The Company I Work For
I am Victor. I was born and have lived all my life in Pinsk, a city which is situated in Brest Region in Western Belarus. I work as a TV reporter for a local TV channel. Although there are two TV channels in my city (state-owned and private ones) I represent private TV channel “Varjag”.
The starting point in the history of the television and radio company "Varjag" was September, 1991. It was then that a small private enterprise "Varjag" was registered in the city of Pinsk, which has now turned into a mass media holding. It has a strong position in the information and advertising market of Polessie region. Today, the media holding includes a TV channel "Varjag", the" FM 106.1 Radio”, a weekly newspaper "Varjag- Press" and an advertising agency "Varjag-Visit." Our audience is more than 300,000 residents of Pinsk and the neighbouring districts. Thanks to the Internet and our website on YOUTUBE it has greatly increased.
The TV channel "Varjag" is rightfully considered the pioneer not only in television broadcasting in Pinsk and its district, it is also one of the first private broadcasters in Belarus. And, of course, it is not a coincidence that the name given to the company by its founder Mikhail Zhilyuk, reflects this fact. (Many centuries ago the legendary Vikings bravely discovered and explored new territories, paving new ways from Western Europe to the Byzantine Empire).
The company's success is natural because it has never stopped developing during its 25-year-old history. Many things have changed such as ways of presenting the information, its format and technologies... Analogue TV has been replaced by digital broadcasting, and the Internet has become an integral part of our professional activity and everyday life... We are changing together with the company. Only our motto remains unchanged - "We make information available!" The first television broadcast took place on the 27th of July 1992 and proved to be a successful start for the implementation of the follow-up projects. Thanks to them ("Local Time", "Direct Line", "Dialogues" and others), the TV channel "Varjag" quickly became one of the city's most popular mass media, and today the number of our projects has grown significantly.
The success of the TV channel contributed to the expansion of the company's structure. In June 1995, the first issue of the newspaper "Varjag-Press" was published. The FM radio was launched in May, 2000. So, today the "Varjag" broadcasting company explores regional media
space, opening up new information opportunities for its audience. In 2014 the TV company "Varjag" moved to a new building. It is a comfortable and stylish office. It has become the pride and the new hallmark not only of the media holding "Varjag", but in a sense, the city landmark.
Though we are a private company, I can’t say we are absolutely free and independent of the local authorities, so we have to conform to the official course and the environment as we know there are a lot of ways to influence us. All I know is that we do our best to discuss the problems existing in our society and we have examples when thanks to our reports some issues are resolved. Sometimes even national TV channels get interested in our TV reports or the local problems and cover them as well as attracting more attention of the public and the government.
The 25-year-old history of the broadcasting company "Varjag" is a story of time, created by its journalists, editors, cameramen. Each of them has made a contribution to the formation and development of the company. Thanks to them, our viewers, listeners and readers have learned quicky and will learn about the most urgent and important news and events in the life of the city of Pinsk and the region.
Victor Glodev
