Pussy Riot founder seeks to assert her site on Russia’s online media scene

Pussy Riot punk performer Nadya Tolokonnikova is looking for a new audience — readers and, ideally, financial backers who can turn her two-year-old news website into a full-blown contender on Russia’s media scene.

MediaZona, the website she helped found in 2014 with a focus on criminal justice news, has about 2.2 million visitors a month on various platforms, she said, more than 58% of them in the 18-34 age group prized by advertisers. That still leaves it a relative minnow in a relatively small independent media scene dominated by Latvia-based Medusa, founded by the one-time editor of a top Russian news site.