05/01/2024, 06:10
The fate of Polska Press Group will be decided only after the change of Orlen's management board (Photo: Polska Press)
The February deadline for changes in the management board of Orléans and therefore in the management of the subsidiary publishing house Polska Press – as we wrote yesterday in “Presserwis” – means that the amount of propaganda materials in the regional editorial offices has been significantly reduced. But there's still a lot of uncertainty about the future of the titles.
We would like to remind you that the extraordinary general meeting of Orlen shareholders convened on February 6 will also be the beginning of changes in Polska Press, the publishing house belonging to the concern. It operates as a limited liability company. Orlen owns 100 percent of it. Shares. Changing the government is easy.
“Release will end in disaster”
– Basically, we are waiting for any decision – says our interlocutor, a journalist of Polska Press. He admits that from mid-October, all employees are mainly expecting changes. – The only step that the Warsaw Governing Council has taken since then is the announcement to verify the work of journalists. But the statement is finished and further actions are not visible, the journalist tells us.
He also adds that attempts to release individual journalists from already small editorial groups will end in disaster. – I'm not even talking about holidays, but even in case of an accident or illness, it will be difficult to organize work – he says.
Some regional headline messages have already changed slightly. There is less politics in them – this, in the form of an “Attack on public media” box and other political information, mainly appears on the umbrella website i.pl and from there spreads to other portals of the group.
The editors appointed by Dorota Kanya for the past two years have been very active. He is waging his own political battle with the media and local government officials among others. Janusz Żyszkowski, editor-in-chief of “Gazeta Lubuska” and “Gazeta Wrocławski”. The situation is similar for Pomeranian websites reporting to Przemyslaw Szymanczyk, editor-in-chief of “Głos Szczeciński” and “Dziennik Bałtycki”. “Dziennik Łódzki” continues to promote conversations that its editor-in-chief Piotr Samsik conducts with local politicians mainly associated with PiS. Other websites of the group focused on local and regional information. Also in some of these comments.
WOŚP will be a political test
However, the Warsaw headquarters of Polska Press did not get rid of commentators connected to the current government. The i.pl website is dominated by Dorota Kanya, as well as the head of the group, Prof. Wojciech Roszkowski, David Wildstein, and Markin Kedrina. The only evidence that something has changed is the departure from the propaganda of success.
– Probably no one will write well about the new government, – admits one of the editors of regional newspapers. And notes: – Such a text will not have a chance to be published.
The editors think that this year's finale of the Christmas Charity Grand Orchestra, scheduled for January 28, could be a political test, that is, before the changes in Orlen and PP's supervisory board and management board. Last year, the editors adopted guidelines that we should approach the finals like any other event, without any exposure. The recommendation then ignored several headlines.
There is no information about other planned changes in Polska Press. The original post-election plan was to reduce the number of daily newspapers to two a week. However, by mid-October it had risen by an average of 10%. Newspaper prices. Their magazine numbers exceeded the price of PLN 5, which led to another drop in sales. The result – “Kurier Lubelsk”, the weakest paper newspaper of the group, sold an average of 1,000 copies. Weaker sales than the local week.
The separation of our city websites into PL24, a PPG subsidiary that already owns the i.pl portal, is not complete. As one manager points out, this move will be the right one for business reasons. – Nasz Miasto is the most profitable part of Polska Press, but such a move could lead to accusations of harming the company by confiscating a significant portion of its assets. And nobody on the PPG management board wants that, we understand.
Also read: In the new “press”: Chuchnovsky about borders, Kamel a little soft, nuclear Polsat and funny Romek.
(PAR, 05/01/2024)
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