Forbes editor-in-chief. Nikolay Uskov - biography, information, personal life. Nikolai Uskov with his wife Natalya

Nikolai Uskov has been relieved of his post as editor-in-chief of Russian Forbes, and former editor-in-chief Nikolai Mazurin has been appointed acting editor-in-chief.

“Nikolai Uskov has been relieved of his post as editor-in-chief of Forbes; Nikolai Mazurin, who previously served as editor-in-chief of the publication, has been appointed acting editor. Personnel decisions will come into effect on June 9,” says a statement from the ACMG publishing house, quoted by Interfax.

“This decision is due to dissatisfaction with the quality of Nikolai Uskov’s work as editor-in-chief, systematic violations of labor discipline, and the non-competition clause of the employment contract,” explained the decision by ACMG’s director of public relations, whose words are quoted in the message.

The release notes that Mazurin, who held the post of editor-in-chief of the publication, was appointed acting. In his new position, he will be responsible for the work of the editorial staff of Forbes magazine, the Forbes.ru website and will continue to develop communications with medium and large businesses, the publishing house indicated.

Uskov spoke about the “dangerous situation” in the magazine

Nikolai Uskov, who headed the Forbes editorial team since January 2016, commented on his dismissal in a large post on Facebook.

According to Uskov, the owner of the Russian version of Forbes magazine, Alexander Fedotov, last week offered him to separate by agreement of the parties, promising “heavy compensation: an amount slightly short of one hundred thousand dollars.” Uskov says that he refused such a payment. “Fedotov understands perfectly well why, in a situation where he has not paid royalties to authors, photographers and agencies for six months, has delayed and not paid salaries to full-time Forbes employees (since the end of March), owes the printing house millions of rubles, does not pay taxes, rent and other things, etc. other than that, he, however, must offer Uskov almost a year’s salary. It’s very simple. Fedotov hopes that I will remain silent and, purring satisfactorily, “crawl away” to the side “to work on other projects.” But I won’t do that,” writes Uskov.

According to the former editor-in-chief of the publication, his relationship with Fedotov “changed dramatically” after the scandal with the removal of information about the salary of VTB head Andrei Kostin from the Forbes salary rating.

“At a meeting the day before, with the participation of my deputy Nikolai Mazurin and the author of the rating, Elena Berezanskaya, Fedotov agreed with our arguments to leave the salary rating of top managers in the form in which it is. But later, taking advantage of the fact that I was on vacation, he put pressure on Kolya Mazurin, and Kostin’s salary nevertheless disappeared from the magazine,” writes Uskov.

According to the journalist, after the vacation, he wrote Fedotov “a harsh letter condemning his rude and unacceptable actions,” after which they managed to establish a working relationship for a while. But then Fedotov tried to change the charter of the Forbes editorial board, which Uskov, according to him, refused to sign, since it turned “the editorial office into an obedient instrument of the whims and fantasies” of the owner of the publication.

“Apparently, against the backdrop of the rapid deterioration of the position of the ACMG group (I will write about the reasons for this fall separately), the remnants of common sense left Fedotov completely. I, with my principles and approaches, seemed to him the only obstacle to the rapid and fabulous enrichment. Well, and the main culprit all the failures that befell him were also me,” Uskov continues.

The dismissed chief editor said that he was going to sue his former employer in order, in his words, to make public facts that “will make it difficult in the future to interfere in the work of the editorial office and attract the attention of the owners of the brand<...>to the dangerous situation that has developed in Forbes Russia magazine."

Nikolai Uskov headed the Russian version of GQ magazine from 2003 to 2012, then led the Snob project.

Nikolai Uskov, who headed the Russian version of Forbes magazine for the last two years, was fired by decision of the owner. The reason for dismissal, according to ACMG, is “dissatisfaction with the quality” of work and violation of the employment contract

Nikolay Uskov (Photo: Evgeny Biyatov / RIA Novosti)

As of Saturday, June 9, Nikolai Uskov has been relieved of his post as editor-in-chief of the Russian version of Forbes, a representative of the ACMG media group, which owns the license for the magazine in Russia, told RBC. Nikolai Mazurin, who previously served as editor-in-chief of the publication, was appointed acting.

The reason for the dismissal, as explained by RBC’s interlocutor, was “dissatisfaction with the quality of Nikolai Uskov’s work, systematic violations of labor discipline, as well as the non-competition clause of the employment contract.” As part of the contract concluded with the media manager, he did not have the right, in particular, to participate in “third-party events of other brands,” but he violated this provision more than once, the group clarifies. ACMG did not say which projects Uskov participated in in violation of the contract.

