Wincott Fellow: Hilary Term, 2002

Pyotr Vlassov - Moscow

Wincott Fellow: Hilary Term, 2002

Looking these days back to 2001 I can tell for certain: it was a turning point not only in my career; my whole life had come to some irrational moment of truth. I was travelling a lot that year making feature interviews with figures like Steve Forbes, Luciano Benetton andMarjorie Scardino. On the other hand, the publication I had been then working for, the business weekly Expert, was a rather short tarmac. All my initiatives to spin off a separate project, for example an English-language website or an international print copy, had been shelved without any serious consideration. So, I was caught in a kind of a standstill. And at this very moment, in August 2001, a fax came from the British embassy in Moscow telling about the Reuters Foundation program.I wouldn’t bet God personally offered me a way out but the message arrived at a right time.

At the very beginninglet me tell you the happy end. I returned to Moscow from Oxford in March, 2002, and six months later left the Expert magazine, persuading three other journalists from my desk to follow me. We joined a start-up, today a well-respected media holding RBK (RosBusinessConsulting). The next year I became a chief editor of the Internet business publication RBC daily. In 2006 we started printed version of this newspaper and a monthly business RBC magazine (I worked as chief editor for both new publications as well). When I left RBC in 2009 my professional status had changed dramatically to be compared with the Expert period. Now I was not only a journalist but a start-upper and project manager with experience of heading an editorial desk including 200 members. Also, my personal annual income had increased twentyfold.

So, what did the Reuters programmemean for this success story? I would say a lotalthough it’s not an easy task to explaineverythingas some immaterial matters are concerned. Generally speaking, at first glance the whole course looked more like a relaxed vacation than a real training effort. There were no hard learning, tough competition and crawling closer and closer deadlines. It was more about dinner-like discussions, meeting people with interesting backgrounds or self-reflection at pubs or cafes. But it worked, at least in my case. Why?

First, I believe, it was a very important opportunityjust to stop. Three months is a good term to slow down, to look around, and to think it over. To be frank, all of us who had to be a part of the everyday routine are not entirely free. Often we are critically short of time to analyze and therefore to build a kind of strategy for our lives. Two-weeks’ vacation is probably enough to clean out your head but too short for settling a new waterway. And, after all, what kind of ideas might strike you at Spanish or Italian beaches? Thus we are coming to our next important conclusion – the atmosphereis rather crucial. The place itself should persuade you to start thinking. To some extent this is a communicating vessels theory.

I believe London would be too busy, too competitive, and tooelusive after all for the purposes declared by the programme. Oxford fitted them very well in my opinion. After coming to Oxford in 2002 with my wife, Olga (she also became a program participant in 2004), we both fell in love with this city. We had been coming hereannually forover a decade till the rouble devaluation made it quite squeezing. One might say it’s an odd place to spend a vacation but we didn’t think so.

What was so attractive about Oxford is a sense of rational harmony and power of knowledge the city fills you with. I would say it gave both my spirit and my brain a kind of therapy they needed. It’s a hard task to explain how it works. But probably the point is that before developing a good career-plan, it’s necessary to fix yourself.

The principle of mixing (and mingling as well) was also quite productive in my opinion. First, when you bring in people of different nationalities and variousprofessional backgrounds it makes you to understand better your own professional and value positioning.Second, it proves to be very useful to have a very wide agenda of discussions, from environmental to gender issues. This approach also gives you a clear understanding of the global momentum and thereforesupplies with ideas and crucial facts. Last, but not least all this activity provides you with the method. It teachesyou to analyze, to collect data, to draw conclusions. If you do not agree, it does not matter. It’s always useful, even for arguing, to have a counter point of view and to understand its origin.

Finally, I would like to highlight the key role of Paddy Coulter, the honoured Director of the Program, who had become for me a living symbol of intellectual and cultural powerof the UK. I believe his experience of working as BBC reporter in different parts of the world, including the remote ones, was a great advantage for this position. Intelligent, vivid, flexible and sincere, he was a great communicator. What is more, he had been representing in my opinion a pattern of pure, balanced journalism which is a rare specimen in nowadays media worldwide corrupted with propaganda and product-placement. To sum up all his virtues he looked for me as a figure to follow both in my professional and personal development. Every time we returned to Oxford we tried to meet again this extraordinary man.

It was also important about Paddy that in addition to our common discussions he had been trying to find a personal approach to every participant of the Program. In my particular case when he learned that I obsessed with an idea to start up some new media project, he connected me with Anthony Robinson, one of the founders of Vedomosti business daily in Russia in 1999. I would say my visit to Anthony’s London house was not just “useful” but also very “inspiring”.

If to summarize I might conclude that my trip to Oxford and participation in the programme had become a kind of a trigger. I needed much a push which would unfold my potential and give me more concrete framework to go on with my professional plans. It had come from Oxford and I feel today very grateful to all people who have transformed my life.

Moscow, January 2016

Petr Vlassov was born in a small and 900-old town Yuriev-polsky (150km from Moscow) in 1973. He graduated from the Moscow State University in 1995 as a journalist with international specialisation. He began his media career working as a newswire reporter of TASS news agency in London. He joined Wincott Fellowshipin Oxford in 2002. In 2006 he became known in the area as a founder and chief editor of two brand-new national media, daily newspaper RBK daily and monthly business magazine RBK. Now he is still working as a journalist and lives in Moscow.