Agora and Trybuna face changes as ad sales decrease
Poland's leading newspapers acutely felt the slump in the advertising market
as Agora announced the lay-off of 170 employees and Trybuna introduced
changes to boost readership and ad sales. Agora, publisher of Poland's
biggest daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, announced it will lay off 5% of its
workforce after other cost-cutting measures proved insufficient. The company
expects this year's revenues to be 6% lower than 2000. Meanwhile,
left-leaning Trybuna is introducing a color weekend supplement and a lottery
for readers. Tomasz Ordyk, president of Ad Vocem, which publishes Trybuna,
hopes that the weekend supplement will be a lure for advertisers. Last year
Ad Vocem recorded a loss of zl.2 million. (Rzeczpospolita, Dec.1-2, p. B3)
T.J.
