The Toughest Job in Media Head-hunting : Find Wanda Rapaczynska’s Successor

Gazeta Wyborcza was that underground newspaper, launched by anti-communist activists, Mrs Rapaczynska’s child-hood friends. After two decades away from her native Poland, management degree from Yale and psychology PhD from CUNY in hand and a career at Citibank on fast-track, she rejoined those friends. Gazeta Wyborcza became Poland’s biggest daily newspaper and Argora SA became wildly successful.

But the heady days of expansion into radio stations, more newspapers and cable TV - not to forget the very successful 1999 IPO – are yesterdays’ news. Media never lives in the past. Agora has never been able to secure entry into serious television. Today its’ challenge is the hard slog of day-to-day competition, notably from Axel Springer’s new daily Dziennik.

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East Europe Is Still The Prime Battlefield For European Publishers With Axel Springer Launching In Poland An Upscale Daily, Dziennik, Just Six Weeks After Agora dropped its Upscale Nowy Dzien.
No sooner does Poland’s Agora drop its three-month-old up market Nowy Dzien (New Day) because shareholders were up in arms over its losses, then along comes Axel Springer saying it is launching its own upscale broadsheet in Warsaw on April 18, with the paper said to be modeled on Springer’s successful Die Welt brand in Germany.

The Times Raises Its Newsstand Price 5p, Ending The 12-Year UK Quality Newspaper Price War; But In Eastern Europe Newspaper Wars By Free and Paid Tabloids Are In Full Swing
It was September, 1993. Circulation of the Times broadsheet was continuing its spiral downwards with no end in sight, so owner Rupert Murdoch resorted to that old standby in times of circulation crisis – he cut the newsstand price by 30%. That single move is credited today, 12-years later, with causing such a financial bloodbath for all of the UK national quality broadsheets that they have yet to recover fully. And it also literally changed the face of most British quality national newspapers.

The question for the Agora board is not about replacing Wanda Rapaczynska. Founder/leaders are never replaced. They are succeeded. Will they look for the entrepreneurial skills for which Mrs Rapaczynska has been praised? Or is it time to look for a “manager?”

An Agora spokesperson said Mrs Rapaczynska’s successor would likely be chosen by the end of the year. And a current Agora manager is most likely to be selected.

The Toughest Job in Media Head-hunting : Find Wanda Rapaczynska’s Successor

Global head-hunter Korn/Ferry was picked to find Polish media company Agora SA its next CEO. Wanda Rapaczynska has led one of new Europe’s biggest media success stories since its earliest days: from underground newspaper to multi-media company to successful IPO. Now she’s planning to retire.