Polish Yuppies targeted in new printed and on-line magazine
Business Press, publisher of Businessman magazine, is all set to launch a new title, Young, whose first issue is expected to hit the streets next March.
Positioned to be the only magazine of its kind in Poland to date, Young will address upwardly mobile Polish yuppies.
Before going to press, however, Young plans to first test the market by the end of November with a trial internet site that will also seek input from the target reader group.
"We plan to start a web counterpart of Young," said Pawel Rabiej, Business Press's deputy president. "Internet users, whom we want to become readers of Young, will be able to edit it on line."
Rabiej said the publisher also hoped to gain some insight about what this target group was looking for by their comments on the site.
The new magazine's first print issue will cost zl. 4.5 and will be published together with Businessman. Businessman circulates about 60,000 copies monthly.
Business Press is investing "several hundred thousand dollars" in the magazine, Rabiej said. He was unsure what size staff the magazine will have, but said Young would advertise for contributing writers on the internet site.
The life of the internet site will not end once the printed magazine appears, though. "They will exist together, and it will be a web site where many topics will be covered in a broader way than in print," Rabiej said.
Young is the first internet project by Business Press, an area in which Rabiej said the company would like to delve deeper. "In the future we want to make money on the internet, and we know that in the States those who have both electronic and print media are the real winners," he said.
Music television
Poland's two digital platforms are experimenting with a different kind of music television than the traditional video station. Cyfra+, which is backed by Canal+Polska, and Wizja+, owned by United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC), both signed agreements with private radio stations to include their signal in the digital operators' platforms, the companies said.
Under the agreements, Cyfra+ will broadcast one of Poland's largest radio networks, RMF FM, while Wizja TV will include Radio Zet in its offer. Radio Zet will be also be broadcast via an Astra satellite, which will make its signal available throughout Europe.
The digital platforms, which include a variety of Polish-language television stations, are broadcast to subscribers in Poland via satellite or cable.
"In reality, all radio stations are interested in satellite broadcasting because it would mean a better reach for them," said Krzysztof Surgowt, Astra marketing representative in Poland. "Of course from the point of Wizja TV's subscribers, radio is not the most important thing, but according to surveys conducted in Europe, the audience of radio listeners via satellite has dynamically increased."
Wizja TV's subscribers will now receive more than 40 different radio stations, including Radio Zet. "The variety that digital subscribers can get is incredible," Surgowt said.
For the radio stations, the switch to satellite broadcasting means not only increased reach but also better quality of transmission.
"Now, we can offer CD quality to our listeners who choose to receive us digitally," said Slawomir Suss, president of Eurozet, which owns Radio Zet. "For us, it's a natural step in the direction of constant modernization of our radio. Besides, almost all significant radio stations worldwide are available on satellite."
According to Surgowt, 20 stations may also join a digital platform and switch to satellite transmission in the near future. Some of those stations, though, will have to pay for their own link, he said, although he would not say how much the yearly fee would be.
"The largest stations got a free-of-charge offer from Wizja TV, but it's not an infinite list," he said.
He added that the cost might be lower than what the stations now pay to transmit their signal terrestrially. "They will save on the terrestrial broadcast, which is very expensive."
Hazy effect
Advertising agencies Ammirati Puris Lintas and the Lowe Group are unclear how their worldwide merger will affect operations in Poland.
Under an agreement signed Oct. 29, the two firms will join to form Lowe Lintas & Partners Worldwide. Both agencies fall under the Interpublic Group of Companies, said Louise Higgins, public relations director for the Lowe Group in London.
Higgins also stated that estimated billings from the merger would be more than $11 billion and create the fifth largest advertising firm in the world.
Because the Lowe group in Poland already has a partner, executives last week said that the merger might bring little change to the group's operations here.
The reason is that Lowe hardly operates as an independent entity in Poland. Lowe/GGK Warszawa is actually part of a larger holding company called Lowe/GGK Holding Occidental. In that group, Lowe has 49% and Austria's GGK has 51%. That means that GGK has to approve any change in ownership or operating structure that a local merger would entail.
That does not mean that Ammirati and Lowe will not cooperate here, just that they may not totally merge.
"We will try to get some synergies" in terms of media buying, said Thomas Ploetzeneder, chief operations officer at Lowe/GGK in Vienna.
Any future cooperation also is not expected to have a large impact on the advertising industry within Poland, executives said.
"It doesn't create any waves on the market," said Marek Janicki, managing director of McCann Erickson Polska. He added that the only change the cooperation could cause is if the two firms have competitors as individual clients.
If the agencies did come together, however, Janicki said that they would ultimately be a stronger competitor here as they both already sport strong creative departments and extensive networks.
"I think together they stand a chance to be leaders on the market," Janicki said.
Chris Rivituso contributed to this report.