“This is not a one-time decision [on dismissal] - negotiations on terminating cooperation on the basis of a settlement agreement with Uskov began a long time ago, but he refused all the proposed options and continued to systematically violate agreements and labor discipline, so the company was forced to unilaterally terminate the contract with him "- note ACMG.

​The candidacy of the new editor-in-chief, as RBC sources previously told, should be presented to the global owner of Forbes - Forbes Media LLC. “With regard to relations with the licensor, under the terms of the license agreement we cannot comment on procedural issues,” said an ACMG representative.

In response to a request from RBC, Uskov said that “he cannot talk yet.”

Video: RBC TV channel

It was announced in January 2016 that Uskov would become the new editor-in-chief of Forbes. In this post, he replaced Elmar Murtazaev, who had headed the magazine since January 2014. ​The appointment of Nikolai Uskov as editor-in-chief will ensure “the systematic development of all media projects under the Forbes brand,” ACMG owner Alexander Fedotov said then.

Prior to this, Uskov was the editor-in-chief of the Russian version of GQ magazine from 2003 to 2012. In 2012, he headed Mikhail Prokhorov’s media group “Live!”, which at that time included the magazines “Snob”, “Russian Pioneer”, the cable TV channel “Live!” and the website snob.ru. At the beginning of 2013, the group ceased to exist, by that time it was decided to further develop only two projects - the TV channel “Live!” and "Snob". Uskov became the leader of the latter.

The average audience of one issue of Forbes magazine in September 2017 - February 2018 was, according to Mediascope, almost 1.1 million people over 12 years old living in large cities. In March-July 2016, this figure was slightly higher - 1.3 million people.

The daily all-Russian audience of the Forbes.ru website on desktop computers and laptops in April 2018 was 55.3 thousand people aged 12 to 64 years. Two years ago, in April 2016, it was almost 152 thousand people; in January 2016, when Nikolai Uskov became editor-in-chief, it was 159 thousand.​

After the release in the fall of 2016 of the ranking of the highest paid executives of the largest companies in Russia, compiled by Forbes, magazine employees accused publisher Alexander Fedotov of interfering in editorial policy. The rating contained information on the income of the heads of Gazprom, Rosneft, and Sberbank. VTB President Andrei Kostin also appeared in the rating, but his estimated income was not named.

The editor-in-chief of the Russian Forbes, Nikolai Uskov, in an interview with the Dozhd TV channel then said that the decision to publish data on Sechin’s salary and not to publish information on the amount of Kostin’s remuneration was made by him personally, since the editors had “more confidence” in Sechin’s salary. However, Forbes journalists testified in court that the editors had a calculated amount, but it was removed from publication at the last moment by order of Fedotov, while Uskov was away.

Nikolai Feliksovich Uskov. Born August 25, 1970. Russian medievalist historian, journalist. In 2003-2012, editor-in-chief of the Russian version of GQ (Gentlemen’s Quarterly). Heads the Russian version of Forbes magazine.

His father is a psychiatrist, an employee of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems, and has lived in the USA since 1989 with his second wife, artist Tatyana Loskutova.

Mother is a rheumatologist at the Moscow City Clinical Hospital.

In high school, he became interested in painting and studied at Moscow Children's Art School No. 2. However, he admits, he did not have any special inclinations for painting.

“Under the influence of my stepmother, in high school I became interested in painting and entered children’s art school No. 2. I painted without much talent, and therefore wisely decided to choose another childhood hobby as a profession - history.”, Uskov recalled.

In 1987 he entered the history department of Moscow State University, from which he graduated in 1992.

Since 1989, he became interested in medieval studies and began to specialize in the department of history of the Middle Ages in such little-studied topics as church history of Western Europe.

He studied well at the university and, according to him, "belonged to a small group of nerds, preferring libraries to everything else, that is, sex, drugs and discos".

After university in 1992, he was offered, simultaneously with entering graduate school, to become a junior researcher at the department - at 22 years old - he was even younger than some of his students.

In 1999, as a senior lecturer at the Department of History of the Middle Ages at Moscow State University, at the Faculty of History he defended his dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Historical Sciences on the topic “Monasticism and monastic reforms in early medieval Germany.” Received the position of associate professor.

In 2001, he published a monograph in the St. Petersburg publishing house "Aletheya" "Christianity and Monasticism in Western Europe of the Early Middle Ages", based on his dissertation.

