Growing with Bonnier Business Polska

As the world continues to struggle with getting back on its feet after the recent economic crisis, Poland has succeeded in becoming one of the strongest economies in Europe. Despite the positive outlook for the time being, things haven't been easy for businesses. But Bonnier Business Polska, the parent company of business daily Puls Biznesu and medical journals Puls Medycyny and Puls Farmacji sees this as an opportunity.

"This is a turning point, and we're now looking for profitable growth" says Iwona Kossmann, CEO of Bonnier Business Polska. A big way to do this, Kossmann says, is to focus on the core brand Puls Biznesu. "We are relaunching the newspaper into the most opinion-leading and reliable source of information for entrepreneurs, managers and professionals," she says. "Our website Pb.pl also will be relaunched with unique paid content. And we are starting a new magazine: Puls Biznesu Weekend. Last but not least, we will also be taking our content to new digital channels - large screen cell phones, PCs, and the iPad. D-day for everything is the 19th of September."

The idea behind the relaunch is to get more subscribers and web readership, increased ad revenues and sponsorships. What the Polish team realized was that the key to this was finding new target groups. "In Poland there are fewer than 5,000 companies with more than 250 employees, and 155,000 companies with 10-250 employees," says Marcin Góralewski, Puls Biznesu product director. "This biggest SME [small and medium enterprise] group is looking for practical and useful information and they don't find it in Puls Biznesu today. They want us to help them run their business. So, that's what we're going to do." 

New sections to the paper will be added - a section with very practical advices on issues such as law and taxes and financing, another section will be aimed at investors but with a B2C focus, and the weekly sections will also be changed based on research on what readers are looking for.

"The changes are important for both our current readers and for new target groups who will find a lot of useful information," says Tomasz Siemieniec, editor-in-chief for the print edition of Puls Biznesu. Przemek Barankiewicz, editor-in-chief for Pb.pl says: "The relaunch of pb.pl means totally refreshed layout, with more serious, more compact content, with registration and paid zones." In addition there will be a new mobile website, a new e-newspaper, an app for tablets, and a paid newsletter for investors.

To get all this out to readers, an advertising and promotion campaign will start in September. "We will also use direct mail and prepare special promotional materials for our subscription sales department and advertising sales department," says Magda Karda, marketing director. Two dummies have been already produced for Puls Biznesu and Puls Biznesu Weekend, and they will be tested using market research and with selected readers. 

The changes are not being made just to attract new readers and users, the goal is to attract new advertisers as well - says Krzysztof Zarzeczny, advertising sales director, and takes it one step further. "It would be extremely difficult to keep our advertising revenue position without any changes to the product and in the future we would expect decline if there is no change," he says. And Mariusz Mazurek, event and conference director, says that approximately 90 meetings with small and medium enterprises are being set up to get the word out.

"All these changes are very demanding in terms of time and quality," says Kossmann. "With the limited resources we have at Bonnier Business Polska, we had to decide how much we wanted to invest in the areas we cover, including business and medical and pharmacy, and this year we chose to focus on Puls Biznesu."