Press Readership in Poland

Press readership was changing fast in the last decade of the 20^th century. The changes  converged not only with the situation of neighbouring post-communist countries but, above all, with the Western countriesę readership patterns.

During the first 5 years of the decade a great revaluation in the press readership took place. Readers quit their press usage habits (e.g. favouring dailies which, in the readership model, can be described as: 1 national daily + 1 regional daily). Readers also stopped reading old titles, that is why a lot of old dailies and magazines did not survive in the press market during the transformation period. The symptom of ćthe new timesę was a witty career of Gazeta Wyborcza which won the competition with other national dailies. Another remarkable trend of that time was a decrease in the number of regional dailiesę readers. Since 1993, it was perceptible that the readers of magazines (mainly monthlies) outnumbered others. The leading position (in terms of sale indicators) in that segment of the press offer was gained by the cheap and popular Poradnik Domowy. On the other hand, Przyjaciółka (a magazine which had been the leader for dacades) was replaced by the weekly Tina (a new-type,  advice German magazine addressed to women) taking a high position in the ranking list. Another very popular magazine of that time was a tv guide Tele Tydzień. Both Tina and Tele Tydzień were published by Bauer concern and were copies of the same titles edited in other countries.

The three-year-long period of unusual growth of popular magazine offer started in the second half of 1994. An increase in the amount of sales and the number of new titles launched in the press market mainly by powerful German press concerns was observed. High-circulation weeklies and bi-weeklies for women caused euphoric state of uncritical trying period. During that time weeklies for women (such as Pani Domu) or entertainment/gossip magazines (like Życie na Goršco) or new tv guides dominated the press market. A new type of readership appeared. The place of broad, serious, reflection-stimulating reading was taken by ćpress-watchingę of short, richly-illustrated materials full of advertisements.

During the years 1998-2000 press publishers (mainly Western, but representing not only Germany) concentrated their efforts on filling the free segments and press market niches. Many advice magazines (Olivia) or people magazines (Viva!), or exclusive, life-style magazines addressed to women (Cosmopolitan) and men (CKM) were successfully launched in that time. Similarly, many periodicals addressed to narrow circles of readers (specialist, professional, trade etc.) appeared. On the other hand, the number of national, information dailies decreased dramatically, only 6 of them were being published at that time. Sports press entered the phase of title-merging. Usually only 2 dailies survived in each of the regional press markets, whereas a few years earlier 3-5 of them were published. Hence, this period can be described as the phase of highly competitive selection, especially in terms of the decrease in the amount of sales. Despite the fact that the readersę circle was fairly broad (in 1999, 83% of the population declared they read the press),  occassional, irregular readership prevailed in the model of press usage. Among women the division into two types of readers was more visible. On the one hand, less educated, not-wealthy inhabitants of rural or small town areas read simple, cheap, sensational, popular magazines. On the other hand, well-educated, rich women from big cities preferred exclusive magazines. Polish males willingly read opinion-weeklies (Polityka or Wprost, which changed their layout into full-colour, imitating Western patterns) and the ćnew-generationę automobile magazines (e.g. Auto Œwiat). Additionally, they started to buy life-style magazines addressed to men. Moreover, an intresting trend in the readership of magazines addressed to young people could be noticed in that period of time. There was a little turning-point in the readership of entertainment magazines addressed especially to girls. At the same time there was a turn towards popular science periodicals (e.g. Cogito, Focus or National Geographic). Polish boys willingly read computer, games and Internet magazines.

In the last years of the decade only 30% of the Poles regularly read at least one daily. Most often they preferred to buy magazine edition of the daily (including the tv guide) and/or Monday edtion, because of a broad sports column. This situation concerned (and still does) especially regional dailies. The audience of daily press became clearly divided into ćeliteę and ćmassę readers. Educated, rich inhabitants of big cities preferred to read Gazeta Wyborcza or Rzeczpospolita, the others willingly bought a tabloid daily Super Express. It must be stated here that the category of ćmassę readers precisely reflects the parameters of the so-called statistical Pole, i.e. secondary or lower education, average or lower income, and small town/rural place of residence. The last category of daily press users (not numerous and still decreasing) included readers of strong, defined political opinions manifested in 3 dailies: Trybuna, Życie, Nasz Dziennik. The habit of irregular reading of dailies increased (to 24%) ś  one day a reader choose a national daily, the other day a regional one. Only 5% read both of them regularly.

At the beginning of the 21^st century, declining trends in press readership are more and more visible and alarming. In the first half of 2001 the sales of all national dailies (including the leading Gazeta Wyborcza) decreased remarkably. The same situation concerns the majority of regional and local dailies. The similar trend can be noticed in the magazine press market, where in 2000 (beside some general symptoms of the crisis) several titles were still well-sold. For instance, in 2000 the popular women weekly Przyjaciółka or bi-weekly Viva! as well as some issues of the monthly Vita devoted to health (all of them published by Edipresse) gained high sales. Other titles which also had growing sales in 2000 include women popular magazine Claudia, life-style magazines Twój Styl and Cosmopolitan, opinion weekly Polityka, or commentary and public affairs weekly Angora. Some kind of readership renaissance was experienced by entertainment youth magazines such as Dziewczyna, Popcorn, Filipinka, Jestem, whereas more ambitious ones such as Cogito were in critical situation.

In 2000, tv guides still formed a very stable group of magazines, while entertainment/gossip, advice, cooking & culinary, automobile or architecture/building/interior design magazines as well as popularised scientific periodicals and most of womenęs magazines experienced a ćcollective failureę. In 2001, only a few periodicals continue their increasing tendency in economic indicators (e.g. the weekly Polityka or magazines for men). Press readership results according to Polish Readership Survey in fact confirm the statistics of the press sales. A systematic reduction of readersę contact with periodicals, which proves that  the press market as well as the newspaper and magazine readership decrease, constitutes the most powerful, dominant trend in the Polish press market. This situation did not discouraged  publishers from launching the new titles. Only a few of them (like the Polish edition of  Newsweek launched in August 2001) have a chance to be successful. Similarly, magazines  devoted to spectacular tv events, popular tv programmes (e.g. Big Brother or Œwiat Seriali) are also very successful.

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