Back in the USSR; former Soviet citizen starts a magazine to improve trade relations between the Americans and Soviets

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Oct, 1989 by Jean Marie Angelo

Boston-It is tough enough to launch a business magazine as a novice publisher, never mind asking the USSR to be your partner. But if anyone is up to the task it is Natan Slezinger, 52, former Soviet citizen, and one of the partners behind Moscow Business Journal, a business title about trade relations, and Koncert, a Soviet entertainment title.

To come up with capital, Slezinger sold his interest in the Manhattan restaurant Russian Samovar to partner Mikhail Baryshnikov. The money now rests in Kompass Intercontinental Publishing Co., the publishing venture of which Slezinger is chairman. joining him is Boston-based advertising agency Parsons, Friedmann, Stephan & Rose together they make up 50 percent of the backing for Kompass. The other half of the money comes from the Soviet Union itself through the Moscow-owned newspaper Evening Moscow, a daily with an 800,000 circulation.

Together they are investing hundreds of thousands in Kompass, says Robert Friedmann, 66, president of Kompass, and chairman of the advertising agency.

That wasn't without a good deal of leg work, however. Convincing the Soviet newspaper to join the partnership took four visits to Moscow and detailed talks with Soviet officials. Slezinger and Friedmann, a former citizen of Czechoslovakia, finally cemented the deal in Moscow in February.

"Everything that you do in Russia is difficult," explains Slezinger, "You can talk to someone in a high position, only to have to talk with someone else." Fortunately, Slezinger, who had worked for the Soviet paper when he lived in the USSR, had connections who were impressed with the venture.

The trips to Moscow have been especially important for Slezinger, who left the Soviet Union 11 years ago. "I never expected to come back," he explains. "A year ago they opened the door for everybody." He was able to visit the friends he had left behind (his family now makes its home in the USA).

The visits also opened the doors for new ventures. On his first trip back he noticed that conversations with an old friend centered around Russian personalities who may return to the USS to perform. They discussed the possibility of major American entertainers traveling to the USSR. Both noted that a magazine on such personalities would do well in the Soviet Union.

Slezinger then returned to the United States where he was involved in Art Connection, a project he operates that brings Russian entertainers to the United States to perform. Friedmann's agency was handling the advertising. The two soon began to discuss a consumer magazine, Koncert, for the Soviet arts audience. Slezinger and the agency formed a separate 50-50 agreement with Goskoncert, a Russian bureau that organizes cultural events, to publish Koncert on a periodic basis. The first issue came out in September.

It was Friedmann who then took the Soviet connection one step further, proposing that they launch a business magazine that would cover larger trade issues, Moscow Business journal, a quarterly, made its debut in September. Kompass has a Boston staff writing a U.S. edition on how to do business with the Soviet Union, while a Soviet team in Moscow is writing a Soviet edition on how to do business with U.S. and Canadian companies. Each staff sells its own advertising space, while Kompass-U.S. handies layout for both editions. Kompass- U.S. handles the accounting as well.

The U.S. business community is ripe for such a magazine, Friedmann notes. There are 280 million consumers in the USSR who are hungry for anything American, from soft drinks to heavy machinery. The bulk of the current $2 billion annual U.S. sales to the Soviets is in agricultural products.

Kompass is aiming for a 100,000 paid circulation for the Soviet edition, for which subscribers will pay the equivalent of $16. The U.S. edition will have a 50,000 circulation, paid and nonpaid. Subscriptions will cost $25.

For larger-schedule advertisers, the publishers are offering a unique incentive -office space in the USSR for those who buy four or more pages for the year. Kompass has rented 2,500 square feet of office space, says Friedmann, who adds that advertisers who make the trip will also have access to business support services.

For Slezinger, magazine publishing is just one more career in a long line of disparate interests. The former Soviet citizen brought a photography career from his homeland. Eventually he amassed real estate interests and part ownership in a restaurant. For Art Connection he plays "impresario," acting as the producer of cultural events.

Friedmann is no stranger to publishing, having produced a number of directories and guidebooks for clients over the years. This new venture is a twist"Russia was the last thing I was thinking about in 1988. I had no particular interest in the USSR," Friedmann explains. "But I am a marketer at heart. This is some small way to serve the international trade. It lays the groundwork for better relations."