Hearst-Marquard launches Shape; 'Big Brother' delayed
Hearst-Marquard Publishing, perhaps best known in Poland for publishing Cosmopolitan, in mid-April launched Shape, a magazine addressed to young women who want to keep fit.
Shape's content will mostly be dominated by sports and fitness topics, with up to 25% of the magazine focused on health issues and 17% on beauty care. The first April-May issue contains 100 pages and a somewhat modest circulation of 70,000. Other health and fitness magazines on the Polish market circulate more than 100,000 issues. Super Linia, for instance, which was established in 1994, has recently increased its circulation to 135,000 issues.
"Our circulation is not shocking, I admit," said Konrad Siuda, artistic director at Hearst-Marquard Publishing. "But it was just a cautious way of entering the market." Siuda, however, wouldn't link the appearance of the new title with last year's withdrawal of She magazine, also published by Hearst-Marquard. "These are two completely independent decisions of the publisher," he said. "We want to take a risk even though the potential of the advertising market in this fitness and health area is unpredictable," he said. "Some ad providers haven't made up their minds about this kind of magazine yet as keeping fit is not as popular in Poland as it is abroad." Siuda wouldn't reveal how much money the company is risking with Shape.
Meanwhile, Ewa Joanna Kafarska, editor in chief and founder of Super Linia, said the market for such publications is still small and new titles do not necessarily compete with one another. "There are so many people who are overweight, but there is still no habit of keeping fit in Poland," she said. "Maybe that's the reason why there are so few magazines focused on health, fitness and diet." Kafarska is convinced that the market will grow. "After introducing a new cover and quality paper (in January), the number of readers has grown by 30% and we sold 80,000 issues out of 118,000 in January."
"Big Brother," the controversial TV program that was first produced in Netherlands and is already known among Spanish and German audiences, will not air in Poland until the end of this year, tvn's press spokesman, Andrzej Soltysik said last week.
The station plans to start production of "Wielki brat" in September and thus will be able to include the new program in its January 2001 schedule. Soltysik said that the delay was caused by problems in creating an adequate local production base, which is still too small in Poland considering the number of TV stations that exist.
The average Pole watched TV for three hours and 26 minutes on the Saturday before Easter, according to Osrodek Badania Opinii Publicznej (OBOP), the public opinion research institute. On Easter Sunday the average per capita TV viewing time surged to four hours and 34 minutes.
The number of hits on the Polish Fox Kids internet site has doubled recently, making it the most popular web site for children in the country. Since being launched in May 1999, Polish Fox Kids has been visited 650,000 times.
"It is the best because a lot goes on this page," said Aleksander Pawlak, project coordinator at IT company Sfera. "Actually, I can't see any competitors on the Polish market."
Fox Kids Europe (FKE) launched its Polish site last year. FKE is a pan-European integrated children's entertainment company that deals with television channels, program distribution and internet business. So far, FKE operates eight web sites for children in the U.K., Netherlands, France, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Spain and Poland.
The Polish Fox Kids web site was created by Sfera's Pawlak, who is also the site's administrator. In addition, the site has been integrated with television. "All contests for kids are promoted online and on-air simultaneously," Pawlak said. The Polish version of the Fox Kids TV channel has been broadcasting via cable television for two years and has an audience reach of 1.2 million viewers.
The success of the Polish Fox Kids web site is expected to increase this year as FKE released its internet business development strategy in April. The company will provide a broad range of "kid-focused" content. The new project will start in the third quarter of 2000.
"The research results show that kids are among the most captivated internet users," said Natalie Hugh, the managing director online and interactive at Fox Kids Europe. She also said that kids spend up to an hour per visit at their favorite sites and return to them several times every week.
Initiative Media in mid-April won the media account for Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, which markets the products Biovital, Rennie, Aleve, and Supradyne in Poland.
Rupert Slade, director of strategy at Initiative Media, said the account is worth about $5 million annually. Initiative Media will both the planning and buying for Roche, and will use television, radio, print and billboards to advertise the Swiss company's products.
But Slade could not say whether Roche had any plans to increase its media spending.
"It is difficult to say," he said. However, "it is a growing category."
Media planner Zenith, a part of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, had held the Roche account for the past five years.
Roche officials were unavailable for comment.
Justyna Wrobel and Chris Rivituso contributed to this article
