The issue is opened by an interview by Tatiana Ershova, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal, with Vladimir Minkin, Doctor of Engineering, and Chairman of the Information Society Workgroup of the Council of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). In the interview they discussed the results of a of the preparatory meeting for the World High-Level Meeting on the Information Society. The article demonstrates the role of ITU as the initiator facilitating such meetings, and mechanism of agreeing stakeholders’ interests while preparing the meetings.

The topic of this issue "New Challenges and Trends of the Information Society" is elaborated in seven new publications.

The rubric "Social and Economic Aspects of the Information Society" is opened in this issue by an article by Eduard Lysenko and Svetlana Fedoseeva, representing Department of Informatization and Communications of Yaroslavl Region. The article is devoted to the project aimed at bridging the digital divide among senior citizens. The project  is implemented in the Yaroslavl region. The experience of creating training centers for citizens mastering  information technology is presented.

Further in this rubric Yulia Koblova, Associate Professor of the Department of Institutional Economics of Saratov Socio-Economic Institute, examines the specifics of information costs formation in conditions of information-network economics. The rubric "Information Society and Power" is represented by an article by Boris Nosko and Dmitry Salomatin "Service-Oriented Region as a Basis for New Quality of Life". To assess, whether regional authorities efficiently work towards shaping the service-oriented region, the service-oriented region index, a comprehensive integrated indicator, may be used.

The current issue broadly represents the mass media related topics. Dmitry Baluev, Doctor of Political Science, Professor, Head of Department of Applied Political Science of the Faculty of International Relations of Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod, and Dmitry Kaminchenko, Ph.D. Student of the Faculty of International Relations of Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod, analyze characteristics of new mass media as a social institution and a tool of reality representation.

Mikhail Nazarov, Professor of the National Research University "Higher School of Economics" and Pavel Kovalev, Leading Expert of Video International Analytical Center, justify the thesis that perspectives of Russian media landscape are associated with convergence and mutual complementation of television and the Internet.

The rubric "Information Society Technologies" is elaborated by representatives of Tambov State Technical University Vladimir Nemtinov, Professor, and  Ivan Gorelov, Ph.D. student of the Chair of Computer-Assisted Design of Process Equipment, in their article on "Computer Technologies in Assisting Development of Municipality Areas".

And, finally, Oleg Manzhula examines the international trends of application of modern information-communication technologies in the population census. He analyzes experience of countries leading in this sphere, such as Australia, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Lithuania, USA and Estonia, as well as prospects of ICT use in census in Russia.