New medical journal launches for healthcare pros
Academic journals will soon no longer be the sole source of reading material for Polish healthcare professionals.
Puls Medycyny, a 24-page biweekly published by Medicine Today Poland (MTP), will be geared toward doctors, nurses and everyone employed in healthcare when it makes its official debut on Oct. 17.
MTP is 100% owned by Stockholm-based Medicine Today International (MTI), which in turn is majority owned by Sweden's Bonnier Group, the publisher of Puls Biznesu and Dzien Dobry.
"Poland is one of the most interesting markets for us," said Jonas Bonnier, president and CEO of the Bonnier Group. "Over the last five years, we have invested more only in Germany." To date, Bonnier has plowed zl. 125 million ($27.7 million) into the Polish market. According to industry sources, Bonnier's investment of zl. 15 million ($3.33 million) over three years in Puls Medycyny is a relatively small undertaking.
The newspaper, expected to launch with 30,000 issues, could eventually reach a print run of 400,000, according to Magda Sowinska, editor in chief of the publication. "Of course it's not a paper for patients," she said. "We want to write for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, managers of the healthcare system and support personnel too. It's not a paper for academics, it's for reading."
Puls Medycyny, she said, will be a forum for specialists and journalists. "We will also have a business angle since today most doctors need to be managers too," Sowinska said. "We will try to present positive examples of how people are dealing with challenges connected with the reform (introduced in 1999)."
Puls Medycyny will also have a web site (www.pulsmedycyny.com.pl) that will be updated daily.
According to Sowinska, MTP is basing Puls Medycyny on the format used in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands. She said that the first issue will include a feature about doctors' errors. "It will be presented through their eyes, though, not from the patients' perspective," she said.
The journal will largely be distributed via subscription at a discount from the zl. 4.50 newsstand price, Sowinska said.
In a late effort to boost their campaigns prior to the election on Oct. 8, presidential candidate Andrzej Olechowski and incumbent President Aleksander Kwasniewski decided to buy advertising time on private television.
The move is an about-face for Kwasniewski, whose spokesman Dariusz Szymczycha said two weeks ago that the president didn't need to advertise on private TV channels since he is already extremely popular (see the Business Journal, Sept. 25-Oct 1). But Szymczycha admitted last week that the Kwasniewski team had changed it mind. "We did it because media planners convinced us that advertising in the press and on billboards and banners won't be effective without the support of a television campaign," he said.
Szymczycha denied speculation that the change in Kwasniewski's campaign strategy stemmed from an advert run last week by rival candidate Marian Krzaklewski, which included footage of a 1997 presidential trip where Kwasniewski and one of his ministers mock the Pope (see "For the Record" and "Government Watch" in this issue). "The decision was made before the primaries in Nysa (Sept. 23). It wasn't a strategic decision whereas Walendziak's (head of the Krzaklewski campaign) move to run that filthy spot was a strategic decision," Szymczycha said. Krzaklewski's electoral team showed the spot to journalists on Friday, a day before the Nysa primaries.
Szymczycha said that Kwasniewski purchased only a small amount of air time on Polsat and TVN since that was all they could afford. Under the law, advertising time on private TV channels cannot exceed 15% of the time awarded free of charge on TVP.
Agnieszka Wieczorek of Polsat's sales department said last week that Kwasniewski's spots were to start running Sept. 25 and Olechowski's already ran on Sept. 23. After 7 p.m., a 30-second spot can cost up to zl. 69,000 on Polsat. "Candidates get a 50% discount under election law," Wieczorek said.
Olechowski, meanwhile, purchased as much ad time as the law permits, said Agnieszka Liszka, spokeswoman for his campaign.
Olechowski and Krzaklewski tried to start their TV ad campaigns earlier than the permitted 15 days before the election on Polsat, the country's largest private broadcaster, but they withdrew their spots after the National Election Committee (PKW) declared their actions illegal.
According to Cezary Gomza, one of Krzaklewski's press officers, the candidate will probably not advertise on television after all. "Over the next few days there will be no spots on private television, but that might change as we will try to adapt to whatever the current situation is," he said. Jaroslaw Gajewski of Jaroslaw Kalinowski's campaign team said that Kalinowski would not be advertising on TV due to his team's poor financial standing.
Lew Rywin, president of Canal+Polska, was quoted as saying in an interview with Puls Biznesu last Wednesday that the long-expected merger between Poland's two digital platforms, Wizja TV and Cyfra+, could take place at any moment. In the article, Puls Biznesu also wrote that Rywin might step down and go back to being a movie producer. The following day, Rywin told the Business Journal that the newspaper had made everything up. "Why should I resign?" he said. "I told them that the merger was a matter of time and they changed it into days. They asked 10 questions and published only five and the intro is completely made up."
Puls Biznesu ran a correction that day, which Rywin accepted. But the paper's editor in chief, Jaroslaw Sroka, said the interview had been taped and the text was authorized and signed by Rywin. "He is an adult who agreed to an interview," Sroka said. "Maybe Rywin was harshly reprimanded by someone and the simplest way to respond to that was to say that the paper made everything up. If we had written lies, we would have met in court." According to Sroka, it was Rywin who asked for the correction arguing that the paper "overinterpreted information" on his resignation. "He didn't say it directly, but he does say that. Our role is also to draw conclusions from what we are being told," Sroka said.
RMF FM, one of the country's largest commercial radio broadcasters, will soon be available digitally via the Wizja TV platform, which is owned by United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC). "It's a question of days or a week or two," said Krzysztof Nepelski, marketing director at the station. "I am already studying specific details of the agreement."
So far, RMF FM has only been available on Cyfra+, Wizja's competitor. "We are implementing our strategy to be available everywhere: on the internet, via satellites and on FM," Nepelski said.
RMF FM will become the fifth Polish radio station to transmit its signal via the Wizja TV platform, joining Radio Wama, Radio Zet, Radio Flash and Radio WAWa.
Polska Telewizja Kablowa, the cable TV station owned by Amsterdam-based UPC, is changing its name to UPC Telewizja Kablowa, integrating UPC's Polish and European operations. Wizja TV will not change its name.
