Axel Springer presents Fakt
By Kamil Tchorek
Speaking on condition of ano-nymity, two members of the editorial team of Fakt, the new popular press offering from Axel Springer, have given interviews to the Business Journal ahead of the Wednesday 22nd launch date.
The battle for the hearts and minds of Poland's readers will be fought only after the initial campaigns on the sales front, according to Fakt sources. "Axel Springer wants this to be a business enterprise," said the first commentator. "The profit motive is far more important to them than creating political influence. We may have some basic consensus, such as pro-EU integration and favoring the Treaty of Nice. We will always be pro-Poland."
In response to the suggestion that Fakt's German parent company will inevitably have a veto over editorial policy, the second source adamantly disagrees. "First of all, Fakt will be no copy of (Axel Springer's German tabloid) Bild, which recently published the diary of Germans who had been expelled from what is now Polish land after World War Two. But in principle, we would be able to attack the creation of a Center for the Expelled which has cast a shadow over German-Polish relations."
Much like its equivalents in other countries, Fakt will thrive on sensation. "We will regularly have the words 'shame' and 'scandal' on our front page," continued the first source. "People have lost confidence in politics, and are as jaded about political scandal as they are about politics itself. The exciting thing about scandals is to personalize them. The person, the individual, the reader is always in the center of the story."
Many media watchers predict a major threat to Gazeta Wyborcza, but the Fakt insiders see their initiative as a way of filling a void left by Gazeta, rather than a direct replacement. "People associate that publication with the 'institution' too. People from news editors to hairdressers are sick of Gazeta, Michnik, Rywin and the government."
Axel Springer has spent much of its protracted preparation time schooling its highly-educated editorial team in the art of writing in a populist vein. "None of our contributors are familiar with tabloids," said the first commentator. "It was difficult to force them to write in a down-to-earth way, and Axel Springer had to guide them away from the preconception that tabloids are not treated seriously by politicians and élites."
Reluctantly, the members of the new Fakt team who spoke to the Business Journal admit that some of the new market created by the low price of the publication may need convincing about certain things. Their European integration stance was mentioned in particular. Still, the two journalists seem to believe what they are saying when they conclude with Fakt's stated goal of "...pure journalism without political input."
