Jolanta Kępa-Mętrak

Are Changes in the Functioning of the Local Press Necessary? Discussion Concerning Self-Government and Private Press Models

The aim of the article is to draw attention to the strength of the local press, a bit paradoxically, by recalling the examples of the activities taken by various bodies against local government press. I assume that if the strength of the local press in influencing on the communities of communes or poviats were not noticed, there would not be any initiatives to defend the so-called independent press, the initiatives which tried to ban the issuing of press by commune, poviat and voivodship self- governments. I compared the analysis of speeches of the Association of Local Newspapers, of the Ombudsman, of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and finally of the Kukiz’15 parliamentary club with the latest data of the National Library concerning regional and local magazines which were registered in 2019. It turned out that they constitute nearly half of all new or changing titles submitted to the National Library. Among them there was 50 percent of magazines published by local governments or institutions subordinated to them. The existing projects aimed against self-government publishing activities have not been successful so far. The strength of the local press should not result from the status of its publisher, but from the message that the recipient gets. 

Celem artykułu jest próba oszacowania zmian, jakie dokonały się w prasie w ostatnim roku, bezpośrednio lub pośrednio związanych z pandemią koronawirusa. Jej skutki niektórzy wydawcy odczuli boleśnie, tracąc czytelników i reklamodawców, co przełożyło się na straty finansowe trudne do odrobienia. Stąd decyzje o zamykaniu tytułów, zawieszaniu bądź rezygnacji z wersji drukowanej na rzecz elektronicznej. Na zyski równoważące straty w tym ostatnim wypadku przyjdzie jeszcze poczekać. Ale wydania cyfrowe zyskują na znaczeniu. Informacja przekazana przed końcem 2020 roku przez giganta prasowego – „New York Times” – o wygenerowaniu więcej przychodów ze sprzedaży wydań cyfrowych niż z druku (sic!), powinna zachęcić wydawców do rozwijania tej formy sprzedaży. Dla prasy światowej to historyczny moment. Zapowiadane od lat odchodzenie od druku może teraz jeszcze bardziej przyśpieszyć. Już nie w związku z pandemią, ale w związku z możliwością generowania wyższych przychodów przez gazety elektroniczne niż tradycyjne. Tym samym ostatnie argumenty za pozostawaniem przy druku mogą stracić rację bytu.
 

What will the press be like after the pandemic? Initial diagnosis attempt (as of January 2021)

The aim of the article is an attempt to estimate the changes that took place in the press in the last year, directly or indirectly related to the coronavirus pandemic. Some publishers experienced its effects painfully, losing readership and advertiser clients, which caused financial losses that are difficult to counteract. Hence the decisions to close press titles, suspend or abandon the printed version to the electronic version. In the latter case, we will have to wait for the gains to offset the losses. But digital editions are gaining in importance. The information provided before the end of 2020 by the press giant – the New York Times – about generating more revenues from sales of digital editions than from printed ones (sic!), should encourage publishers to develop this form of sales. This is a historic moment for the world press. The abandonment of printing press, announced years ago, may now accelerate even more. Not because of a pandemic anymore, but because electronic newspapers may generate higher revenues than traditional ones. Thus, the last arguments for staying in print may lose their raison d’être.

Keywords: coronavirus pandemic, printed press, electronic press, news press, sales of the press.

apart from TV digitization the Internet and local press have been the most important events in the Polish media in the recent years. The former has been developing very intensively, the latter, which exists in the traditional form, for many years has been said to be bound to fall due to the Internet itself. But it is still doing quite well and has more and more in common with the Internet. Local communication as well as regional or national ones seem to be exceeding the limited territorial environment more and more and getting transferred to the global network with better and better results. Many publishers offer subscriptions and e-copy sales releases. On the other hand, the local printed press has still priority over the virtual media in many communities. These are the theses which the author tries to prove through the analysis of the selected local newspapers. Among them there are both local weeklies-the best-selling in the country, and short-run periodicals, especially popular in smaller towns and villages. Some of them are still very traditional and they use paper as the only carrier transfer. It mainly concerns the press of a very small range. One can clearly observe that the smaller the community, the greater the role of the traditional print media. However, it is difficult to notice the relationship between the time of launching the new titles and their form. The recent ones are not necessarily the most multimedia ones.

Local government officials or journalists? Communication in the local community
Communication on the local government level may take place in different ways, using different channels. One of them is the press that is either created by local governments or through their order. The authoress has attempted to show this press from the media perspective. Analysing the selected titles, she has tried to show its content both from the sender’s and the recipient’s point of view. The linking of the content and the ways of its transmission turned out to be particularly interesting, and so – the possibility of the impact on the recipient, in combination with the editorial teams’ characteristics.
The local government press came into being even before the first local elections in 1990. Then it seemed that it would not play a significant role in the entire press system. Over the time, it turned out that it had been developing dynamically, increasing the number of its titles every year. It has existed up till now to the disappointment of many circles.
The publishing activity of local governments usually livens up during the election. It is obvious that the existing borough leaders, mayors, starosts want to present their achievements, to show the residents that they keep their promises. A large proportion of them do it very effectively, as evidenced by the elections won in subsequent terms. In shaping their own image and the image of local governments that they lead, they are helped by the appointed press spokesmen who used to be regional or local media journalists, or the workers subordinated to cultural institutions or local governments. It might seem that most reliable success would be guaranteed by professionals – editors who have many years’ work experience. However, it appears that such a simple relationship does not exist.
The analysis of the content of messages indicates the selective information to recipients about local matters, mainly about the activities of the authorities. The overall image of the district, county, province emerging from the published material is definitely positive. One should not expect another vision if the press, in its assumptions, is designed to promote the region, county and province.