(Special Report, February 25, 1993)

A cause for reevaluating the priorities in offering Western expertise and money.

By William Dunkerley, Alexei Izyumov, and Sergei Panasenko

Introduction:

Newspapers and magazines can provide a real boost to Russian economic reform. But they are not doing it. They are not living up to their potential. The reason is that they are themselves ill-prepared for the challenge of market economics. Indeed, many are on the verge of succumbing to the pressures of the market. They are stymied by a lack of expertise in the operation of a free market. And they lack the financial resources with which to acquire the much-needed help.

But how can Russian publications help advance reforms, anyway? Suppose these problems didn’t exist? What potential do newspapers and magazines have for facilitating economic reforms in the former Soviet Union? Let’s look at some of the ways.

First, newspapers and magazines are an important prerequisite to the freedoms that are enabling economic reform. Indeed, freedom of the press played an important role in the early perestroika period. This connection between freedom of the press and democracy is not uniquely Russian. In the United States, it was the subject of the first amendment to the Constitution. Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Jean Kirkpatrick once said, “Nothing is more important to a free society than a free press.” In Russia today, maintaining a free and independent press remains an essential condition of economic reform.

Second, newspapers and magazines are needed to provide readers with essential information for making both political and economic decisions in a free society. They promote the establishment and maintenance of democratic institutions. And they are effective vehicles for political and economic change.

Third, print media are necessary, sometimes crucial, instruments of commerce in a market economy. By carrying advertising, they bring together buyers and sellers. In some industries, newspapers or magazines may be the principal means for doing this. Such advertising is essential to business development. In a larger sense, it is likewise critical to a nation’s overall economic development. In the United States and in other Western free market economies, publications are playing this important role. If Russia is to move away from the maintenance of industrial monopolies and limited purchasing alternatives, if buyers and sellers are to have and exercise choices, then Russian publications need to start effectively filling this role of connecting buyers and sellers.

With most Russian newspapers and magazines showing instability or inexperience in a business sense, their ability to make these contributions to freedom, to the development of democratic institutions, and to economic reform is sadly handicapped.

This report was prepared by Alexei Izyumov, Sergei Panasenko and myself. Since early 1992, I have collaborated with Alexei Izyumov in searching for ways of assisting Russian print media to succeed. He is both an economist and media expert, and contributes a valuable perspective to this report. Sergei Panasenko is a top manager of a leading Russian business publication. He came to me for a three-month training program on free market publishing strategies and techniques. His insightful contribution to this report has been compiled from “homework” assignments he completed for me during his training program.

--William Dunkerley

Putting the Problem in Perspective

By Alexei Izyumov

Throughout the six years of perestroika and during the climactic events of the August 1991 revolution in Moscow, the Soviet press served as the most efficient executioner of the Communist system. Nevertheless, today having won the rights and freedoms it fought for, the press seems to be falling victim to its own victory. With old villains of state censorship and political control finally gone, newspapers and magazines suddenly find themselves facing a new, powerful, omnipresent and seemingly invincible enemy — the market.

Swift disintegration of the central government and the communist party in the wake of August 1991 events marked the end of the half-century old tradition of state budget financing for the media. Now most newspapers and magazines must find the ways and means to survive on their own.

The situation today presents a serious threat to both the freedom and the quality of the press in the new Commonwealth of Independent States. Without financial self-sufficiency, magazines and newspapers cannot be free of political control. For the former Soviet Union to have a truly free press, the publications must support themselves through commercial activities — primarily selling advertising space. Now however, under the ruthless pressures of the market, many well-respected publications that did so much for the triumph of democracy in the USSR risk death or degeneration into second-rate publications. The danger is imminent.

More Than Survival is at Stake

The survival of magazines and newspapers is critical to the Independent States’ transition to a free market economy. That is because in such an economy, newspapers and magazines play a vital economic role themselves. It is to bring together buyers and sellers. Through the inclusion of advertisements, the publications offer sellers a means for disseminating their marketing messages. And they provide buyers with the opportunity to make selections among competitive products and services.

But Soviet publishers had been very poorly prepared for the rapid onslaught of market forces. In spite of all previous talk about independence, most newspaper and magazine editors and managers still have but a vague idea of how to operate their publications without the traditional government funding. Advertising and competition remain new concepts. Even the more Westernized newspapers have been getting an insufficient share of their revenues from paid advertisements. For comparison, American publishers receive typically from 50 to 90 percent of their revenues from the sale of advertising space.

