Joghovurd

Logo of Joghovurd

The daily newspaper "Joghovurd" was founded on November 23, 2010. The daily currently has a circulation of 3,968 copies. Since its establishment, it has been published regularly. The daily is published every day, except Mondays and Sundays. The daily consists of various sections, such as social, economic, cultural, etc. News and interviews are also published.


The daily was founded by former journalist and current NA deputy Taguhi Tovmasyan. At first, she represented the ruling "My Step" faction, and later, as an independent deputy, she was elected on the list of the opposition "I Have Honor" bloc. The daily often publishes information received from its own sources and touches on the internal affairs of politicians or political forces, as a result of which it is often involved in legal disputes. In recent years, lawsuits against the daily have been filed mainly by government representatives, for example, Hayk Sargsyan, a member of the National Assembly's Civil Contract Party faction, Alen Simonyan, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Tigran Avinyan, the Mayor of Yerevan, and others.

Key Facts

Audience ShareMissing data
Ownership TypePrivate
Geographic CoverageNational
Content TypePaid
Active Transparency
company/channel informs proactively and comprehensively about its ownership, data is constantly updated and easily verifiable

Ownership

Ownership Structure

Joghovurd Newspaper Editorial Office LLC was founded in 2010. This company publishes the Joghovurd daily newspaper, the first issue of which was published in February 2011. The company also owns the website armlur.am, registered in 2010 and have been operating since March 2012. The 100% owner of the company is Taguhi Tovmasyan. After being elected as a deputy of the National Assembly, she handed the company over to Hasmik Davtyan, who is her mother-in-law.

Voting RightsAccording to clause 4.4 of the charter of “Joghovurd Newspaper Editorial Board” LLC, a company participant who has at least 10% of the shares has the right to demand in court the removal of another company participant from the company if he, by his activity or inaction, makes the normal operation of the company difficult. The company is managed through the general meeting, and the decisions adopted by the meeting have legal force if more than half of the votes of the company participants participate in the vote. Some issues, for example, amendments to the charter, an increase in the authorised capital, etc., are adopted by at least two-thirds of the total number of votes of the company participants; the remaining issues are adopted by a majority of the votes.
Individual Owner

Media Companies / Groups

Facts

Founding Year2010
Founder
  • Taguhi Tovmasyan

    Taguhi Tovmasyan has been a member of the National Assembly since 2019. Initially, she was a member of the “My Step” faction as a non-partisan deputy. However, after the 44-day war, on November 16, 2020, Tovmasyan announced her withdrawal from the faction. And in 2021, she was elected as a non-partisan deputy on the electoral list of the opposition “I Have Honor” bloc.

    Tovmasyan regularly criticises the activities of the ruling force, for which she herself is criticised by former teammates.

    After becoming a deputy, the “Joghovurd” newspaper was transferred to trust management by Hasmik Davtyan. Article 95 of the Constitution prohibits deputies from engaging in entrepreneurial activities. And Article 2 of the Law “On Guarantees for the Activities of Deputies of the National Assembly” stipulates that a deputy is obliged to withdraw from the state registration of an individual entrepreneur within 1 month after receiving the mandate, resign from the position held in a commercial organisation, or transfer his share in their authorised capital to trust management. Therefore, Tovmasyan transferred the “Joghovurd” newspaper to trust management to Hasmik Davtyan, who is the mother of Tovmasyan’s husband.

    It should also be noted that Tovmasyan worked as a volunteer in the “Iravunk” newspaper in 2003-2004, and then, in 2004-2007, she was a journalist in the political department of the same newspaper. From 2007-2011, she was a journalist for the “Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” newspaper.

    In 2011, she founded the "Joghovurd" daily newspaper, where she held the position of editor-in-chief of the newspaper and the armlur.am website before becoming a member of parliament.

