Print pubs spend to increase market share
Newspapers and magazines are spending increasing amounts of cash to promote themselves in a market where press sales dropped 1.5% between 1998 and 1999.
Print media that fails to sell itself is almost certainly going to see its readership plunge even further, industry sources said. "People have less and less time for the media," said Pawel Wujec, head of circulation at Gazeta Wyborcza, the most popular Polish news daily. At the same time, consumers have an increasing number of publications to select from. Over the past six years, the total number of newspapers and magazine titles published in Poland has surged by 61%, according to the Center of Press Research at Jagiellonian University. Competition is fierce and readers are less likely to be loyal to a particular title. The proliferation of alternative news, information and entertainment possibilities on TV, radio and the internet has also cut into newspaper and magazine readership.
Spending on TV, radio, newspaper and magazine advertising for press titles in 1999 was estimated at zl. 265 million ($68 million), according to Expert Monitor, a media research company. The three dailies that shelled out the most were news daily Gazeta Wyborcza, with zl. 7.6 million ($1.8 million); Super Express, the most popular Polish tabloid, with zl. 5.4 million ($1.3 million); and news daily Rzeczpospolita, with zl. 2.4 million ($558,000). Pani Domu, a weekly woman's magazine, spent zl. 9 million ($2 million) to promote itself while Olivia, a woman's monthly, spent zl. 7.3 million ($1.7 million), according to Expert Monitor.
Ads for daily news media tend to emphasize content, while those for weeklies and magazines focus on eye-catching layouts and designs intended to hook the reader. Accordingly, dailies are usually advertised on the radio while weeklies and magazines usually opt for TV.
Dailies tend to rely on information campaigns and emphasize topics covered in particular issues or supplements to the regular paper. "Promotion is successful not because of one particular idea or one expensive advertising campaign," Wujec said. "We have to encourage those who bought our paper today to buy it tomorrow."
Super Express promotes various contests for readers, said Marta Guze-Korszynska, the PR representative of Media Express, the newspaper's publisher.
Both Gazeta Wyborcza and Super Express try to attract readers by drawing attention to their supplements. When Wyborcza launched its Saturday Wysokie Obcasy (High Heels) fashion supplement for women and changed the layout and content of its TV supplement last year, the changes were extensively advertised, Wujec said. Similarly, Super Express advertised its Weekend and Super Sport supplements, Guze-Korszynska said.
But radio is the most important advertising medium for dailies. It's vital because people listen to the radio in the morning, the same time they buy newspapers, Wujec said. In 1999, Wyborcza, Super Express and Rzeczpospolita spent 59.4% of their advertising budgets, or zl. 9.3 million ($2.36 million), on radio advertising, according to Expert Monitor. In contrast, TV advertising swallowed just 32.2% of the total ad budgets of all three dailies, for a total of zl. 5 million ($1.3 million). Television is mostly used to advertise new products, Wujec said, such as Wysokie Obcasy. Super Express also advertises its contests and supplements on TV, Guze-Korszynska said.
The numbers were different at Przyjaciolka, a weekly aimed at women, which in 1999 spent 84% of its total 7.3 million ($1.6 million) ad budget on TV commercials, according to Expert Monitor. TV commercials are important for press aimed at women, as these titles tend to sell based on layout and the contents listed on the front cover, said Krzysztof Mijakowski, media manager at Edipresse, the publisher of Przyjaciolka. The topics listed on the cover have to interest buyers, said Mijakowski, but the cover's look has to attract them, too. Each issue of Przyjaciolka is advertised separately with the TV campaign divided into weekly segments promoting the upcoming edition, Mijakowski said.
Przyjaciolka's ad budget and breakdown is representative of a a large group of women's weeklies. Of the five weekly publications that spent the most on self-promotion in 1999, all targeted women. "The press market in Poland is saturated. It's a question of finding a niche ... or stealing readers from someone else," said Ewa Lis, head of marketing at Vogel Publishing, which has a series of car and computer titles.
