OPTIMISTS….

The publishers of the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the English-language Moscow Times have jointly launched a Russian-language business newspaper, Vedomosti, in which they have committed to invest $10 million over the next three years. The goal is a circulation of 60,000 within a year, but the paper hopes to rely more on advertising than subscriptions for revenue. Competitor Kommersant had a readership of 117,000 before its recent acquisition by persons believed to be acting for tycoon Boris Berezovsky.