Jobs: Anton Gorodetsky, publisher "Kanobu"

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

About the media industry, working in men's gloss and procrastination.

“My task is to make Kanobu feel good” - about responsibilities and content

Anton, hello. What do you do as a publisher?

- The publisher is a rather conventional name. In my understanding and within the framework of Kanobu, this is a person responsible for managing a media project, that is, a publication as a kind of entity that produces content and makes money from it.

If we divide Kanoba into four main verticals - editorial, product, commerce and back office - then as a publisher I am responsible for the editorial office, product and audience, and traffic. It is difficult to describe in a nutshell the entire pool of works, because it somehow by itself clogs your existence. Questions constantly arise that you must solve.

In general terms, my task is to make Kanobu feel good and know about it as many people as possible. This also includes brand management. I am also responsible for ensuring that more bright names appear on the pages of the resource, and our guys are known not only in the gaming crowd. For us to be a brand. I would call all this a publisher.

"Kanobu" started as a publication about games, now you are "a site about modern entertainment." What are you writing about now?

- Yes, at first we were a publication about games. Then the guys - the previous management - added movies, TV series and other sections. I don't really know the detailed chronology, because I got to know "Kanobu" when all this was already there.

There is a section "Cybersport", which is doing very well now. There is music and books. We review publications on an ongoing basis and want to continue this story.

We write about comics - a very good author Denis Varkov is responsible for this section. I gladly go and watch various stories and selections, since, unfortunately, I do not have time to read comics.

Anime, manga, reviews, technologies - all this constantly appears on our pages. We are also writing about rap battles and about Face's new video.

In general, we are talking about modern entertainment. About something that will be interesting conditionally for a young guy or girl.

I say “conditionally”, because the core of our audience is people aged 18–34, but the “sides” float. Sometimes there are more of those who are 12-17, sometimes those who are 30-35 - from month to month.

I noticed this trick when I came to Kanoba: I read the text, and I really want to share it with my audience. Someone even teased me: "Do you have a quota for materials that need to be shared on Facebook or Twitter?" No, I just really like what we do.

And what materials will your readers never see?

- We can write about high-profile scandals in the gaming industry, but we do not go into the wild: the audience does not need it.

We don't get into business, it is interesting only in this format: how much money the highest-grossing films raised or how much an esports player earned. But counting and analyzing is not. Rather, we are about narrative, plots, scripts.

“Let people work where it is convenient for them” - about team and interaction

I wanted to ask a question about the team later, but since you've already started talking a little, let's continue. How do you select candidates?

- Line managers, for example, chief editor, will better tell about the requirements for candidates. He always knows better whether this news reporter or editor is good, whether he thinks or not. It's hard for me to say.

This is always a very subjective story. For example, when the COO and I were looking for a commercial, I had no HR experience at all. I still don't have a lot of it. But we found candidates, met with them, talked. You look at physical qualities, demeanor, skills, understanding of the question, test task. Sometimes you just see that this is not our person. I don’t know how to explain it.

You said that many work remotely. How do you interact with each other and resolve work issues?

- We recently moved to a new office. Here we have sales people, because they need to go to meetings, which are mainly held in Moscow, as well as myself, the operating director, accountant, Head of Product and office managers.

The rest of the staff are mostly remote, I have not even seen half of the editorial office live. Our guys are all over the country and abroad.

We use different tools to communicate within the team. For example, in Slack, there is a conversation between editors. Some private questions are spilling over into Telegram. We also use Discord, a service for gamers where you can call up and play together. There is also Trello, where advertisers set tasks, but the editorial board hasn't caught on.

I think let people work where they feel comfortable.

All my external communications take place where the interlocutors feel comfortable. Facebook, WhatsApp - I am almost everywhere.

“I want the market to feel more confident” - about the industry and plans

What are your plans for the development of the project?

- We will continue to head for lifestyle and mass entertainment. We are, in fact, the only ones in this niche. There is no media that would be at the same level, at the same time it would be independent and still have boundaries in terms of topics.

We will continue to grow, look for new clients, launch new sections. For example, we have already started testing the "Auto" section, while we publish some materials. Everything through the prism of entertainment and mass culture.

We want to explain geeks in understandable language. This is how I see the value of Kanobu.

What do you think awaits the industry in the future? What would you like to change?

- I would like the market and the economy as a whole to come to their senses. I remember the glossy editions of the 2000s: I found it a little like a reader. Everything was bold: numbers of 400 pages and a lot of advertisements.

I would like to see more money in the industry, so that the media is perceived as a full-fledged product, for which you also need to pay, like for TV shows or things.

I want the market to feel more confident. Nowadays, business is more like survival. If a person wants to invest money and chooses, say, between media and a restaurant, it seems to me that the second option is more profitable and more attractive for investments. This is why there are so many restaurants and little media.

I probably see the future in some service part. Media in one way or another become services: like Sports.ru with its applications for fans of clubs, like vc.ru and DTF with vacancies. This thing works. Well, in general, the wish is at least not to interfere with work and not insert new sticks into the wheels.

