking 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 magazines: "Dilettant", "Science and Technology", "In the world of science" (affiliate advertising, therefore can be attributed to the 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", "Rodina", "Potential "(sponsorship).

Knowledge is Power, Nature and Man, History in Detail, Ecology and Life, Nature, Earth and Universe, Inventor and Rationalizer, History in Detail, Moscow Journal , 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 a topic for another review. We analyzed the formal characteristics of the content, not its flavor characteristics.

Three criteria were used to determine the place on the scientific-popularity scale in this review:

The share of scientific topics in the total volume of publications;

Popular science style of presentation;

The presence of scientists and well-known popularizers of science among authors and members of editorial boards,

Based on these criteria, 3 groups of journals can be distinguished:

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

"Knowledge is Power", "Science and Life", "In the World of Science", "Chemistry and Life of the XXI Century", "History in Detail", "Science and Technology", "Science in Focus", "Popular Mechanics", " NEWSCIENTIST.RU ". At the “pole of scientificity” 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 used literature, etc.)

Group "B". The balance of scientificity and popularity. Scientific topics do not exceed 50% of the total volume of the journal, at least half of the authors are journalists, not scientists, popular science stylistics does not exceed 50% of materials, such genres as essay, reportage, etc. are widely represented. This group mainly includes publications with great commercial success:

"Around the world", "GEO", "NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC", "PSYCHOLOGIES", "DISCOVERY", "Ecology life." 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 for popular science journals. The reasons for each of the three editions are different, so we give a commentary on each magazine.

World Pathfinder. Despite the presence in most catalogs and reference books under the heading "Popular science publications", as well as the corresponding self-positioning, it is rather a travel magazine. There are practically no materials popularizing science.

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

"Beasts". This is a children's magazine that tries to adapt information on zoology, animal ethology, paleontology for children. They do it.

2.5. Scale: "universal-specialized". Classification by topic

According to the topic, Russian popular science magazines are divided into 5 groups:

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

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

1. “Moscow Journal. 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 a critical-bibliographic and theater-critical departments. It was renewed in 1991. Circulation 5,000 copies. 96 bands. Published with the financial support of the Moscow Department of Mass Media and Advertising.

2. "Rodina" has been published since 1879. In today's format since 1989. 160 bands. 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 Council of Federation Stroev E.S. and vice-president of AFK "Sistema" Kopyev V.V. Competitive advantages are derived from government status. Additional competitive advantage: the journal is included in the list of the Higher Attestation Commission for the publication of the main results of dissertations. The print run is not published in the imprint.

3. "Voenno-istoricheskiy zhurnal" has been published by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation since 1939. The publication was renewed in 1959. 80 bands. Competitive advantages stem 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 bands. No ads. Circulation - less than 1,000 copies.

5. "Dilettant" has been published since January 2012 with the support of ECHO Moskvy radio. Circulation 15,000 copies. Advertising - 2, 3 and 4 cover pages.

The niche of popular historical magazines is poorly filled. There is a clear mismatch between widespread interest in history and the relatively small circulation and audience of popular history magazines on the market. Dilettant has a chance to fill this niche, as it promotes with the support of the millionth audience of Ekho Moskvy. If the "Dilettante" does not use 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. It is mainly aimed at the female audience. Published by one of the largest publishing houses in Russia, HEARSHKULEVMEDIA / INTERMEDIAGROUP, 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 campaigns of this kind in Russia. It takes 2nd place after "Around the World" in terms of advertising volume among all popular science publications. The actual circulation of each issue imported to Russia in the 1st half of 2012 amounted to 196,368 copies. (average).

2. "Our Psychology". Publisher "NOOSFERA". 156 pages, of which 20 pages on average are reserved for advertising, including advertising for psychological services. The actual circulation imported to Russia is 29,200 copies. The authors are Russian practicing psychologists.