In 2000, Nikolai Uskov left the university to work for the Independent Media publishing house.

I got into journalism by accident.

“One of my friends, a journalist and now the chief editor of Maxim, Sasha Malenkov, called me in 2000 asking if I would recommend one of my students to him for a new Internet project. I offered myself. A year later, from the amorphous Internet - the publication invited me to Men's Health magazine as an editor, he said. And then my career went from strength to strength.

He edited the portal of the publishing house Estart.ru, and since 2001 - the magazine Men's Health of the same publishing house (in 2002 he became the editor-in-chief of this magazine).

In 2003, he left for the position of editor-in-chief of the Russian version of the American magazine GQ (Gentlemen’s Quarterly) at the publishing house Conde Nast.

On November 6, 2008, the Eksmo publishing house published Uskov’s first detective story in the series “Fashion Books by GQ Editor-in-Chief Nikolai Uskov” - “Winter collection of death. Fashion detective".

I became a writer, like a journalist, by accident, out of nothing to do.

“I had no ambitions as a writer, I just had a desire to come up with a detective story. This is a low genre, designed for easy reading, so I don’t pretend to have a place in Russian classical literature. For me, writing is more of a hobby and entertainment. I was sitting in a cafe with my employee Ksenia Sokolova, and we were thinking of something else to do. And right during lunch, I came up with a killer character as a joke. Then I started writing some pieces.", - said Uskov.

In February 2011, the same publishing house published a new detective story by Nikolai Uskov called "Seven Angels", which continues to tell the story of the adventures of a hero familiar to readers from the first book - Innocent Alekhine, editor-in-chief of the men's magazine "Gentleman".

Nikolay Uskov - Posner

In 2012, he left GQ to head Mikhail Prokhorov’s media group “Live!”, which included the print publications “Snob”, F5, “Russian Pioneer”, cable TV channel “Live!”, websites snob.ru, f5.ru. At the beginning of 2013, the group broke up, and Uskov became the leader of Snob.

Since January 2016, he has headed the Russian edition of the magazine. Forbes.

Uskov is credited with a neologism "Putin's glamour".

Nikolai Uskov: “Politics is like football. Women and money are the basic value of a man."

Personal life of Nikolai Uskov:

Married since 1992. My wife's name is Natalya. She is much older than Nikolai.

The couple has a son, Robert.

Nikolai Uskov with his wife Natalya

Nikolay Uskov about his taste preferences says the following:

“I have a lot of cars, but the only one I bought was an Audi - for some reason I fell for it. Cigarettes - Davidoff. Phone - iPhone.

I am quite unpretentious in life, but I prefer champagne that costs no less than $100.

I like Moet Chandon to drink at a party, but if you choose champagne as an expensive wine, it is, of course, Dom Perignon. Here, behind each bottle is the whole drama of life. Such champagne should not be drunk at a reception, not because it is expensive, but because it is disrespectful to the product, because Dom Perignon is a work of culture, it should be consumed with respect and only in certain situations.

As for my clothing style, it is rather conservative - I like to dress casually.

I have a lot of good clothes, I’m part of this world and, naturally, I can’t just go to the market and buy something just to cover my nakedness.

But I am very relaxed about brands. In my opinion, H&M have created a unique fast-fashion concept.

Do you think Karl Lagerfeld, one of the greatest snobs of our time, would agree to collaborate with this brand just for the money?! It's not a question of fee, it's a question of respect.

However, quality is quality - if I want to buy a good coat, I will buy it for what it should cost. From my point of view, three brands make such coats - Gucci, Dolce&Gabbana and Armani. We are talking about those that suit me, although many people do good things.”

Nikolay Uskov about mate:

"The magazine contains both slang and obscenities, because I am generally against hypocrisy and hypocrisy. I love it when we speak the language that is ours. Part of our language is obscenities. Why do we use these words in real life, but do Does it look like this is unacceptable in a printed text?”

Nikolai Uskov on political correctness:

"The reader is tired of the lies of modern life. Why is House such a success? Because I'm tired of political correctness."

Nikolai Uskov about modern writers:

Nikolai Uskov on the right to individuality:

“I believe that a person has the right to the life he lives - of course, as long as his interests do not collide with mine. Do Sergei Zverev’s interests somehow collide with mine? No way. If I don’t like him, I I just turn off the TV, and that's it. It's his right to live like that. And if you don't respect this right, then you're a boor and a redneck. It seems to me that our fellow citizens need to learn a calm, tolerant attitude towards everything that they don't like."

