When newspapers run community events, it's important to stay committed to the convictions of the paper, says
Marcin Gadzinski, editor of
Sport.pl/Gazeta Wyborcza in Poland, speaking at the
WAN-IFRA conference
'Using sports news to optimise your revenues'. Get that right first, and profit will follow, he adds.
His paper, which runs some sporting events, is no. 2 in Poland in terms of circulation, and likes to get involved in social issues and public advocacy campaigns. People all around Poland work for the paper, so it's helpful to use their contacts to organise activities.
They were not very successful when putting sports content on the web, he says, so in 2007 Sport.pl was launched, a strictly internet sports brand. They added online-only features rather than seeing it as a way to promote newspaper content. In 2009 the paper jumped from the number 5 to the number 2 sports website in Poland, with 5 million unique users a month. Plus, every Monday the paper publishes a Sport.pl-branded section.
