Rivals brace for launch of Newsweek Polska
By : Anna Kocinska
Local weeklies Polityka and Wprost are gearing up to meet the challenge posed by the launch of Newsweek Polska on Sept. 3.
Wprost is planning this fall to introduce a number of changes to its layout, while Polityka has already made some alterations.
When even the editors of the staunchly conservative Economist magazine decided to lighten up the design earlier in the year by adding more color, altering the layout of Polityka or Wprost should hardly come as a surprise. But there is no coincidence about the timing of the changes.
"It's obvious that a new competitor speeds up the decision-making process," said Witold Pawlowski, deputy editor in chief of Polityka. "But these changes are nothing but cosmetic in our case. Even our most loyal readers might not have noticed them."
Pawlowski said an overhaul in the magazine's design will not be necessary as Polityka is already a strong title. It sells more than 250,000 copies a week out of an average print run of 367,000. "We've seen one of (Newsweek's trial) issues and it was really impressive, but that's exactly why we want to stay the way we are," he said. "On the other hand, I have no illusions about there being some miraculous increase in the number of advertisers and readers, and the launch of Newsweek will affect all of us."
Marek Zieleniewski, deputy editor in chief of Wprost, said the changes being introduced this fall will also affect the magazine's content. "But not at the beginning of September, that's for sure, maybe even in October," Zieleniewski said. "We started to think about changing the layout before we heard about the Polish edition of Newsweek."
Like Polityka's Pawlowski, Zieleniewski said change would not come at the expense of the magazine's loyal and conservative readership base. "We don't want a revolution," he said. "We need more dynamics in certain areas like, for instance, the 'Ludzie' (People) column, we could make that much more attractive," Zieleniewski said.
Editor's note: In next week's "Interview," the Business Journal talks to Tomasz Wroblewski, the editor in chief of Newsweek Polska.
