Success at Home

Five years ago, the agora “War on the Mountain“ between the board and the chief executives, ” she raised quite a few interest in the media. The ending was almost unemotional. But that's what niche blogs are for to compose about niche topics.

The subject requires a short introduction, due to the fact that in many comments I saw a misunderstanding of how Agora works and what differs from a typical stock company. I besides saw immense eyes of amazed friends erstwhile I explained it to them in social circumstances.

The media company thus differs from the typical startup, that the founders usually want to make systemic safety by hostile takeover by power and/or capital. In Agora, this worked: during the regulation of the Law and Justice, any dreamed of taking over the state's treasury by the companies, oddly Ziemkiewicz was excited about this vision. As with the right (and peculiarly with Ziemkiewicz), they did not read publically available papers and did not know that it was impossible.

Scott Trust is widely regarded as the best safety mechanism. It was founded in 1936 by John Russell Scott, publisher of Guardian, who invested surpluses in a business fund so that Guardian did not should be a business. He is not only threatened by hostile takeovers, but even by the temptation to lower levels in pursuit of cliqueness.

In Agora, quoting Rapaczynska from interview of 1999, the ‘trust equivalent’ was used. In these words, there was a foreshadowing of future problems: “equivalent” is simply a dangerous word erstwhile it comes to finances. Would you invest in a bond equivalent with a warrant equivalent to profit?

Agora Holding, holding Agory SA's controlling stake, is simply a counterpart. It has privileged shares called jargono "golden". In practice, without the approval of Holding, it is impossible to change the board even if individual else concentrates 51% of the shares.

It is in turn protected from taking over so that it is not a public company. Shares cannot be bought or inherited. erstwhile individual leaves, their shares are redeemed and the next associate is co-opted. It's an exclusive club you can only enter on invitation.

Initially, only the founders of “Gazeta Wyborcza” formed the holding. Later, erstwhile Agora SA was headed by external experts, traditionally 1 of the 5 shareholders was the CEO. It's been Bartosz Hojka for a decade. By December 2025, he was accompanied by Blumsztajn, Łuczywo, Piegdon and Rapaczyńska, in alphabetical order.

Though Hojka did almost all his career in Agora, but in radio vertical. He has late been successful in taking over Radio Zet, which the written regulators blocked on the rule of “making Agora angry for being Agora”. You can presume that Radio Zet will be his eyes.

Since December, the holding line-up has been again alphabetically: Wojciech Bartkowiak (GW), Bartosz Hojka (R), Sławomir Jędrzejewski (AMS), Dominika Wielowieyska (GW), Maciej Strzelecki (R). In brackets, I marked a vertical promotion.

The people of “Gazeta Wyborcza” first found themselves in a minority. Although there are as many radios as there are, 1 of the radios is the president, which is in the holding as primas inter pares.

In this interview, Niemczycki said “we must focus on what is most important. And this is 'Gazeta', 'Gazeta', 'Gazeta'". Who would have thought it would be so fast to make it "radio, radio"!

There's something incorrect with the founders. erstwhile you look at the Guardian, there's a difference. Guardian Media Group and Scott Trust Limited are separate entities. 1 belongs to the other, but this allows a clear division of roles: STL is to contribute to GMG, not the another way around.

Such a division late emerged from this “war on the mountain”. Electoral is now a separate company (owned by Agora). However, I am afraid that this will not be a Guardian-style deal, but alternatively "now you must be on your own." That is most likely why the last chord was the collective release, in which the editorial of the bimonthly "Books" flew.

One remains for sweetness. The war of 5 years ago was about maintaining independence, an crucial component of which is the impracticability of primates. There is no equivalent in the portal: there are no primates there, there are “ angle managers”.

Or rather, they were due to the fact that I think the full management's gone. There has been no 1 on the Agora board since February who has been promoted to portal vertical. It's just cremlinology, but it mattered erstwhile any faction disappeared from the polytburo.

It seems that this is not “the aggregate of the editorial board”, but the acquisition by “Gazeta Wyborcza”. This was signaled by celebrities leaving the portal, who were to lose this position in the fresh hand, like Polish magnates after the partition.

Melancholy, I'll see that this is how it should have been from the beginning. The publisher of “Gazeta Wyborcza” as a separate entity plus the portal as part of it, not any dysfunctional interior competition, with separate management and own policy. The “Gazeta” is now waiting to undo the mistakes of people who are long gone in Agora. They flew off on gold parachutes.

Frazes “the full manufacture is in trouble” is out of place. He's in trouble, but not that bad. any inactive have a correction (e.g. a weekly magazine with which I have the privilege of working with). Mistaken decisions from decades ago have introduced the "Gazeta" into a spiral that has wiped out many media in the world. Cuts make little and little content worth paying for. So it reduces paying customers, which forces further cuts – and so on.

Will the fresh leadership succeed? Fingers crossed. What else do we have left?