Hustling for attention

If there's one thing magazine editor Tomasz Borowiecki says he enjoys, it's controversy. But unfortunately, he hasn't been getting any. Since launching the Polish edition of the raunchy U.S. pornographic magazine Hustler this month - and promoting it with a large-scale billboard campaign featuring a busty blonde wearing little more than a smile and a red G-string - Borowiecki has been waiting for his phone to start ringing with complaints. "But unfortunately we haven't received a single complaint yet," said Borowiecki, who churned out a print run of 110,000 copies for the June issue. "I hope we get criticized soon because this magazine should be based on scandal." Well, to quote its cover, Hustler is actually based on "sex, politics and protest." Its U.S. publisher, Larry Flynt, based his media empire on this spicy recipe when he first launched Hustler in the United States in the 1970s. At the time, the magazine pushed the limits of tolerance, and Flynt wound up in court defending his right to free speech. Flynt also wound up being portrayed by Woody Harrelson in the celluloid version of his life, "The People vs. Larry Flynt."

But back in Poland, Borowiecki, and his publisher, Gonstantine Gerou (who also owns the Hustler license in Greece, the Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) like to think of Hustler as being a little bit more upmarket than your run-of-the-mill porno mag. "Our target market is hard to define: We see ourselves between two shelves - your Businessman Magazine and Gentleman magazine, and then hard-core erotic titles like Cats and Extasy," Borowiecki said. "Actually," he added after a second thought, "we will try to be closer to that upper shelf." And that means plenty of articles in between hard-core photo spreads. In this month's issue, Hustler looks at what's happening in Polish politics and discusses EU accession, among other things. Around 80% of the editorial content is written by Polish journalists (including some from the esteemed titles, Polityka and Wprost). However, all photo content is sourced from the U.S. - even though the explicit photo spreads come with misleading captions such as, "Ania, who works with the Polish State Security Office," or "Patrycja, from Poland's Central Intelligence Office." "The problem is I don't think that we could find photographers in Poland suitable for such jobs," Borowiecki said. This is actually the second time Hustler has appeared in Poland. In January 1999 another publishing company launched the magazine here, but it folded shortly thereafter. "There were problems with the license and the finances of the previous publishers," Borowiecki said. But the current publisher, Gerou, who heads publishing company Geronia Poland, has a "gentleman's agreement" with Hustler USA so that when a Hustler license expires in Europe, Gerou has the first option to buy it.

"But I cannot say what the value of the license is," Borowiecki said. "In my opinion, Hustler USA was not worried about coming back to Poland because the entire risk is sold to the investor." But according to Poland's largest porn publisher, Pink Press, times are tough in this country's pornographic magazine business. "We can feel the effects of the economic slowdown and a decline in our sales started about a year ago," said Pink Press spokesman, Krzysztof Garwatowski. "We are not outside the economy and as our customers spend less on leisure, they spend less on our publications, although there are now signs of a recovery." Pink Press has 16 magazines, selling between 20,000-120,000 copies of each title per month. Garwatowski estimates Pink Press has 50-60% of the pornographic magazine market in Poland. On top of this, Pink Press also "deals in film production and distribution, and we manufacture and sell various articles." As for the launch of Hustler in Poland, Garwatowski doesn't think it will impact Pink Press. "We offer hard-core magazines and as far as I know, Hustler is more like a soft erotic magazine. But of course, there is always room for competition if they are able to offer good products."