«Открытый Нижний» ("Open Nizhny") is a Nizhny Novgorod online publication operating at opennov.ru, which describes itself as an interactive city portal. It was registered as a mass media outlet on August 10, 2015[1]. Between 2019 and 2021, the portal's founder was Pichugin Alexander Vladimirovich (listed in the foreign agents registry)[2].
Publication details
Registration certificate El No. FS77-62677 was issued by Roskomnadzor on August 10, 2015; the distribution format is online publication. The founder is OOO "Открытый Нижний" (Open Nizhny LLC), editor-in-chief is Valery Prokhorov; Piskunova Street, in the same building as Newsroom24[1].
The age rating is 18+; the publication permits reproduction of its materials only with a hyperlink back to itself[1].
How the feed is structured
«Открытый Нижний»'s section structure is broader than the typical city outlet's: in addition to society, economics, politics, culture, and sports, it includes "Incidents," "Road Accidents," "Science and Education," "Analysis," and "Photo Reports."
Three sections set it apart from other city feeds: "Complaints" — readers' submissions about local problems; "Subjectively" — opinion columns; and "Missing Person" — search notices. These sections are precisely why the portal calls itself interactive: a significant share of its agenda comes from readers themselves.
What's in the feed
In terms of content, this is a general-interest city feed with no particular specialization. On any given day the front page might carry Weather in Nizhny Novgorod, a report on rare swallowtail butterflies in the Kerzhensky Nature Reserve, Torpedo, Sunset Capital, the opening of hunting season, the seizure of six hundred and seventy Sormovo (disambiguation), and the return of gymnast Dina Averina to Moscow after giving birth in Nizhny Novgorod.
This breadth is a deliberate choice: the portal simultaneously covers the official agenda, incidents, and everyday stories that in other outlets are scattered across different sections or not published at all.
Place in the city
According to the Rating of Nizhny Novgorod Media, August 2026 for August 2026, «Открытый Нижний» ranks fourth among Nizhny Novgorod publications: it covered 27.8 percent of significant city topics, was first to publish the news in 37 cases, and produced 62 items on tracked stories — only Vremya N News Agency, NIA "Nizhny Novgorod," and Newsroom24 ranked higher[3].
The publication also appears in other outlets' stories as a source of factual material: for example, in December 2023 it was «Открытый Нижний» that reported on Roskomnadzor's fine against the owner of the "Moy Nizhny Novgorod" channel and recalled the earlier fine from the antimonopoly authority — this story is examined in the article Cases Against Nizhny Novgorod Telegram Channels.
City chronicle
The publication also maintains a reportage line: it has published accounts of award ceremonies for the Probuzhdenie (award), city festivals, and civic events[3].
The portal's feed is among the sources used to compile the daily city chronicle: it provides an open RSS feed and publishes material from early in the morning.
Sources
- Открытый Нижний — Publication details
- praktika-nz.ru — Nina Zvereva's "Praktika" School — Alexander Pichugin: television journalist, media manager, PR specialist
- Открытый Нижний — Laureates of the Probuzhdenie 2020 Prize awarded