“Probably, that's what I came for - to get a kick, an impulse” - about working in men's gloss and a comfort zone

Before "Kanobu" you worked at MAXIM for a long time. Tell us how it all began and how did your career develop there?

- I came there in 2013 thanks to Lesha Karaulov, he was then the deputy editor-in-chief. And he started reading MAXIM in 2007 quite by accident with a friend who lived in a hostel. Then I found contacts of people, wrote that I could help with English or something else. We began to communicate, they began to send me interviews, and I translated them.

At some point, they told me to come: they were assembling an online editorial office. I arrived in August 2013 and started working. At first I was just an online editor. But it so happens that for 28 years I have not had some kind of linear work. For example, there are people who perform specific tasks: designers, developers. These are creative professions, but they have a specific field of activity. They will not come to them and ask: "What do we have for the money?" - because they are not responsible for it. And I have never had such a profession and never had such responsibilities. I came somewhere intuitively and there I understood that it required attention and action. You start to figure it out, to communicate with people, to bring them together.

It was the same at MAXIM. I came and they asked me: “Help me to do this. Help me collect this. And I started to collect something, to do something. Then some tasks appeared. For example, I had to write an advertising text - I sat down and wrote.

So I worked for two years, then I started doing interviews for "Video Salon". I went with the guy who was in charge of this story, took interviews, then deciphered them. Then they were deciphered for me, and I started doing other things.

Then the person who worked with me left. He was called "senior editor of the site", but the positions were very conditional. And I took on more responsibility. He became responsible for editorial special projects, annual Miss MAXIM and top-100, coordinating the actions of the team: so that the developers make a website, so that the brand manager has time to announce any news.

You start poking your nose everywhere - where you need to and not. You understand how the processes are arranged from the inside, you know the right people - this is how it works somehow.

To formalize the whole story, somewhere from 2013 to 2015 I was an online editor, and from 2015 to 2018 I was a deputy editor-in-chief of the site. He worked a lot with PR people, communicated with partners. That is, at one point it became a kind of entry point.

Why did you decide to leave MAXIM and how did you end up in Kanoba?

- Last year Haji Makhtiyev, the founder of Kanobu, wrote to me. First, he offered to become a CEO, because he himself moved away from this in 2017 and took on a person who had just left the team in the summer. But I didn't have such skills, and we settled on the position of a publisher, who can influence the content and the product.

Why did you leave? Firstly, I worked at MAXIM for five years. It's cool when a person has found his own, sits and works, associates with the brand, but still.

Secondly, I was offered more money. It is foolish to write it off.

Thirdly, I was attracted by the gaming crowd, it was always interesting to me. MAXIM is also cool: girls, models - all this is fun, but for a while. Then it starts to pall. I got tired and realized that a new impulse was needed.

Now there is time for creativity, the processes have improved, we got used to each other. Yes, there are roughnesses, but where without them in the team.

Although at first I more than got what I expected. Within a month, the CEO, editor-in-chief and commercial director left. And we are together with the operating room: "Wow, wait a second, it is necessary that everything does not fall apart." It's easier now, we survived.

Probably, that's what I came for - to get a kick, an impulse. I also like to hyip once again - in a good way. My Facebook post has collected over 800 reactions.

It's fun to make a rustle in the market. It's like a football transfer.

In general, I like to look at the media market as a football league. There are rich clubs - state media, large publishing houses. A lot of people work there, they have big contracts with agencies. And there are people like us. A good solid middle with a rich history ("Kanobu" 11 years old).

Of course, I love MAXIM and still come to visit. But in 2018 I thought: if you don't leave, then there is a chance that you will freeze. You will dig a hole for yourself, from which you do not want to get out, where you are so comfortable, well, and everyone knows you.

So you stay in your comfort zone?

- Yes, the notorious comfort zone. I figured that if you do nothing, then you will sit until 40 years old and carry out your tasks, not moving anywhere or expanding.

I don't know what will come out of my work at Kanoba, but at least it's cool: new people, new skills. I began to understand media processes better. I used to look at all this from an editorial point of view, but now I look at it as a business. Plus, my hands were free: I can walk around the market and communicate on behalf of the project. This was not the case before.

Is your education somehow related to the media?

- No. In MAXIM, only two or three people had specialized education. When I went there and said that I had a diploma of a civil servant and an interpreter, they answered me: “Don't worry.” The chief editor of "Kanobu" Denis Mayorov is generally a mechanic by education. And you know, in five and a half years, I have never regretted that I do not have a journalism diploma.

“It was very difficult to fire a person for the first time” - about difficulties, achievements and mistakes

What is the most difficult thing for you in your work?

- The most difficult thing is to find a balance between business and human relations, since my responsibilities include hiring and firing people, raising wages and giving bonuses.

Business interests do not always coincide with the interests of employees. I realize that business is No. 1. It is clear why we are all gathered here. Still, I always try to take into account the interests of people. And for me, for example, it was very difficult to fire a person for the first time.

