business.nn.ru — the “Nizhny Novgorod Business Site”, the business resource of the Nizhny Novgorod *.nn.ru network of sites, run by the NN.ru internet company of Nizhny Novgorod[1]. The copyright notice in the snapshot of March 2001 gave the year 2000[1]; by 2002 the footer of the front page listed OOO “NN.RU”, the telephone (8312) 197799 and the address info@nn.ru[2]. Later the same address opened the finance section of the “Nizhny Novgorod Online” portal[4]; the last saved snapshot of the front page is dated February 2013[5].

What the site looked like

The header of the front page was shared by the whole *.nn.ru network and listed the neighbouring projects by letter abbreviations: a. — AvtoNN, b. — Business Site NN, c. — Counter.nn.ru, d. — Design.nn.ru, f. — Forums, n. — NNBN Banner Network, w. — WWW.NN.RU[1]. The same header carried the short address http://b.nn.ru and a “company server ratings” link[1]. The catalogue entry described the project as follows: “This is a site for business people. For people who value their time and money. Specially selected analytical material, fresh news, the chance to talk with colleagues in the business forums and much more” — as the catalogue of Nizhny Novgorod sites on nn.ru put it[3].

In 2001 the menu consisted of the blocks “Advertising” (with an announcement from ZAO “Tekhnovolga”), “Commercial announcements”, “How to order”, “Useful things” (the dollar exchange rate, a city map, a directory), “Help for business” (telephone numbers of the tax office and the courts), “Communication” and “Business” — with subsections on advertising, the computer press, information technologies and banking technologies[1]. The editorial contacts were the telephone (8312) 19-97-84 and the fax 19-79-98[1]. The keywords of the page outlined the publication's range of interests: GAZ, PAZ, ZMZ, VolgoTransGaz, AKBM, NizhnovEnergo, promissory notes, tenders, the dollar exchange rate[1].

By November 2002 the structure had grown: “Home”, “Reports”, “Monitoring of the legislation of Nizhny Novgorod Region”, “Company news”, “Price lists”, “Business forum”, “Advertising”, “Contacts”, “Client login”, “Links”, and in the side column commercial announcements, the “Nizhny Novgorod Flea Market”, the weather in Nizhny, the dollar exchange rate, a directory, help for business, courts and expert examinations, tax inspectorates, banks, plastic cards[2]. A search of the archive of publications was in operation, with a choice of dates from 1999 to 2010[2]. A separate table, “Best rates (USD) in N. Novgorod”, showed the quotations of local banks: Bank of Moscow — 31.30 and 31.85, Ellips Bank — 30.80 and 31.59, Radiotekhbank — 30.65 and 31.59, against the Central Bank of the Russian Federation rate of 31.50[2].

What it published

The 2001 feed mixed business chronicle with everyday matters: a meeting of the heads of commercial banks at the Main Directorate of the Central Bank for Nizhny Novgorod Region on 27 February 2001 attended by First Deputy Governor A. V. Batyrev, an analysis of the personnel policy of OAO “GAZ” (the Gorky Automobile Plant), a report on a single trade union at OAO “Sibur-Neftekhim”, a note about the appearance of a thirteenth television channel in Nizhny Novgorod, an explanation of what spam is, and a survey of the history of Nasdaq[1]. In the business forum the threads “Plastic cards”, “Advertising and the internet”, “Barter (vodka for GAZelle vans)” and “How I took part in a swindle”, the latter with 14 replies, hung side by side[1].

In 2002 the main flow consisted of “Company news” — in effect paid announcements from Nizhny Novgorod firms complete with telephone numbers and addresses: the information centre of the ConsultantPlus network, OOO “Aprel INFO”, invited accountants and managers to a seminar on 26 November at the House of Officers at Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, 30, and ran a hotline on the telephone 78-30-40[2]; the firm “GAMMA-VOLGA” offered laminating film from its warehouse at Oksky Syezd, 2, office 28, telephone and fax 160-155 and 394-492[2]; NBD-Bank was lowering the cost of non-cash dollar conversion from 18 November and opening the “Tsenny” (Valuable) deposit[2]; the SUNRISE computer store was looking for a sales consultant[2]. Alongside these ran city stories as well: the participation of the Gorky Automobile Plant in the 2nd All-Russian trademark competition “Zolotnik”, whose super-final took place on 12 November in Moscow, and the affair of the seizure of the shareholder register of the Nizhny Novgorod Fat and Oil Plant[2].

Its place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

In the catalogue of Nizhny Novgorod sites on nn.ru the project stood in the section “Projects : Business world and finance”[3]. On the section page of 25 July 2002 the “Nizhny Novgorod Business Site” was credited with a rating of 1297 — by a wide margin the highest figure among the seven resources listed there: its nearest neighbour, the consulting centre “Russky Menedzhment” (Russian Management), had 317, the “Volga-Don Association” 98, and the section “Currency rates on WWW.NN.RU” 15[3]. The regional counter Counter.nn.ru, with which the whole Nizhny Novgorod Internet measured its traffic, belonged to the same network of projects and stood on the third line of the business site's header[1]; a comparison of the figures of that era is collected in the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.

Change of content and closure

By February 2007 the address returned a page under a different masthead — “Nizhny Novgorod Online — Finance”, already inside the common portal design with private messages, a user search and the line “Handing out elephants. Fill it in and 20 nnru roubles are yours”[4]. The header stated: “population 1.5 mln people, internet audience 200 thousand people”[4]. By that time the content had almost lost its Nizhny Novgorod connection: the feeds “Russian markets”, “Economy and politics”, “Foreign markets”, summaries of the MICEX (1,639.61 points) and RTS (1,838.62 points) indices for 12 February 2007, an “Encyclopaedia of issuers” and a yield calculator[4].

In the snapshot of 7 February 2013 the masthead remained the same, but the section had been frozen: the most recent material on the front page was dated the end of December 2011[5]. There are no later substantive copies of the front page in the available material, nor is there any information about the project moving to another address[5].

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2002 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — nn.ru category index, section “Business world and finance”, 2002 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Home page, 2007 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Home page, 2013 (archive)