Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
Today's weather     
The press barons and the paper tigers square up

10th October 2005
Bookmark and Share

With more than 5,400 press titles, the Polish media market is a cut-throat industry and the newcomers have a host of old hands with strong editorial positions and loyal leadership to contend with.

Fakt

Modeled on the German Bild, which is also owned by Axel Springer, the newspaper quickly dominated its main tabloid rival Super Express and surpassed the circulation of Gazeta Wyborcza. Fakt was competitively priced and won new readers thanks to celebrity gossip and it coverage of scandals. Its has a circulation of 750,000.

 

Gazeta Wyborcza

Its first edition came out in May 1989, just before the June parliamentary elections that initiated the new democratic Poland. Today it is the central element of the largest Polish media concern, Agora. Gazeta Wyborcza's average circulation is about 600,000, and during weekends and holidays it reaches even up to a million. Local supplements appear in the largest towns.

 

Rzeczpospolita

The newspaper has built and maintained a reputation for comprehensive, reliable and authoritative coverage. It is an opinion-forming daily on general issues which also prints a set of highly-regarded financial, legal and other supplements spread across all six days of publication. Generally seen as the paper of choice among academics, diplomats, businessmen and managers. Average daily circulation is over 260,000.

 

Puls Biznesu

Puls Biznesu is a business daily with a circulation of 32,000. After Rzeczpospolita this is the second paper business people in Poland start the day with.

 

Parkiet

Recently bought by the publisher of Rzeczpospolita, Parkiet is exclusively devoted to the Warsaw Stock Exchange. It includes technical listings, analyses, commentaries and recommendations for investors.           

 

Trybuna

Trybuna is the direct successor of Trybuna Ludu, the main communist party daily from 1948 to 1989. Now describing itself as a social-democratic paper, it has close ties to the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD). It has a circulation of  110,000 on weekdays and 150,000 on weekends. 

 

Życie Warszawy

Owned by Michał Sołowow, one of the richest Poles, Życie Warszawy, which is soon to be transformed into a national daily was set up to serve the population of the Warsaw region. Today it presents itself as a general-interest daily with no particular political orientation. It boasts a circulation of some 250,000.

 

Nasz Dziennik

Closely linked to the controversial Roman Catholic broadcaster Radio Maryja, the newspaper has often caused controversy with its nationalist agenda, thinly veiled anti-Semitism and open opposition to the European Union. It has a circulation of 250,000.     


From Warsaw Business Journal by Katarzyna Dębek

Advertisement
Poland in the EU
Something smells here...
BY Christoph Klenner
Ample media attention is given these days to the envisaged gas deal between Poland and Russia's state-owned gas giant Gazprom, ... READ MORE
From the editor
The complexities of Poland's cultural conflict
BY Andrew Kureth
To hear the international media tell it, Poland's current row over the wooden cross in front of the Presidential Palace ... READ MORE
Our partners