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TASS wins Runet Prize 2014 in State and Society nomination

According to TASS Director General Sergei Mikhailov, the agency has made a major contribution to the Runet’s development over the past two years

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Russia’s TASS news agency has won the Runet Prize 2014 in the State and Society nomination for its active work in online space

© TASS/Sergei Fadeichev

Photo: Yelizaveta Golikova, head of the TASS department of information technologies and online projects

© TASS/Sergei Fadeichev

The TASS website is among the top five media websites, which actively publish news

© TASS/Sergei Fadeichev

MOSCOW, November 25 /TASS/. Russia’s TASS news agency has won the Runet Prize 2014 in the State and Society nomination for its active work in online space.

According to TASS Director General Sergei Mikhailov, the agency has made a major contribution to the Runet’s development over the past two years.

“Our agency’s team has created a highly technological 24/7 news portal, which promptly provides wide audiences with a maximum full information flow about events in Russia and abroad,” Mikhailov said adding that technical novelties introduced by the website had made the reading of its content more convenient.

“Any visitor can adjust the TASS news stream to meet ones’ own needs,” the TASS director general said. Commenting on importance of the Runet Prize, Sergei Mikhailov said the award “contributed to development of information technologies and electronic media and the creation of a common information space in Russia.”

According to Yelizaveta Golikova, the head of the TASS department of information technologies and online projects, the tass.ru website brought news to various audiences making it available not only to a narrow circle of subscribers to the TASS news service but to all people, thus increasing the agency’s social significance.

“This prize is indicative of the good work of the agency staff, including correspondents, editors, photographers and all those who create the agency’s content in Russia and abroad,” Golikova said receiving the Runet Prize 2014 statuette on Tuesday. She added that the technical abilities of the TASS portal made it possible to apply any kinds of mobile devices.

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In October this year, TASS topped media ratings as a news agency which was most frequently quoted in Runet in March-June this year. According to the Yandex survey, TASS citation ratings were higher than those of such leading Russian media outlets as Kommersant, Izvestia and RBK. Besides, TASS was second in a list of editions with the greatest number of links to every 100 of its own publications. The TASS website is among the top five media websites, which actively publish news.

The average number of monthly views of TASS website has reached 48.8 million. In 2014, it has increased 4.5 times since 2013. The average monthly number of unique visitors has grown more than twice to reach 11.3 million people /according to Google Analytics figures for January-September 2013 and January-September 2014/.

This year, the Runet Prize was awarded in six nominations: State and Society; Culture, Media and Mass Communications; Science and Education; Economy, Business and Investments; Science and Education; Technologies and Innovations; as well as two special nominations such as Internet without Extremism and For Development of Regional Internet Projects.

The Runet Prize was instituted by the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications /Rospechat/ in 2004. It became the main national award to commend achievements in information technologies and the Internet. Its winners are leading Internet holdings; portals and state bodies.

The Runet Prize is a national-level award in the field information technology and Internet organized by the Russian Association of Electronic Communications /RAEC/ and the Coordination center of the national Internet domain.

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