Yet the market is not waiting for the media to learn the new tricks of the trade. Liberalization of newsprint prices and the hike of transportation and distribution prices made the cost of most publications extremely expensive — leaving many newspapers and magazines on the brink of bankruptcy. Newspapers with the highest circulation and all-Commonwealth distribution, such as the trade-unions’ Trud, the non-partisan Argumenty and Fakty, or youths’ Komsomolskaya Pravda have been hit particularly hard. Some, like Pravda, had to stop publishing altogether, for a while.

All major newspapers and magazines are struggling to attract new sources of revenue. With the power of the dollar at its all-time high, Western advertisers are particularly sought after. In order to attract badly needed hard-currency income and investment, some publications have started foreign language editions or have formed joint ventures with Western partners.

However, efforts so far by the ex-Soviet press to answer the new challenges are absolutely inadequate. Lack of personnel experienced in advertising sales prevents them from dealing effectively with the problems. This deficiency also presents major obstacles to foreign investors who could otherwise be of great help. Westerners complain that they have great difficulty finding CIS partners who understand the concepts, strategies and business techniques of the Western publishing business.

Outside Assistance is Needed

Even though the governments of Russia and the other former republics seem to be aware of the problem, they are so beset with the urgent tasks of economic reform that, in most cases, they cannot provide the publishers with any support.

The role of the strong voice of the free press in this crucial transitional period that the Commonwealth States are living through is hard to overestimate. The contributions which newspapers and magazines can potentially make to the economic transition are enormous.

Yet, in contrast to more enthusiastic Western assistance to the media in Eastern Europe, Western aid programs to the press in the ex-USSR continue to be too few and too far in between. To help the newly-liberated press adjust to the market without losing the gains of the glasnost period, much more serious and concerted efforts are needed.

Specific Problems ... Specific Solutions

By Sergei Panasenko

My publication, Business Moscow News, was launched to provide CIS economic, marketing and financial information to business leaders. We’ve never had a business publication like this before in Russia. Indeed, under the old command economy structure, there was no need for such a publication. The government possessed its own channels of information. Others weren’t allowed to share in this information, and in fact, usually didn’t need it. But our transition to a market economy has created a new demand for the kind of information we publish.

Our readers are mostly top-end bankers, entrepreneurs, and managers, both for state and private enterprises. Our aim is to give them concise but exhaustive information about manufacturing, construction, banking, trade, etc., for everyday use in their decision making.

But while I am usually concerned with the publication of information regarding a variety of industries, I am writing now about my own industry, journalism and publishing. And here I wish to outline some of the problems we are now facing, and I will discuss some possible solutions.

The Subscription and Circulation Dilemma

To start with, what American editor could cope with knowing practically nothing about his or her readers? No demographics, no reader-interest data, no names and addresses?

You may even find it difficult to imagine such a predicament. But this is the reality that we editors in Russia are facing today.

For decades, magazines and newspapers have been separated from the process of soliciting subscriptions and distributing publications. These functions were carried on by a state monopoly. It served as the sole subscription agency for all publications. And it handled the distribution as well. Publications didn’t need to have a marketing department or a circulation department. It was all handled by the state monopoly. They told us how many subscribers we had. We printed a sufficient number of copies, and then turned over our unaddressed issues to the state monopoly for delivery.

A New Russia . . . Almost

Theoretically, this isn’t the case any more. With the end of communism, we were given the freedom to make other arrangements. But in reality, any newspaper or magazine still has no option but to continue passing on its whole press run to the state monopoly. We must still rely upon it for collecting new subscription orders, as well.

What’s worse, we can’t monitor our reader interests, we can’t conduct direct mail marketing campaigns. Why, we can’t even solicit renewals (other than via house ads) because we don’t know to whom to send the renewal notices! In fact, the very idea of a renewal rate and its importance is absolutely unknown in Russia. No one calculates subscriber acquisition costs.

