New Day or a false dawn?

Media house Agora, the owner of Gazeta Wyborcza, earned net profits of zł.8.5 million in Q4 2005, down from zł.38.8 million in the same period of 2004. This was due to the poor results of its new title Nowy Dzień (New Day), the average paid circulation of which was 190,000 copies a day in November and December 2005. This was below expectations and meant an operating loss of zł.27.3 million for the paper in Q4 2005.

In the whole year, the group's net profit rose to zł.125.6 million from zł.68.3 million in 2004. The increase was mainly due to strong growth in the advertising market, which is estimated to have grown by 12 percent. Agora expects the market in Poland to increase by approximately 10 percent this year, with ad spending in the sector to rise by seven percent. The group said it spent zł.158 million on marketing and promotion in 2005, including zł.24 million on the launch of Nowy Dzień.

To retain its position on the newspaper market, Agora plans to keep spending heavily on promotion. "We want Nowy Dzień to break even in 2008. We haven't changed our plans to reach sales of 250,000," said Zbigniew Bąk, Agora's vice president. The company plans to spend a further zł.35-45 million on marketing the new paper.

Gazeta Wyborcza remains Agora's priority. "It's hard to predict the level of spending on Gazeta Wyborcza, but the paper's needs are a priority in the fight for the market and in allocating our resources," said Wanda Rapaczyński, the media house's president. (Reuters)