I understand that he does not fulfill his duties, does not take out. I don't know for what reasons, I'm trying to figure it out, but that's it, the probationary period has passed - I must be fired. In any other situation, I would not do this. But then you know how much a person receives and what the exhaust from this money is, and you understand that this is disproportionate.

People also understand how everything works, but they can still get offended. After all, this is a creative story. They are constantly generating content: opinions, reviews, news, something else. You need to be on the same wavelength with them. But, on the other hand, you are responsible for their salaries and must make sure that the processes that ensure the circulation of money in the project work. It's complicated.

Because other people depend on you?

- Yes, on the one hand - the interests of business, on the other - the interests of specific people. Situations constantly occur in which you need to explain something: to the founder - one thing, to the team - another. These are the most difficult moments for me.

Can you remember your achievements and mistakes?

- My achievement, probably, is that I have not ruined anything. I had no experience in managing a media project, but the transit period went smoothly with some reservations.

People also write to me that they did not know about Kanobu, but thanks to me they found out and began to read. My friends and acquaintances who have not heard about us before say that we have cool content. It is clear that this is not the level of several hundred or thousands of people, but where there are three, there is 20, and where 20, there is 100.

I love what people write. I love that I am on fire with it.

I was able to feel this story and present it correctly. I come to meetings with clients, start talking about the project and understand that I am not dissembling anywhere: “This is what we do. That's why it's interesting."

Of course, there are plenty of mistakes. You have to make a lot of management decisions - you forgot something, missed something.

There was a mistake at the very beginning. I came in August and we failed September. As I have already said, it was a difficult time for Kanobu: the chief editor and CEO were absent. The problem was that I had not identified in time those points that were worth paying attention to. It was necessary not to sink, but I was at a loss. Then everything worked out, the indicators went up.

"We do not sit separately" - about the workplace and time management

Let's move on to your workplace. What does it look like?

- I am a big fan of the designer and architect Karim Rashid. Once I came across his principle of organizing the workspace: he says that you always need to keep the workplace clean. I liked it, I try to stick to it.

I have a very simple table. There are different figures on it because I love LEGO. In general, my workplace is a Mac. We also have a speaker - we constantly listen to music.

We are not sitting apart. I believe that you should always be in the process, be able to exchange a few words. We are not of the level of organization to lock ourselves in separate offices.

How do you organize your day? Do you follow any time management technique?

- I've read a lot about different techniques, but I don't use them. I have Todoist so that I don't forget anything: there is a lot of incoming information, I have been writing everything down for a long time.

I’m a procrastinator, but I’ve learned to use it for my own good: either I’m reading a book, or I’m doing necessary, but not very important things, for example, I’m counting my personal budget.

I always have something to do at work. I can never say, "I'm done for today." This has its pros and cons. The plus is that you can always stop and continue tomorrow. No one will tell me anything, unless it is, of course, an urgent report. Minus - your boundaries are erased. For example, I can reply to work messages from home.

When I wake up, I try to do exercises, then I meditate and read. I force myself to read 15–20 minutes with a timer, because I know that if I don’t do it now, I won’t be able to do it in a day. It's the same with meditation. Everything takes me an hour and a half.

I try not to answer or write to anyone on weekends, although sometimes it happens.

Do you manage to have a rest? How do you spend your free time?

- My girlfriend Julia helps me a lot in this. Previously, it was the same for me: I come home, and my thoughts are in the tasks. He could take off his jacket and sit in the hallway for 10-15 minutes, answering work messages. And now a man will send me for this. Relationships structure this story because there is responsibility to others.

And so everything is standard: trips, travels, music, TV shows, games, movies, parties. Of course, I want to play more. I don't embroider with beads, I don't jump with a parachute. I can go to a bar, chat with someone: I love people.

I'm also fond of LEGO. Now I'm assembling a big car from the LEGO Technic series.

Life hacking from Anton Gorodetsky

Books

I recommend to everyone the book "The Club of Incorrigible Optimists" by Jean-Michel Genassius. This is an amazing, very kind and light novel about Parisian immigrants. They gather in a bistro, play chess, and through the main character - a French boy - the destinies of these people are revealed.

I love Boris Akunin very much. I have just read The Diamond Chariot - a pure thrill. This is delicious food: not fast food, but also not a molecular cuisine of the type of specialized literature. Akunin - just the case when in the morning I have a timer for 20 minutes, the time runs out, and I think: "Damn, I didn't have time, well, give me another page." And so it leaves in half an hour.

Podcasts

I listen to Disgusting Men all the time. I have good friends there, I know everyone personally.

Listening to the podcast of stand-up comedian Marc Maron. One of the best American podcasters. He invites everyone to his garage: actors, screenwriters, even Obama was. He has very heartfelt dialogues about parents, family, relationships, children.

Films and series

Of the latter, I really liked Polar with Mads Mikkelsen. Cool film based on a graphic novel about a hit man - a cross between "John Wick" and "Sin City".

Sex Education is a great show, I just cried with happiness. Not even from happiness, but from the unity of feelings: for a long time I had not empathized with the heroes so much.

BoJack Horseman is also great.

I watch everything in English. It's easier for me to perceive intonation and empathize with the characters.