You might think this problem could be solved if the state monopoly would just disclose the subscriber list to each publisher. That’s easier said than done, however. None of the subscription records are kept centrally. You see, when someone wishes to subscribe to a publication, the person must go to his or her local post office, fill out a government form, and pay in cash for the subscription. The post office notifies the central state monopoly how many copies of each publication it needs for its patrons. Upon publication, the appropriate number of copies of each publication are sent to each post office where the addressing is done as a largely manual operation.

Is There a Way Out?

The reason we can’t escape this awful problem is simple. The solution requires investing hundreds of millions of rubles and dollars into new equipment, software, offices, etc. (We don’t have the equipment in Russia for automatically addressing magazines and newspapers.) No Russian banks will provide publishers with the money needed for automation. As a result, Russian publications remain the hostages of this system, a relic of the Stalinist past.

How can you function without knowing who your readers are? Some publications can get through it more easily than others. For instance, my publication, Business Moscow News, a weekly, is targeted precisely at the needs of top-end decision makers from different industries. We provide them with key business information. Our publication is similar to the American weekly, Barron’s. So, while we don’t exactly know who our readers are, we know who they ought to be and we know what are the interests of our target audience. Admittedly though, this is not the best way of handling things.

My American Internship

I traveled to the United States to study the ways of American publishers. There, I was a participant in an executive training program organized and conducted by publishing consultant William Dunkerley under the sponsorship of the World Affairs Council. Financial support was provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce and several American corporations.

During my three months in the U.S. I discussed our problems with Mr. Dunkerley. He gave me a lot of advice and really helped me to clarify many issues. We explored not only the subscription and distribution problem, but also issues regarding advertising sales, readership research, and publication management. Now I can say without any risk of exaggeration that an absolutely new world has come to light. I hope to adapt and utilize many of the approaches I learned, now that I am back in Russia.

But Will Russian Editors Ever Get to Know Their Readers

We badly need to change our incredible subscription system. We can’t do it alone, though. Certainly I will be trying to persuade officials responsible for the state monopoly to adopt a more modern approach. But I’m fully convinced that the best solution is for a foreign company in this business to move into Russia. The state can continue to provide the delivery service. But we need the equipment and expertise for handling subscriptions exclusive of the government. Hundreds of Russian publications are waiting for this service. Mr. Dunkerley and I can personally give much advice to such a company regarding what is needed to start this kind of an operation. This represents a clear business opportunity for someone. And it represents an opportunity for Russian editors to finally get to know their readers!

The Advertising Woes

In America, I heard a lot about the separation of advertising and editorial. In Russia, we used to have more separation than you — there was no advertising!

Magazines and newspapers in the former Soviet Union existed under the tight state and party control. They operated from budgets provided by the government. Advertising revenue was not part of the picture.

A New Deal

The suffocating practice of state control is over now. But it has been quite an unhappy surprise for Russian publishers to realize that the free market’s demands could be even harder to come to terms with than the communist censorship of the past.

All of a sudden, Russian newspapers and magazines find themselves facing challenges they had no idea existed. They had no experience in dealing with them before. Skyrocketing prices for everything from energy to paper to transportation have put many publications on the verge of bankruptcy.

In order to make ends meet, the publications started to sell advertising space. So far, it hasn’t worked very well, unfortunately. The economic slump in Russia accounts for some of this, certainly. But it’s not the only cause.

A Trained Staff?

During the Soviet era, each publication was not much more than an editorial office. There were no advertising or marketing departments. There was no top executive knowledgeable regarding all these facets of publishing. The editor-in-chief was the top official. The editor-in-chief is still the top executive at a publication. But now, he or she must also take responsibility for the publication’s advertising sales program, too.

What is more important, however, is that our ad sales personnel have very limited experience in this field — or none at all. People in advertising departments usually act as order-takers rather than as sophisticated sales people. It goes without saying that the results are quite unimpressive.

On top of all this, the Russian parliament has adopted a law that publications can sell to advertisers no more than 40 percent of their space. This means that even if a publication were to be lucky enough to earn a lot of advertising money, it would be illegal!

Our contracts with printers are a problem, too. The number of pages we print is strictly specified in a contract. Making a change might require advance notice of a month or more. If we were to sell a lot of ads, we couldn’t practically expand the size of the issue to accommodate them. We’d have to simply drop editorial pages. Your New York Times has the motto “All the news that’s fit to print.” Ours might be, “All the news that fits, we print!”

