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Qazaq / Kazakhstan Media Blog

Maria Podgorbunskaya

Posted by yestore on 01/28/2009

   

Maria Podgorbunskaya

Maria Podgorbunskaya (a.k.a. Мария Подгорбунская) is the editor-in-chief of the Kazakhstan edition of the monthly fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar. Though published in the Republic of Kazakhstan by The Independent Media Sanoma Magazines for the local community the magazine’s content is totally presented in Russian language.

Maria Podgorbunskaya was born on February 1st 1980 in Oskemen (a.k.a. Ust-Kamenogorsk), East Kazakhstan where she earned a degree in English language from the Institute of Foreign Languages.

In early 2000s Maria moved to Almaty, the ex-capital of Kazakhstan and the biggest city with the most developed economy in the country. There in 2003 she started her career as PR-manager, later Special Projects Manager for the fashion magazine Elite Woman, the official Kazakhstan supplement to Vogue Russia. The Managing Director of Elite Woman, Talant Soronoev also served as the acting Editor-in-Chief.

In September 2003 Maria was promoted to the position of Editorial Director at Elite Woman previously held by numerous persons among whom was Yuliana Puchkova.

In September 2004 Maria was offered the position of Editor-in-Chief at Elite Woman. With Maria’s appointment the volume of pages as well as ads in Elite Women almost doubled. In October 2004 serving in the capacity of a publisher Maria Podgorbunskaya launched the Kazakhstan edition of Harper’s Bazaar. Saule Isaeva, the Beauty Editor at Elite Woman, was designated as the Editor-in-Chief.

Soon after that Saule Isaeva was relieved of her duties and the names of the Editor-in-Chief on the credit-page kept changing almost each month until Maria Podgorbunskaya herself occupied the position. For her editorial team Maria invited Natalia Solovieva as Beauty Editor, Elena Zvegints as Fashion Editor, Ekaterina Dzvonik as Culture Editor and Denis Chsherbakov as News and People Editor.  

Maria Podgorbunskaya and Zhanar Mirzazhanova, the Fashion Editor at Harper’s Bazaar Kazakhstan are the only two journalists from Kazakhstan officially accredited by The Fédération française de la couture, du prêt-à-porter des couturiers et des créateurs de mode to the fashion shows in Paris.

Maria is single and has no children to date.

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Amici di Maria De Fillippi

Posted by yestore on 01/28/2009

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Maria De Filippi

Posted by yestore on 01/28/2009

     
Maria De Filippi
             

Maria was born in Milan on December 5th 1961 but grew in Pavia, where her family moved to when she was 10 years old. There Maria attended classic Lyceum and the university where she was awarded a degree on law with honours.

Just after commencement she started working first in Milan at the legal office of the videotapes production company, and then since 1989 in Rome, where she moved to, for the major communications consulting agency – the SIMCO S.r.l. There she met Maurizio Costanzo, director of Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi’s Canale 5, Italian TV channel with highest national ratings. Maurizio and Maria married in Rome in 1995, later on they adopted an adolescent Gabriele.

In 1992 along with Alberto Silvestri she created the show “Amici” (in italian – FRIENDS), which she started to host since 1993. “Amici” is the first show in Italy where teenagers and adolescents talk about themselves with a minimum (at least) of realism. In 2002 “Amici” changed its name to “Amici di Maria De Filippi” (Maria De Filippi’s Friends). Similar to the NBC TV-series “Fame”, it features a school with groups of aspiring young singers, dancers and actors who compete against each other, performing live before an audience and a panel of judges and instructors. The show consists of two parts: the learning one and the “Fase Finale”, and is much more complex than its analogues “Fame Academy” (BBC 1), “Star Academy” (TF1), “Pop Idol” (ITV) , “American Idol”(Fox), “A la recherche de la Nouvelle Star”(M6), “DSDS”(RTL).

Then Maria produced and hosted “Amici di Sera” (Evening Friends), “Uomini e Donne” (Men & Women) currently on air on Canale 5, and also “Accade Domani” (It Happened Tomorrow), “Missione Impossibile” (Impossible Mission), “Coppie” (The Couples) – all of these programmes are authored by Maria.

From January 2000 Canale 5 has been airing “C’è Posta Per Te” (You’ve Got Mail), then “Amici”, the school for young promising talents, and also “Volere o Volare” (To Want or to Fly) in 2004 and “Vero Amore” (True Love) in summer 2005, and “Unan1mous” in September 2006.

Maria also published “Amici” for Mondadori, which reached seven editions, and “Evening Friends – the adolescents and the family”, the books with collections of the stories of experiences and adventures as well as impressions of the show contestants.

Both at her work and with her family – Maria is very much devoted to her mother and brother and maintains perfect relations with Costanzo’s children: Saverio and Camilla. Maria has a true passion for the animals, particularly she can’t resist the look of a dog. She keeps two dogs and entrusts many homeless dogs she comes across to her “cosiest” friends. Her most recent passion are the horses and when the job leaves her a little of breath Maria doesn’t miss the opportunity to recover energy by riding her own horse at a beautiful gallop in the open air.

The time left after work, affections and animals, in fact is so little that it is enough for her just to relax. Actually Maria fancies neither to travel nor to appear to beau monde, and often her week-ends are as well devoted to the television: she carries on a correspondence, meets potential guests and leads discussions with her collaborators who are all in perfect harmony with her rhythms.

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