Polish Publisher Launches Daily

The new daily Polska – “Poland” in Polish – has been created by folding together six local newspapers owned by the company, Polskapresse said.”Polska is being created in cooperation with the most prestigious and opinion-making British daily The Times, with its logo in the vignette and with its text to be used through editorial cooperation,” Polskapresse said in a statement.

The company did not give details of its print run or target circulation.Polskapresse, which is Poland’s largest publisher of local newspapers, said that Polska would have a “strong regional identity” and that its national coverage would not just be from “Warsaw’s perspective.”The daily will also have a strong emphasis on social issues and publish regular advice supplements for its readers.

Polska is likely to compete with three existing broadsheet dailies.Top of the table is Gazeta Wyborcza, which sells around 450,000 copies a day, followed by Dziennik, which belongs to the German group Axel Springer and has a circulation of over 200,000, and Rzeczpospolita, with 150,000.Besides the regional newspapers which have been folded into Polska, Polskapresse also publishes three television listings magazines, four weekly small-ads magazines and a free daily which is distributed in seven cities.Its parent Verlagsgruppe Passau has invested heavily in the former Communist bloc and controls the local newspaper market in the Czech Republic, as well as owning local newspapers in Slovakia and the national daily Sme.