Nikolai Uskov about money:

"Money is not needed for its own sake. Money is needed in order to feel freedom. When you start thinking about how you spend, it is a necessity, it is not freedom."

Nikolay Uskov about the right to make mistakes:

“One repentant sinner is worth more than a hundred righteous people” is a useful observation for managers. I remember billionaire Friedman telling me that the Bible is enough to teach you how to run a business well. Indeed, a person who has made a mistake, realized it, and fears punishment, works better than, relatively speaking, a righteous person. Yes, and it costs less. Translated into the language of HR specialists, the sinner is motivated.”

Nikolai Uskov about bisexuality:

"A person is bisexual - this is a biological fact. Naturally, some part of people chooses a different form of sexual relations. This is their choice, their right. I don’t see anything wrong with that. Everyone has the right to be themselves. And, it seems to me, that society certainly needs someone to explain this to it.”

Nikolai Uskov about the institution of marriage:

"Each person, in the end, has one life. Why create hypocrisy, lies, bring things to some kind of endless scandals when both torment each other? Although both of them can live another wonderful life. If people change their attitude towards marriage as something that is identical to love... Yes, there is betrayal in love! But marriage is already an alliance, a partnership, this is already a serious relationship, everything here is adult. There is no betrayal. There is a choice. I choose this , or I choose this. If people take an adult, responsible attitude towards what happens between them, then there will be no situation of fatherlessness."

Nikolai Uskov about "Putin's glamor"

“This phenomenon is the result of the coincidence of several trends. On the one hand, favorable energy prices, economic growth, political stabilization. People now have decent money, and they were able to feel its charm. On the other hand, the government for the first time allowed itself to abandon textbook modesty. In fact, Putin made an unspoken deal with the people and business: live happily, but don’t meddle in politics. The president himself and other people from the country’s top leadership set a certain example. Very expensive sports became fashionable: alpine skiing, horse riding, golf. "Finally, the Russian rich man is a very young man. The average age of a person involved in the "golden hundred" is 42 years. This person wants to consume and consume, everything is for the first time and there is still a lot to be done. For the first time in several decades, Russians have felt the taste of money and a good life."

Biography

Nikolai Uskov was born on August 25, 1970 in Moscow into a family of doctors. His father is a psychiatrist, an employee of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems, and now lives with his second wife in the USA. Mother is a rheumatologist.

In high school, Nikolai became interested in painting and studied at Moscow Children's Art School No. 2.

1987: Study and work at Moscow State University

In 1987 he entered the history department of Moscow State University, from which he graduated in 1992.

In 1999, as a senior lecturer at the Department of History of the Middle Ages at Moscow State University, he defended his dissertation at the Faculty of History for the degree of Candidate of Historical Sciences on the topic “Monasticism and monastic reforms in early medieval Germany.” Received the title of associate professor.

2000: Independent Media

In 2000, Nikolai Uskov left the university to work for the publishing house Independent Media. He edited the portal of the publishing house Estart.ru, and since 2001 - the magazine Men's Health of the same publishing house. In 2002, he became the editor-in-chief of this magazine.

In 2003, he left for the position of editor-in-chief of the Russian version of the American magazine GQ (Gentlemen’s Quarterly) at the publishing house Condé Nast.

In 2010, he publicly called for and personally intended to tear down posters and portraits depicting Stalin, which Moscow city authorities allegedly planned to hang on the streets of Moscow on Victory Day, May 9, 2010, and also provoked other hooligan acts in relation to images of Stalin.

2012: Media group "Live!"

In 2012, he left GQ to head Mikhail Prokhorov’s media group “Live! ”, which included “Snob”, “Russian Pioneer”, TV channel “Live!”.

“I'm actually leaving GQ. Last year they made me an offer to head the ZhV! media group. (“Live!”) and the “Snob” project. I did not consider it correct to confirm my interest in this proposal, since I had to complete a number of major anniversary projects related to GQ,” Uskov wrote in his LJ.

2013: Head of the magazine "Snob"

At the beginning of 2013, the group "Live!" broke up, and Uskov headed “Snob”.

2016: Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Russia

In January 2016, it became known that Nikolai Uskov, who previously led the Snob project, replaced Elmar Murtazaev as editor-in-chief of the business publication Forbes Russia. It was reported that Uskov will develop Forbes magazine, the Forbes Woman and Forbes Life applications, the forbes.ru website and the Forbes closed club.

