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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
advantage of the variety of digital business opportunities generally available – and
which categories are ignored.
The findings support observations about the extent to which the industry is
undergoing a Darwinian evolution, or a Kuhnian revolution.
Verlagsgruppe Passau, Orkla Media and Mecom – different business strategies
in Polish press market.
Szynol, Adam
Institute of Journalism and Social Communication, University of Wroclaw, Poland,
Wroclaw, Poland
After socio-political breakthrough in 1989 foreign companies entered Polish media
market. Firstly, investors appeared in the press sector, later on in 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 regional dailies and took over shares in a
nationwide newspaper. During that period the Norwegians followed their well-known
path to run media business.
When in 2006 Mecom bought out Orkla’s shares, a new era began. British fund was
mainly interested in making their assets more profitable. Thus, 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 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 press sector
in Poland, examining each investors’ behaviour and results of their efforts. This can
lead to some conclusions not only about the past activities but also to predictions
about the future of the market.
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