Zen service is changing management before reorganization

The management of the Zen service is changing: content director Rinat Nizamov, who has worked in the service since it belonged to Yandex, is leaving the platform along with part of the team. Kommersant’s sources say that Zen management will be “more integrated” into the VK structure in the future. Previous personnel changes in the holding took place against the backdrop of disagreements between management and managers responsible for specific services. Experts note that more than a year after the separation from Yandex, the platform has already changed – in particular, it has begun to place more emphasis on “clickable content.”

The Zen content platform is preparing for reorganization, the goal of which is deeper integration into the VK management structure, a source familiar with the situation told Kommersant. Two other Kommersant sources clarified that content director Rinat Nizamov will leave Zen “along with part of the team” in the near future.

After Kommersant approached Mr. Nizamov for a comment, he posted on his Facebook (Meta’s social networking activities in the Russian Federation have been declared extremist and prohibited) that he “decided to leave Zen” on October 31. The Zen press service confirmed this information to Kommersant, refusing additional comments.

Mr. Nizamov has held his post since 2021, when Zen still belonged to Yandex. In August 2022, the service moved to VK, but the main page of the service retains traffic from transitions to yandex.ru and the Yandex search bar.

In September, VK announced that it would unite the management of social and content services, including Zen; the business group was headed by VK Senior Vice President for Media Strategy and Service Development Stepan Kovalchuk. Sources of The Bell (announced a foreign agent in the Russian Federation) reported in October that the content strategy of social networks VK, which is based on exclusive content, depends on him.

In July, three top managers of VKontakte already left VK – General Director Marina Krasnova, Technical Director Alexander Tobol and Director of Marketing and Development Alexander Volodin. Then Kommersant’s sources reported about differences of opinion between the management of VKontakte and VK. In October, after VK announced On the appointment of Artemy Lebedev as design director, VK interface director Yuri Solodovnikov announced on Facebook his resignation from the company due to a “significant revision of the initial agreements.”

Professional users of Zen are already feeling the influence of VK on the service, including in terms of communication with authors, says Timur Ugulava, co-owner of the Mediasfera Group of Companies.

“The platform, if we compare it with the state of the times of Yandex, has become more open with authors, expresses its problems to them, and tries to take into account their requests.” The change in policy, according to him, is also manifested in content formats, which have begun to be given priority: “Zen is now following the path of many content platforms – not only towards the uniqueness and expertise of materials, but also towards clickable content, something that allows retain the audience longer.”

Roem.ru editor-in-chief Yuri Sinodov, however, believes that there is little point in talking about the impact of VK on Zen: “All changes on the site took place with most of the same team that worked at Yandex, and under the influence of more significant external factors than a change of owner. They would have appeared even if Zen and News had remained in Yandex.”

VK managed to retain most of the “Zen” audience, which it gained under “Yandex” thanks to integration with its search engine and browser, says Igor Torkhov, developer of the ProZen analytics extension: “Now “Zen” may well exist as a separate project.” He considers the explicit integration of “Zen” into the social networks VK (VKontakte, Odnoklassniki) unlikely, since these are “competing platforms fighting for the user’s attention.”

Yuri Litvinenko, Yulia Tishina