Former Agora CEO Wanda Rapaczynski is temporarily taking up her former post at the Polish media giant again, following the resignation of Piotr Niemczycki, who had led the company since 2008.

Ms Rapaczynski led the company from 1998 until 2007, and thereafter remained involved with Agora, serving on the firm's supervisory board.

The board has now nominated her interim CEO, for three months starting on February 12. Ms Rapaczynski helped found Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's highest-circulating quality daily, and Agora's flagship publication. She was ranked 5th in Europe's Top 25 Women in Business ranking by the Financial Times newspaper in 2006.

No reasons were given for Mr Niemczycki's resignation, but it comes two weeks before the firm publishes its 2012 results. The sales of Agora's flagship newspaper have fallen sharply in recent years. In December 2012 it sold on average 258,380 copies daily, compared to a circulation of over 600,000 in 2007.

But dropping sales has been an issue facing the entire sector for years, and some analysts argue that Mr Niemczycki's radical cost-cutting policies kept the paper going.

Agora's stock price has fallen by around 50 percent under Mr Niemczycki's tenure, but with financial troubles across the board in the print media sector, analysts were reluctant to place blame. In the first three quarters of 2012 Agora recorded a net loss of zł.9 million.

Beata Socha