OSA / Guide / Fonds / HU OSA 205-3

HU OSA	205-3 C
Authority entry:	Publications Department

Related Authority Entries

• HU OSA 205C Open Media Research Institute

Date(s) and Place(s) of existence 1994-1997

Business location

Na Strzi 63, 140 62 Prague 4, Czech Republic

Mandate, functions and sphere of activity

Open Media Research Institute (OMRI) activities included publishing objective information and analysis on the region, as a resource for the media in the region and to focus Western attention on the problems faced by the countries of the region. For this purposes a Publications Department was organized. Its main objective was also to promote pluralist debate in the region and feature dialogue on critical issues by people from the region, as well as by foreign experts.

In 1995 OMRI launched two main publications: the OMRI Daily Digest, an electronic bulletin published each weekday giving comprehensive news coverage of the region; and Transition, a biweekly magazine giving more in-depth analysis of events and issues behind the news. Late the same year the Russian-language edition of OMRI Daily Digest was launched.

In order to develop better distribution networks within the countries the Department hired a Publisher (Mr. Ross Settles) and developed additional marketing program, which targeted potential users of OMRI publications within the region. Additionally the Department expanded distribution of publication in the region and invested in the development of its electronic distribution capacity. Thus several listserves were established and several publications such as OMRI Analytical Brief, OMRI Economic Digest, Pursuing Balkan Peace and others were distributed through them.

The reports and articles included in the different OMRI publications were prepared by qualified specialists who carefully analyzed the vast amount of primary-source material that OMRI collected and filed. They also employed a network of regional correspondents.

Electronic publishing included via email delivery (sent automatically to subscribers' email addresses) and also through putting online OMRI electronic publications (OMRI Daily Digest, OMRI Special Reports, OMRI Analytical Brief and also RFE/RL Daily Reports from 1994). Plans for the further development and expansion of activities were not realized due to the restructuring and downsizing of OMRI in 1996 and its closure in 1997. According to this decision the Publications Department reorganized its activities, and switched to the monthly publication titled Transitions while RFE/RL took over responsibility for publishing a daily electronic digest of news from the region.

In 1995 a joint publishing project between M.E. Sharpe and OMRI was launched, and several books in the series entitled The OMRI Annual Survey of Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union: Building Democracy were published in 1995-1997.

Administrative structure

The Publications Department as one of the units of OMRI consisted of two parts: the Editorial Section and the Production Section. R. Williams was Acting Executive Editor in 1995; later the Department was headed by Michael Kaufman. The unit had from 10 to 12 people on its staff: Pete Baumgartner and Kim Conger (Production Specialists), Susan Caskie and Sue Graves (Senior Editors), Janet Hofmann and Timothy G. Rostan (Copy Editors), Steve Keetle and Anna Nivat (Staff Writers), and Josephine Schmidt (Managing Editor).

Relationships

The Department worked closely with other OMRI departments as well as within the network of Open Society Foundations, Open Society Institute-Budapest, Open Society Archives and Central European University. The main source for the publications was analysts' research papers written in their fields of specialization on different topics and respective countries or regions.

Rules or conventions

ISAAR(CPF): International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families General Intenational Standard Archival Description; OSA Internal Rules.

Dates of description

Described by Olga Zaslavskaya, 1 October 2003
Online version updated 18 December 2008