In Russia, the present media system is properly understood only in the context of the addition of new online media to the traditional print and electronic media; the Internet has given rise to alternative agendas and created new relations of integration and solidarity with society. This article explores these new media with the aim to clarify how they are 1) different from the traditional media in terms of the professional structure and political values of journalists, and 2) innovative to challenge present media system biases. To address these questions, journalists of the new and old media are compared on demography, political orientation and professional values, but also on their local contexts (type of city). The article is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted in 72 media outlets with 144 journalists in four cities: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Petrozavodsk, from December 2012 to January 2015.