Psychological journals have the greatest success of all thematic-specialized groups of popular science publications. They collect ads much more than others. They have the largest circulation and audience in comparison with other popular science magazines (except, of course, universal ones). This is because the structure of interest in psychology is fundamentally different from interest in most other sciences. While interest in physics, astronomy, or history is based on curiosity, interest in psychology is dominated by the practical component. The PSYCHOLOGIES slogan “Find yourself and live better” and the very name of another magazine: “Our Psychology” speaks about motivation of readers better than any comment.

However, despite the tremendous commercial and reader success of the published psychological journals, they most likely do not cover the entire need for information on this topic. In this niche, there is still a chance of success for new publications.

C. About animals. In the group of 3 popular science magazines (magazines about dogs, cats, aquarium fish are not included, since they belong to publications about hobbies):

1. "Young Naturalist" has been published since 1928. The volume is 48 pages. The dynamics of the magazine's circulation is indicative:

1929 - 6,500 copies.

1978 - 2,600,000 copies.

2003 - 19,000 copies

2012 - 8,000 copies

2. "In the world of animals" has been published since 1998. One of the founders is the host of the popular TV show of the same name NN Drozdov. Circulation 20 thousand copies. 48 pages, of which an average of 5 - 6 pages are sold for advertising. Profile advertising: feed and animal exhibitions.

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

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

D. Technical. The group includes 4 magazines:

1. "Inventor and Rationalizer" has been published since 1929. Circulation 3,112 copies. 32 stripes. No ads.

2. "Technology for Youth" has been published since 1933. Circulation 48,920 copies. 64 stripes. No ads. 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 was from 300,000 to 2 million copies. 80 bands. No ads. Competitive advantage: the journal is approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for use in the educational process of various educational institutions.

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

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

E. Universal or multidisciplinary. The group includes the bulk of popular science magazines, 22 editions.

1. 3. Circulation and audience

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

The magazines "Priroda", "Rodina", "Science in Russia", "Earth and Universe" in violation of the law "On Mass Media" do not publish information about their circulation in the 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 journals in Russia, and no data at all for most publications. Therefore, market analysis is best done based on circulation data. The main media meter, whose data on the audience of the press, TV and radio is recognized by the market as the main currency, is TNS. Analysis of TNS methodology and comparison of TNS data on the audience with the actual circulation of publications shows that TNS provides information not about the audience, but most likely about the brand awareness of the publication. This is also an important indicator, although in itself such a substitution of the research subject is a serious problem in the advertising market.

However, in the absence of other data, let us give TNS figures about the "audience" of 6 popular science magazines, which were included in the TNS measurement panel in September 2011 - February 2012:

1. 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 methodology for calculating them (content analysis based on price lists) is clear and verifiable. In this review, one can admit an inaccuracy that arises due to the fact that the calculation is not taking into account discounts. According to TNS data for 6 months of the 1st half of 2012, the advertising volumes in the most advertising-intensive popular science magazines were as follows:

Absolute leadership in the advertising market "Vokrug Sveta" requires a separate analysis. Some success factors lie on the surface: a 150-year-old Russian brand that provides a 5 million audience-recognition plus modern management and focus on business promotion in the advertising market. But the main factor of success, which allowed the publication to use all the mentioned advantages and convert them into commercial success, was undoubtedly the change of ownership in 2000, when the magazine was acquired by Sergey Vasiliev, General Director of Video International. By connecting the capacities of the largest advertising seller, it was possible to create a modern publishing concern with a powerful sales department, producing several magazines, travel guides 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 - men's. The automotive segment of the press is clearly 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.

1. 5. Distribution of popular science magazines

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

1. The publications are commercially successful, the main income of which is advertising revenue. Accordingly, the income from the sale of the circulation is uncritical, the circulation and the audience are important, which means that the retail and subscription price is as low as possible. Retail - 80-130 rubles; subscription - 70 -160 rubles).
2. Publications for which the sale of circulation is a significant part of the budget. The pricing policy of these publications depends on the choice of tactics: sell a little less, but more expensive, 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.
3. Publications that, for a number of reasons, are out of the market competition. These are, first of all, 3 popular science journals of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which have a guaranteed reader, since they are included in the list of the Higher Attestation Commission and in the structure of the motivation of their readership there is 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 revenues (and these are all classic "Soviet" popular science magazines except for "Vokrug Sveta") were actually cut off from retail chains, that is, from their mass readers ... In order to place the 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 kiosker will take a maximum of 10 magazines with a selling price of 100 rubles. That is, retail sales for publishers is a rather serious item of expenditure, 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 proves the rule.