Obviously, this system limits the ability of Russian publications to attract new advertisers.

Not an Easy Sell

Advertisers remain skeptical about buying space. That’s because Russian publishers can offer no proof regarding the effectiveness of advertising in their publications. It’s worth mentioning that even the big Western ad companies like Y&R can’t cope with this problem. Their Moscow branches act primarily as PR agencies, distributing newsletters and organizing news conferences and briefings.

From what I’ve learned during my internship in the United States, one thing is clear. We will not be able to solve our problems without some outside help. We need our ad sales people to get training in sales and marketing theory. They also need supervised practice in developing the required skills. The best way to do that is to launch a workshop in Moscow, followed by supervised practice in America. I wonder if there’s an American funding source rich and brave enough to subsidize this program in any form?

What Kind of Training is Really Needed?

There are three groups of people in Russian media who should receive training from the West. They are:

1. Top managers. They need to gain knowledge about operating under free market conditions, creating competitive marketing strategies, and personnel management. Their training has to include lectures as well as seminars in Russia and about a one-month training program in the U.S.

2. Subscription marketing specialists. They should know how to create successful marketing strategies, how to design and implement subscription marketing campaigns, how to monitor readership. This program should include a brief Russian segment and also a larger American one (from two to three weeks).

3. Advertising sales personnel. They should learn how to sell ad space to clients, on what conditions, how to expand ad sales activities, etc. This program has to include a short initial course in Russia to select people who are best-prepared for this job. These people should then spend about three months in the U.S., going through an intensive educational program which should include both a theoretical as well as a practical part.

What We Don’t Need

At my publication, we employ an extensive staff of editors and writers. Obviously every Russian newspaper or magazine has some sort of an editorial staff. Do all these people need teaching and training to adapt to the new “rules of the game” in mass-media? Certainly they do. But at my publication, and I suspect at many others, these people have been getting this training non-stop. But do they need to receive training in Western schools of journalism or at Western newspapers? We don’t think so. We believe we can handle these training needs ourselves.

Our writers already have a high professional level (or we just would not employ them). They are skilled as journalists, and don’t need more drilling from the West. Surely, new contacts with, and new experiences gained from, newspapers in Europe or in the U.S. can prove to be very useful. But the real priority for these writing programs would seem to be rather low.

Timing is Critical

Russian publishers need results now. And the training we need must offer immediate results.

It might appear more effective to teach not our managers or our business leaders, but teachers and trainers. The whole idea would be to prepare teachers for Russian colleges, universities, or business schools, and let them train students here in Russia. Basically, it means investing in the educational system of Russia.

But like any investments in education, results would not show up for a several years.

Russian publications just can’t wait. We’ve got problems right now. And we need solutions right now.

There’s another problem with an academic approach to training. It is that schools tend to offer general ideas and pure theories. What we badly need is practical solutions. To get the immediate results we need, Russian media professionals should be trained directly by American specialists and professionals. Only in this way can Russian publishers benefit from American experience.

Who Can Provide the Help?

Money for training can come from different sources. Governmental agencies (such as USIA) can retarget part of their budget on this particular goal. Private foundations can provide grants. And American companies with interests in the former Soviet Union can contribute, as well.

The U.S. government spent millions of dollars in 1992 on what was supposed to be “freedom support” to the former USSR. USIA alone expended $40 million, from which $18.6 million went to exchange programs. In the long run this seems to be a good strategy. But Russia needs quick and broad dissemination of the ideas of freedom, civil rights, and market economics. Doing it through exchange programs for individuals or even groups is like trying to communicate with a crowd by talking to each individual in the crowd — instead of using a loudspeaker.

I suggest that there is an effective loudspeaker waiting to be used. It is the newspapers and magazines of the former USSR. Russian newspapers became free earlier than any other part of the former communist economy. Now the free Russian press remains the most valuable asset of perestroika. But publishers are starting to recognize that it was easier to break free than to stay free. They resemble the parachutist in the sad joke — you know, if his parachute doesn’t open, he has about 30 seconds to learn how to fly. Right now, our publishers really must learn how to “fly” in the cloudy, stormy sky of the free market. And they must learn awfully fast — or die.

