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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
Verlagsgruppe Passau, Orkla Media and Mecom – Different
Business Strategies on Polish Press Market
Adam Szynol
University of Wroclaw, Poland
Abstract
After socio-political breakthrough in 1989 foreign companies entered Polish media
market. Firstly, investors appeared in the press sector, later on in the electronic
media. One of the first groups presented in Poland was Orkla Media. The Norwegians
launched a brand new regional daily, which was a kind of exception in Orkla’s
strategy. After subsequent failure they changed the pattern of business activity. From
1991 to 2006 Orkla bought a dozen or so of regional dailies and took over shares in a
nationwide newspaper. During that period the Norwegians followed their well-known
path to run the media business.
When in 2006 Mecom bought out Orkla’s shares, a new era began. The British fund
was mainly interested in making their assets more profitable. Some mergers were
carried out. Consequently, many journalists had to be dismissed. Unlike the
predecessors, Mecom eagerly diverted toward the Internet and it seems to be the
most important direction of their strategy.
The biggest shareholder of the regional press sector, however, is still Verlagsgruppe
Passau (VGP). The German group appeared in 1993, in disguise of a Swiss company
and next year took over eight regional dailies from Robert Hersant, a French
newspaper tycoon. In due course, VGP bought out a couple of more regional titles
and became the leader of this sector of the market. Although the Germans were
competing against the Norwegians and the Brits, they showed a different style of
managing their assets. Originally a family firm, they kept running the business very
tightly and under the strict control of the owner.
The author is trying to describe different patterns of business strategy in the press
sector in Poland, examining each investor’s behavior and the results of their efforts.
This can lead to conclusions about the past activities as well as to predictions about
the future of the market.
Keywords: regional dailies, Passauer, Orkla, Mecom, mergers, business strategies
Introduction
It was not until the year 1989 when Poland entered the path of democratic changes
and the communism collapsed. During the Round Table Talks, between the
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