How does a contemporary autocracy shape its state-controlled news flows depending on the characteristics of the audience? Television and online aggregators, both controlled by the regime, have been most trusted sources of media consumption in Russia in 2018 – 2020. Drawing on the dataset collected over the period and applying topic modelling text analysis technique, I demonstrate that state-controlled online news are less biased than national television shows. Additionally, drawing on linguistic complexity of the texts, I show that online news are designed for a better educated audience capable of understanding more complex information. I conclude that in the environment where news outlets are state-controlled and trusted by the population, autocratic regime tailors its media manipulation strategies in order to set the agenda most favourable for the regime survival while adjusting the news bias depending on the audience’s education, and hence, tendency to be critical about the information consumed. The article contributes to the literature on contemporary autocratic resilience and media agenda-setting.