6.Public policy regarding popular science journals

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

With regard to popular science journals, public policy manifests itself in 5 different forms:

1. Direct financing. Rospechat grants, with the support of which popular science magazines are being published, currently have: "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 Mass Media and Advertising. NewScientist.ru is published with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science.
2. Founding by government agencies. Rodina was established by the Government and the Presidential Administration, Voenno-Istorichesky Zhurnal by the Ministry of Defense, Novosti Kosmonavtiki published under the auspices of Roscosmos.
3. The RAS is founded by Nature, Science in Russia, Earth and the Universe; from the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences - "Science First Hand".
4. Inclusion in the VAK List and the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI). The VAK List includes "Nature", "Earth and Universe", "Motherland" and "Military Historical Journal". The RSCI includes: "Inventor and rationalizer", "History in detail".
5. Recommendations of the Ministry of Education and Science for use in the teaching and educational process of educational institutions have "Technology for Youth", "Ecology and Life", "Young Technician".

All the listed forms of state support for popular science journals, except, perhaps, direct founding by state bodies, 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 magazines. press.

However, the above lists of addressees of various forms of state support cause some bewilderment by their, to put it mildly, non-obviousness. The support of such publications as "Knowledge is Power" or "Young Technician" can hardly raise questions. But why did the officials of Rospechat so fond of, for example, the magazine "Nature and Man", which leaves a lot of questions regarding its belonging to the category of popular science publications and posts articles for money? To eliminate subjectivity in this matter, the criteria for state support should be clearly formulated. In the Order of Rospechat dated February 27, 2012 "On the approval of the criteria for selecting recipients of state support in the media" there is no mention of publications that popularize scientific knowledge and, accordingly, there are no criteria for helping these publications.

The lack of a coherent and articulate state policy in relation to 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 urgent.

7. Is there a market? (About journalistic 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?"

In this case, the market is understood as a certain competitive environment in which the actors-producers (in this case, producers of popular science content) fight among themselves to get the maximum number of readers and money. One of the important functions of the market is the information function, that is, knowledge of market entities and their products. As part of this study, we conducted an expert survey, in which we invited the chief editors and CEOs of all the journals included in the review. In the expert questionnaire, it was proposed to give a brief description of each market entity. Not everyone responded, which is quite 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, the estimates of our best experts (and who can know the publication better than a competitor) turned out to be erroneous. 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. This, in turn, means that there is no single market for popular science magazines.

The editions that we examined in this review do not see each other at close range. Even those that are obviously in the same niche. On the website of the Rodina magazine, the first phrase of the presentation reads as follows: Rodina is the only popular historical magazine in Russia. The Diletant magazine, which was born in January 2012, presents itself on the Ekho Moskvy website as the First Historical Magazine. What kind of competition? Which market? Each of the 36 magazines is one and only!

The "Magnificent Seven" of popular science magazines that are successful in the advertising market compete with each other, as well as with other successful advertising publications from the categories of women, men, 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, then these are crumbs that the market will not live on.

Classic, "former Soviet" popular science magazines are fighting for their survival by fighting for subscriptions and building relationships with officials in order to receive state subsidies.

RAS journals and state publications are generally outside any market, do not depend on anyone except the bosses who established them.

There is no single market for popular science journals, since it splits 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 popularly present them. This market has a huge army of consumers. Its development requires infrastructure, journalistic and journalistic corporations. Simply put, it's good when those who write and publish texts read each other, write reviews on each other. When sometimes they say to a colleague-author: “Well done, old man! I read your article twice. " It is useful to sometimes say: "you, friend, in the last text let the rooster go." All this was: the Science Journalists Club (which still exists today) and the Centaur competition. The competition seems to have dissipated, and it would be good for the Club to give a new impetus, to try to transform it into a collective reference group, which, in the mode of constant discussion and discussion, works to raise the bar for scientific journalism.