Financial independence has always been a backdrop for real freedom. Financial independence from the state is a condition sine qua non for the free press in Russia. But no one has taught Russia’s media executives how to achieve this independence and how to keep it. They have no solid ideas about subscription marketing, advertising sales, or strategic planning in a free market. The more civilized and Western-like Russian publishers aspire to be, the more crucial this lack of knowledge is going to be.

Conclusions of This Report

By William Dunkerley

Here are the conclusions of this report:

1. The press is a cornerstone of freedom, democracy, and economic reform in Russia.

2. That role is threatened by the precarious business and financial position of existing newspapers and magazines.

3. Those wishing to preserve freedom and democracy in Russia should ascribe a high priority to assisting newspapers and magazines.

4. The critical need of Russian newspapers and magazines is for guidance in becoming successful in a business sense.

5. Newspapers and magazines are not achieving their full potential in advancing market reforms as a result of inexperience and lack of training on the part of their managers.

6. Financial self-sufficiency is eluding the press because of this same inexperience and lack of training.

7. Current Russian laws regarding advertising and provisions for subscription acquisition and fulfillment are serious obstacles to self-sufficiency, as well.

8. The need for training journalists pales in comparison to the requirement of assisting publication managers to become more effective in operating within a market economy.

Some Analysis

Considering these conclusions, there are a few aspects of Western attempts to aid the former Soviet Union that concern this writer.

First, I’ve read of a lot of programs intended to teach Russian journalists new skills. They cover topics like reporting in an open society, ethics, investigative reporting, understanding American English, etc. Now, there is nothing wrong with these kinds of programs. In fact, I believe they could do a lot of good. What’s wrong, however, is the priority that they’re receiving. A much higher priority needs to be given to providing specific training and practical guidance to those responsible for the business end of publishing. Providing journalist training without first assuring the viability of the publishing enterprises will only lead to a lot of highly trained journalists standing on unemployment lines.

Second, aiding newspapers and magazines seems to be getting short shrift among all the forms of assistance that are being offered to the former Soviet Union. We’re not talking about a single isolated industry, here. We’re talking about an industry that is necessary to the success of people and businesses in most industries all across the former Soviet Union. It’s one of the basic components of an economic infrastructure. Periodical publishing is a necessary industry for getting market economics really functioning in Russia. Pouring assistance into various other areas — without first assuring the firm establishment and success of this infrastructure — may seriously limit the pay-off from other types of support in the long term.

Third, the kind of assistance needed by newspapers and magazines must produce a quick and practical result. There’s no time for extended academic training. There’s no need for teaching a lot of theory and generalities. The real need is for highly targeted training and problem solving. In areas such as advertising sales, acquiring knowledge isn’t sufficient. Skills development is required, as well. And it’s not enough to simply teach how we do things in the U.S. Our practices can not be witlessly transported to the former Soviet Union and be expected to work. But our free market experience can be carefully adapted to the Russian situation and we can help develop strategies to solve their specific problems. We need programs to do that

Fourth, the current system of subscription acquisition and fulfillment is a roadblock to financial independence for newspapers and magazines. The government monopoly that serves as the subscription agent for all publishers does not give publishers access to the names and addresses of their subscribers. As a result, publishers can not obtain the demographic and psychographic data they need to effectively sell advertising space. They also can not use the power of direct marketing for soliciting renewals or new subscriptions. This tragic situation stands in the way of publications’ financial success. It also perpetuates the need of many publishers for continued subsidies from the state. Clearly, this system does not promote a free and independent press. We should help the publishers and the government to get an up-dated perspective on this problem.

Fifth, as obvious as many of these problems may seem to informed Western observers, many Russian publishers may not themselves appreciate all the problems they are facing nor understand their consequences. In circumspect, that may be why many Western funding agencies have come to variant conclusions about the needs of Russian newspapers and magazines. If the agencies have based their needs assessment on the self-assessments made by Russian publishers, they may have been inadvertently misled by people who couldn’t assess needs they didn’t realize existed.

The Impact on U.S. Companies

The current state of magazine and newspaper advertising in the CIS is not only a problem to the publishers. It is a problem to U.S. firms that are doing business, or wish to do business in the former Soviet Union.