CEO
  • Knarik Manukyan

    Since 2018, the position of director and editor-in-chief of the “Joghovurd” newspaper has been held by Knarik Manukyan, who previously worked as a journalist in the same newspaper. According to the survey, before taking the position of editor, Knarik Manukyan focused exclusively on covering criminal topics in the “Joghovurd” daily newspaper and on the armlur.am website from 2012 to 2019.

Editor-In-Chief
  • Knarik Manukyan

    See above

Other Important People
  • Hasmik Davtyan

    Hasmik Davtyan is the trustee manager of the “Joghovurd Newspaper Editorial Office” LLC. According to the biographical data provided by the “Joghovurd” daily, Hasmik Davtyan is still the trustee manager of the “Joghovurd Newspaper Editorial Office” LLC. From 1979 to 1998, she worked as an accountant at the Savings Bank of Vardenis, Gegharkunik region, Soviet Armenia. From 1998 to 2014, Davtyan was the treasurer of the Vardenis State Sanitary and Epidemiological Inspectorate (Sanepidkaran). The response to the survey also states that Hasmik Davtyan has been retired since 2022 and continues to engage in agriculture in the village of Balahovit, Abovyan region. It should be noted that Hasmik Davtyan became the company's trustee, since

    Article 95 of the Constitution of Armenia prohibits deputies from engaging in entrepreneurial activities. Article 2 of the Law "On Guarantees for the Activities of Deputies of the National Assembly" stipulates that a deputy is obliged to withdraw from the state registration of an individual entrepreneur within 1 month after receiving the mandate, resign from the position held in a commercial organisation, or transfer his share in their authorised capital to trustee management. Therefore, the owner of the newspaper, a deputy of the National Assembly since 2019, Taguhi Tovmasyan, transferred the "Joghovurd" newspaper to trustee management to Hasmik Davtyan.

ContactAbovyan 22a/3
0010 Yerevan
Armenia
info.armlur@gmail.com
+374 10546423, +37496546423, +3749310546423
http://armlur.am
RevenueMissing Data
Operating ProfitMissing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)Missing Data
Market ShareMissing Data
Headlines
Meta Data

The available financial report is quite old, from 2016. The financial report is published on the newspaper’s website armlur.am. Moreover, there is no separate section on the website with the name “financial report” or something similar, where the reports could be easily found. However, in response to the survey, the company provided the 2024 annual financial report and answered all the research team’s questions. We also asked to clarify whether the financial report also includes the website’s indicators, to which they replied that the financial report includes indicators related to both the newspaper and the website.

According to the 2024 annual financial report provided in response to the survey, revenues amounted to 4,827,190 AMD (12,314 USD) from newspapers. Revenues from advertising amounted to 65,768,624 AMD (167,777 USD). Printing costs amounted to 6,120,000 AMD (15,612 USD), salaries 50,762,418 AMD (129,495 USD), other expenses 5,850,289 AMD (14,924 USD). Taxes paid: income tax: 9,589,485 AMD (24,462 USD), turnover tax: 3,360,836 AMD (8,573 USD), social security contributions: 2,151,196 AMD (5,487 USD). Stamp duty: 694,000 AMD (1,770 USD).

The last page of the newspaper lists the name and surname of the editor-in-chief, the newspaper's contact information, as well as information on the circulation. The website also lists the name of the editor of a separate website.

The company also provided information on the number of visits to the Facebook page, YouTube page, as well as the armlur.am website is owned by the same company. Thus, according to the survey response, from May 10 to August 7, the newspaper’s Facebook page under the name “Joghovurd Daily” had 100,533,432 views. 74% of the visitors to the Facebook page were from Yerevan. During the same period, the YouTube page had 17,642,708 views. The armlur.am website, which also belongs to “Joghovurd Daily Editorial Office” LLC, had 4,000,000 views between June 1 and July 6.

Sources
Documents (PDF)
  • Joghovurd Daily: Charter (Armenian)
    Link File
  • Joghovurd daily response to MOM request 1 (Armenian)
    File
  • Joghovurd daily response to MOM request 2 (Armenian)
    File
  • Joghovurd daily profile: (Armenian)
    Link File