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

Not so long ago, we offered our subscribers an article-rating of popular science magazines in Ukraine. This material has caused a lively discussion from the readers. Many of them shared their thoughts about what else from popular science periodicals is worth reading and is 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

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

The magazine has a very interesting monetization model. Since 2007, Popular Science has founded the Popular Science Predictions EXchange project, which is, in fact, a betting exchange. Here, registered users are asked to guess the date of a certain technical innovation or scientific discovery. As it turned out, science is a gambling process with numerous "fans".

Many articles on the website of the publication are devoted to young scientists and inventors and their unpredictable successes. For example, 15-year-old Brooke Martin, who developed a device for telecommunication 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 "burning" news on the magazine's website, you can read to whom and for what this year the Nobel Prizes were awarded. Interesting information about the results of the World Maker Faire 2015, which took place in New York.

The word "maker" has traditionally been called representatives of "garage science", whose achievements can literally amaze and dazzle. So at World Maker Faire 2015, among the exhibits were a 30-meter robot designed by Shane Evans from several broken aircraft, an underwater drone with a virtual cockpit proposed by David Lang, and a plasma-covered glass robot performed by Wayne Strathman.

If with a subscription to the paper version of Popular Science may arise difficulties of a "geographical nature", then its regularly updated website is always at the service of the Ukrainian audience. No language barrier - read and stay on top of global innovations!

2. National Geographic

This edition also opened its first page in history in the nineteenth century. National Geographic was founded by the US National Geographic Society in 1888. However, the turning point for the publication was 1905, and in particular the publication of a report on a trip to Tibet with a huge number of photographs. From this day on, high-quality illustrative material has been the "calling card" of the magazine.

National Geographic is published in many countries in many languages. Official website of the magazine: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/. The peculiarity of the English-language version of the magazine is the “children's page”. The Russian 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 for travelers and incredible secrets of the animal world - all this can be found on the pages and on the National Geographic website.

For myself, while preparing this article, I discovered that the idea of ​​ants-workers is a myth. Among these insects, hard work is demonstrated by 2.5% of individuals, the rest are only reaping the fruits ().

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 way to success!" :)))

3. Around the world

The website "Around the World" has several headings: travel, food, history, people, animals, science. In principle, these headings reveal a wide range of issues raised in a popular science publication.

The last issue of "Around the World" highlights such issues as: the secret of the UAE's prosperity, prototypes of the heroes of the painting by I. Repin "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 the early modern times, the digestive system as a bioreactor, the secrets of the work of the paparazzi.

"Around the World" also reacted 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 a word, the journal is cognitive in every sense and can satisfy the scientific interest of a fairly general public. From myself, I will advise an article about why a beard has recently entered men's fashion and how the era of shortage of women was reflected in the appearance of men :.

4. BBC Focus

A relatively young (published since 1992) British popular science journal. Published in Bristol, circulation 70,000, BBC Focus official website: http://www.sciencefocus.com/
Among the latest articles on the site: "Where is the coldest part of the refrigerator?" than oxygen? "," What is the powder on the wings of a night moth? "," Do plants really grow faster if they hear a human voice and music? "

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

The current issue of the magazine is trying to figure out whether humanity can avoid mass extinction, what medical effect music has, what things about a person can his face tell and whether we can grow plants without sunlight.
As you can see, "The Martian" also inspired this edition to think about agronomy in extreme conditions. Or maybe not he ...

5. Universe. Space. Time.

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

Journal headings: Universe, Solar system, Earth, Life in the Universe, Life on Earth, Cosmonautics, Astronomy, Amateur astronomy, Science fiction.
The last issue is devoted to the solar system in its "young years". In addition, he reveals the secrets of dwarf planets, nebulae and the "stormy sea" in the constellation Sagittarius.

The editorial office of the magazine often organizes popular science events, in particular, on September 26, a creative meeting was held under the name "Evening of sidewalk astronomy", the photo report from which can be seen on the page "Universe. Space. Time ”on Facebook.