"NTA-Privolzhye" (nta-nn.ru) was the website of the Nizhny Novgorod news agency Novoye Telegrafnoye Agentstvo Privolzhye (New Telegraph Agency Volga Region), a daily news feed covering Nizhny Novgorod and the Volga Federal District[1][3]. The agency operated under mass-media registration certificate IA No. 18-0859 of 11 June 2002, issued by the Russian Ministry for Press, Broadcasting and Mass Communications (Volga District Interregional Territorial Directorate)[1]. The site's masthead carried four addresses at once — nta-nn.ru, ntann.ru, nta-nn.com and ntann.com[1]. The surviving copies of the home page span the years 2002—2011; today the former publication is no longer at that address.

What the home page looked like

In the 2007 snapshot the top menu consisted of the sections "Home", "News feed", "Ratings", "Exclusive", "Topical", "Analysis", "Photo reports", "Quote", "Conferences", "Archive" and "NTA-Market"[1]. By the beginning of 2011 "NTA-Market" had vanished from the menu, while "Video" and "Advertising" had appeared[2].

Below the masthead the feed was broken up into sections: "Society", "Politics, Government", "Economy", "Culture and Art", "Incidents, Crime" and a separate column "Dzerzhinsk News"[1]; by October 2011 "Sarov News" had been added to them, and "Society" had merged with sport into the section "Society, Sport"[3]. Some of the Dzerzhinsk items were published with a note on the source — "(Dzerzhinsk TV company)"[2]. The lead story of the day opened with the standard telegraph-agency dateline: "Nizhny Novgorod. July 5. NTA-Privolzhye –"[1].

The agency's own genres were the "Influence Rating" and the "Events Rating", which were placed on the first screen: monthly instalments ("Influence Rating June-2007", "Events Rating August - 2011", "Influence Rating September-2011") and annual summaries ("Influence Rating - 2010")[1][2][3]. Alongside them stood the "Exclusive" section with long interviews with Nizhny Novgorod officials, the "Quote" box and a reader poll. In July 2007 the "Quote" box carried the words of Leonid Belov, representative of the Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region in the Federation Council, "In a year I have had lunch 6 times", while the poll asked readers whether they were ready to take children into foster care[1]. In both 2011 snapshots the "Quote" box featured Valery Shantsev, Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region[2][3].

The agency shot its photo reports itself: in 2007 the home page carried "The 29th Moscow International Film Festival through the eyes of NTA-Privolzhye" and "Certification examination for the leading instructors of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the Kyokushin Federation of Russia"[1], and in October 2011 "The opening of the first extreme-sports park in Nizhny Novgorod Region"[3]. A PDA version and reader registration were in operation[1]. The bottom of the 2007 page was occupied by the "Today" block — short advertising items from Nizhny Novgorod companies under the headings "Auto", "Real Estate", "Technology", "Services", "Leisure" and "What's On", as well as an announcement for the city magazine "Krupny Plan" (Close-Up) with the telephone numbers of its editorial office, 30-68-80, and of its advertising department, 14-51-31[1]. The same place carried the requirement "Any use of the site's materials requires a link (hyperlink) to 'NTA-Privolzhye'", and the copyright line "IA 'NTA—Privolzhye' 2002-2006"[1].

Its place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

In the nn.ru directory the site was described by the line "All the news of Nizhny Novgorod and the Volga Federal District" and was listed in two sections at once — "Media : Internet Media and Online Publications" and "Companies (Enterprises) : Information and Recruitment Agencies, Services : Classic News Agencies"[6][7]. Next to every entry the directory displayed the Counter.nn.ru figure; the counter of "NTA-Privolzhye" had the number 10686[6].

These figures show how quickly the agency rose. In November 2002, in the internet-media section, which then listed 33 sites, it was marked "Rating: none" — it did not yet carry a counter[4]. In the directory snapshot of 17 September 2003 the rating of "NTA Privolzhye" stood at 16775 against 1098 for "SMI-NN.Ru", 338 for "If-Region" and 264 for TsMIKI; the remaining seven sites of the section, which listed eleven in all, had no counter whatsoever[5]. In November 2003, when sorted by rating, the agency stood first in the same section, which had grown to twelve sites, with a figure of 3253, followed by "SMI-NN.Ru" (1658) and "If-Region" (399)[6]. How the figure itself was calculated and what can be done with it is examined in our Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.

In January 2004 "NTA Privolzhye" also headed the far more crowded section "Internet Media and Online Publications" (27 sites) with a rating of 2854, ahead of the "Nizhny Novgorod Telegraph Agency" (2703, a separate project that called itself the first news agency of Nizhny Novgorod), the internet supplement to the magazine "ComputerPrice — NN" (2217), "SMI-NN.Ru" (1712) and the nizhny.ru information service (1483)[7]. In other words, by 2004 the nta-nn.ru feed was, by its counter figure, ahead of every other news site in the directory — a notable position for the Nizhny Novgorod Internet of those years, in which the classic news agencies section alone listed more than a dozen entries.

The agency recorded its own first place as well: on 30 September 2011 the feed carried the item "In the second quarter IA 'NTA-Privolzhye' took first place in the rating of media resources of Nizhny Novgorod Region"[3].

What remained in the feed

The archived snapshots of the home page preserved a cross-section of the regional agenda. July 2007: the topics "Lyulin is leaving the post of chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod Legislative Assembly" and "The 2007 State Duma elections", and a report that "Nizhegorodpassazhiravtotrans" (the regional passenger road transport company) intended to buy another 50 low-floor city buses on lease terms in 2007[1]. January 2011: "The results of 2010 in Nizhny Novgorod Region", the purchase by the company "Delta-NN" of more than 20% of the shares of NBD-Bank, and the change of the Standard & Poor's outlook on the ratings of N. Novgorod from "Stable" to "Positive"[2]. October 2011: "The 2018 FIFA World Cup in N. Novgorod", a protocol of intent between the Nizhny Novgorod regional government and the Italian company Danieli on the construction of a metallurgical equipment plant in Dzerzhinsk, and a weekly fall of 9% in the price of buckwheat according to Nizhegorodstat[3].

How it closed

According to our crawl of the web archive, the earliest saved copy of the site is dated 28 September 2002, and the archive holds about eighty copies in all. The last snapshot included in the sample we examined was made on 7 October 2011: in it the site is still alive and complete, with news of the same day, a fresh "Influence Rating September-2011" and the Dzerzhinsk and Sarov feeds[3]. The materials give no exact date of closure; in the inventory of closed Nizhny Novgorod sites for which this article was written, nta-nn.ru is listed as dead — the former publication is no longer at that address.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2007 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, January 2011 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, October 2011 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, "Internet Media and Online Publications" section, November 2002 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, "Classic News Agencies" section, September 2003 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, "Classic News Agencies" section, November 2003 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, "Internet Media and Online Publications" section, January 2004 (archive)