Ambitious 4Media pledges to purchase 100% of zycie daily
Media group 4Media, which signed an agreement last month to purchase a 63.17% stake in Zycie newspaper, said last week that it would buy the remaining shares by the end of January.
The deal marks the next step in 4Media's ambitious two-year plan to become Poland's No. 2 publicly traded media company after Agora, owner of Gazeta Wyborcza daily. Earlier this month 4Media changed its name from Chemiskor, a tannery listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). Last June, Chemiskor's managing board decided to change the firm's name and product line to keep its status as a listed company.
As one of the country's leading dailies, zycie's acquisition gives 4Media an immediate foothold in the market. "After all, it is a national daily paper and No. 4 (after Gazeta Wyborcza, Rzeczpospolita and Trybuna) among opinion-making papers," said Wojciech Krefft, the media group's president.
4Media bought its stake for zl. 9.45 million ($2.3 million) from Wolne Slowo Publishing House, the newspaper's publisher. It is now planning to acquire the balance of shares from Zycie's founders Heinz Ruhl and Wojciech Mikulecki (18.35% each) and editor-in-chief Tomasz Wolek (0.13%).
4Media will also finalize the purchase of four other media companies such as free-of-charge press Polska Prasa Bezplatna (PPS); local-paper publisher Polska Prasa Lokalna (PPL); Regionalne Stacje Radiowe, which focuses on regional radio stations; and Internet Operator, which handles Internet projects.
Krefft said his plans to build a media group coincided with Zycie's need for change. According to Wolek, the paper lacked technical support. "Now we can count on a synergy effect within the media group," he said. He added that the paper wasn't able to develop properly because it didn't have its own printing house.
According to Krefft, even though Zycie hasn't had a chance to develop properly, it has great growth potential. "Its potential is even greater than that of papers such as Rzeczpospolita and Gazeta Wyborcza, which have a stable position on the market," he said.
zycie, which first hit the newsstands in 1996, has a circulation of 90,000-140,000, and is read by 1% of Poland's daily newspaper audience, according to market research company SMG/KRC.
Krefft said that Zycie's biggest problems are its limited content and lack of advertising. He also said the paper provides too little business information.
Wolek agreed. He said the paper's layout needs to be changed and its business news content developed. "The changes will be significant," he said.
While the content will change, the paper's political viewpoint will stay the same. "I think that there is a place on the market for a serious daily paper that presents such a political opinion (center-right)," Krefft said.
Media house Starcom won the pitch to buy and plan media for German-based publishing house Gruner und Jahr (G+J). Previously G+J had been working with media house OMD Poland. The German publisher switched to Starcom as it offered better conditions than those submitted by competitors Initiative Media, The Media Edge and Media Direction. G+J publishes the magazines Claudia, Focus, Naj, Halo, National Geographic, Moje Gotowanie and Moje Mieszkanie.
Elbrewery & Co., the producer of EB, has hired French movie star Jean Reno to advertise its alcohol-free beer. The TV campaign started on Dec. 15 and runs until the end of February.
"We are expecting that this campaign will improve EB's image," said Krzysztof Rut, corporate affairs manager with zywiec Group.
EB was introduced on the market in 1993 and was the No. 1 beer in the country until 1998 when its position dramatically weakened. Rut said the company has been working to rebuild the brand's image for the last two years.
The latest ad campaign featuring Reno is the third attempt in the last year to bolster sales. All three campaigns were conducted by Just, a Poznan-based ad agency.
The Reno ad marks the first time in the history of Polish advertising that a foreign actor is being used to sell a Polish product in Poland.
Rut said that a study carried out by market research company SMG/KRC indicated that beer drinkers preferred Reno to 20 other actors who were considered to advertise the product.
While Reno became famous for appearing in French film director Luc Besson's "Professional" and "Le Grand Blue" and is perceived as a celebrity in Poland, he didn't charge EB excessively for participating in the campaign.
Although Elbrewery would not reveal any of the ad campaign's costs, Rut said that they were similar to other Polish advertising promotions.
The campaign is running on national broadcaster Telewizja Polska's (TVP) two channels, as well as on Polsat and TVN.