Literary and journalistic activities

In 2001, he published the monograph “Christianity and Monasticism in Western Europe of the Early Middle Ages”, based on his dissertation, at the St. Petersburg publishing house “Aletheia”.

On November 6, 2008, the Eksmo publishing house published Uskov’s first detective story, “Winter Collection of Death. Fashion detective."

In February 2011, the same publishing house published a new detective story by Nikolai Uskov called “Seven Angels”, which continues to tell the story of the adventures of a hero familiar to readers from the first book - Innocent Alekhine, editor-in-chief of the men's magazine "Gentleman".

Uskov is credited with the neologism “Putin’s glamor.”

He blogs on LiveJournal. In LiveJournal he actively uses profanity. Has an account on a social network

Left his post. This is stated in the ACMG press release received by Gazeta.Ru.

Nikolai Mazurin, who previously held the position of chief editor of the magazine, has now been appointed acting editor-in-chief of the publication.

“Nikolai was at the origins of Russian Forbes, is well known to business and is an expert in the field of business journalism. It is also worth noting that he is the editor of the main Forbes ratings, including “200 Richest Businessmen in Russia”, “200 Private Companies” and “50 Russian Celebrities”. Mazurin will be responsible for the work of the editorial staff of Forbes magazine, the Forbes.ru website and will continue to develop communications with medium and large businesses,” the text says.

Nikolay Uskov became editor-in-chief of Forbes in January 2016. In this post, he replaced , who had been the editor-in-chief of the publication since 2014.

Currently, the latter heads the Latvian and Estonian versions of the magazine.

Before joining Forbes, Nikolai Uskov led the Snob project and headed the Russian version of GQ magazine from 2003-2012.

“This decision is due to dissatisfaction with the quality of Nikolai Uskov’s work as editor-in-chief, systematic violations of labor discipline, and the non-competition clause of the employment contract,” commented Dmitry Ozman, director of public relations at the international media group ACMG.

However, Nikolai Uskov himself expresses a different point of view.

“I do not agree with the order to dismiss me. The situation that has developed in the magazine in recent years causes me natural concern. I intend to continue to inform the public in detail about how the magazine is turning into jeans.

With this I hope to support my colleagues who remain to work there. Naturally, I am also going to go to court,” he told Gazeta.Ru.

At the same time, he explains his position in detail on the social network Facebook.

“Friends, today Alexander Fedotov (owner of ACMG-ed.) fired me from Forbes magazine. For participation in the program “Minority Report” on!,” Uskov wrote.

He also said that last week he received an offer to separate by agreement of the parties for an amount of compensation “slightly less than one hundred thousand dollars.” Uskov, according to him, refused.

Further, the now former editor-in-chief of Forbes accuses Fedotov of “not paying royalties to authors, photographers and agencies for six months, withholding and not paying additional salaries to Forbes staff (since the end of March), and owing the printing house millions of rubles.”

“The pressure on me began to increase almost immediately after the refusal to sign the new edition of the Forbes charter,”

- Uskov comments.

ARTCOM Media, part of the ACMG group and controlled by businessman Alexander Fedotov, acquired the publishing house Axel Springer Russia, which publishes Forbes magazine in Russia, in the fall of 2015. The German company was forced to sell the magazine due to legal restrictions on foreigners in the media. By law, since 2016, foreigners cannot own more than 20% of the company.

One of the most notorious scandals related to Forbes magazine broke out in the fall of 2016. It is associated with the release of the ranking of the highest paid executives of the largest companies in Russia, which is traditionally compiled by Forbes magazine. At the same time, the magazine’s employees accused the magazine’s publisher, Alexander Fedotov, of interfering in editorial policy, since the rating contained information about the income of managers, but the president’s income did not appear in it.

“After the scandal with the removal from our salary rating of information about the salary of VTB head Andrei Kostin, my relationship with Fedotov changed dramatically. At a meeting the day before, with the participation of my deputy and the author of the rating, Fedotov agreed with our arguments to leave the salary rating of top managers in the form in which it is. But later, taking advantage of the fact that I was on vacation, he put pressure on Kolya Mazurin, and Kostin’s salary nevertheless disappeared from the magazine,” explains Nikolai Uskov.

At the same time, the audience of Forbes magazine has thinned out recently. According to Mediascope, the average audience of one issue of Forbes magazine in September 2017 - February 2018 was almost 1.1 million people over 12 years old living in large cities. However, a year earlier this figure was 1.4 million people.