For instance, in the United States, experienced advertising sales personnel at magazines and newspapers are able to assist advertisers in their marketing efforts. Indeed, a publication’s advertising staff serves as de facto marketing consultants to their publication’s advertisers. The staffs are able to furnish demographic information on their readers, describe the purchasing behavior and decision-making responsibilities of readers, and offer market insights not otherwise available to the advertisers.

U.S. companies wishing to do business in the former Soviet Union are now finding an obstacle in this area. Under the old command economy, American firms then doing business in the Soviet Union had as their customer perhaps a single Minister or Ministry official. There wasn’t much need for Western-style advertising.

Now, however, decision making has become decentralized and dispersed. We spoke with a marketing vice president for a U.S. company with long experience in the Soviet Union. Once his company dealt with the state barons of the command economy. Now it must find and influence a much wider audience. He told us that following the break up of the centralized approach, his company’s sales were down one third.

Print media advertising can give U.S. firms like this one an opportunity to target their advertising messages to the prospective customers they need to reach. But the advertising personnel of CIS publications are not able to be of much help, right now. They lack the professionalism, they lack the knowledge needed to be helpful to advertisers, they lack the basic preparation and training for their jobs. An American machinery manufacturer explained to us that his company is already using magazine advertising in the CIS. But he told us there are yet thousands of prospective customers he would like to reach.

Professional advertising staffs at newspapers and magazines in the former Soviet Union could be invaluable to companies like those cited above. One significant benefit from the training proposed in this report will be to put CIS publications in a position to provide this help that is needed by these and other American companies.

Answer the Call

Russian newspapers and magazines are finding it was easier to break free from communism than it is to break even in a business sense. They need training and guidance to stay afloat. Considering their potential for preserving democracy and fostering economic reform, a high priority should be given to helping these publications to survive.

About the Authors

William Dunkerley is an experienced publishing consultant. Since 1981 he has been engaged exclusively in his own consulting practice, guiding publications to greater success and profitability. Previously, he was president of a technical publishing company, publishing manager of a national association, and served as a director of the Society of National Association Publications. He has written for Folio and Successful Magazine Publishing and is editor of Editors Only.

Mr. Dunkerley is experienced in international business. He has served as a U.S. participant on an international technical study group which has shaped United Nations technical policies. He has developed and managed educational programs involving satellite communication and did much pioneering work in the use of interactive satellite TV. Selected as a contributor to major encyclopedias, he has also lectured at well over 100 national and international conventions and professional gatherings. He is a member of the World Affairs Council, the Organization Development Network, the National Association of Publishers’ Representatives, and the Society of National Association Publications.

Alexei Izyumov, a Russian citizen, is currently a professor of economics at the University of Tulsa School of Business Administration. He is an economist and former member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The problems confronting magazines and newspapers in the former Soviet Union have been a particular area of his studies. He has taught and lectured widely throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. He has been a Fellow at the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia University and a Visiting Scholar with the Harriman Institute of Advanced Study of the Soviet Union.

Dr. Izyumov is a contributing editor of Moscow Magazine, and a columnist of Newsweek International and a member of the editorial board of Business in the ex-USSR. He has authored many articles on the Soviet economy and business and has prepared numerous business surveys on joint ventures and advertising in the USSR. He has appeared on ABC Nightline, Good Morning America, CNN, MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and World Monitor TV. He is a member of the Soviet Foreign Policy Association (Moscow), and the American Political Science Association. Dr. Izyumov received his Ph.D. from the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

Sergei Panasenko is an owner, co-founder and deputy editor-in-chief of Business Moscow News. He is responsible for the process of editing and printing the publication and for overseeing the development of its marketing strategies. Currently his publication has a circulation of over 1 million, distributed as the business section of Moscow News.

He has worked in journalism since 1986. His first assignments involved reporting on science and technical progress. In the beginning of the science cooperatives movement in the USSR, he authored many articles to defend the movement against attacks from opposing conservative forces within the USSR. He later went on to write about the Soviet economy, foreign economic relations, and banking. Mr. Panasenko is a graduate of the Kharkov Aviation Institute. Before making a career change to enter the publishing field, he was an engineer at an aviation factory.

Recently, Mr. Panasenko took part in a three-month training program in the U.S. offered by publishing consultant William Dunkerley under the auspices of the World Affairs Council. There he studied free market practices for publication management, strategic planning, competitive analysis, and, advertising and subscription sales.