Hojka’s humour, pride and passion for media, especially in Poland, were on full display in Krakow as Agora served as the primary host of WAN-IFRA’s 76th World News Media Congress.
For Hojka, that meant taking the stage or podium on numerous occasions during the three-day event, delivering a compelling and consistent message: just like Poland’s storied past, Agora’s media strategy is built on one unwavering foundation – resilience. Especially through crises.
Agora is the publisher of Gazeta Wyborcza, the first independent newspaper launched in the region after the fall of communism. Hojka said the leaders of the anti-communist opposition launched the newspaper in 1989 to help secure and win the first democratic elections.
He then showed a slide of the cover of the first issue of the newspaper. Fittingly, Lech Wałęsa, the former president of Poland and leader of the then “Solidarity” movement against the Polish communist regime, was featured on the cover. (Wałęsa also took the stage during the opening ceremony in a lively Q&A with Gazeta Wyborcza journalist Dominika Wielowieyska.)
“I’m showing you this to emphasise that Agora was not founded to make money,” Hojka said. “It was founded to make change. It was built on true values.”
Resilience in revenue
Today Agora is a multimedia company, reaching nearly 18 million people daily through its various brands and platforms, Hojka said. The company employs about 2500 people, earning annual revenues of close to €350 million and €35 million EBITDA.
“Indeed, we are now publicly listed and active across nearly all major segments,” he said. “Press (print), digital, radio, outdoor, movies, cinema. But what ties it all together is our founding values and the strategy focused on delivering quality: resilience.”
“We built our strategy around resilience because I believe that in our unstable world, it’s probably one of the most important traits of media companies. And to me, resilience is not about surviving a crisis but advancing in a crisis – using it as an opportunity. And as I said yesterday during the welcome ceremony, there is no editorial independence without financial independence. So we try to strengthen our financial position, stabilise it through very broad diversification.”
3 pillars of growth for Agora
He was quick to point out that despite Agora’s success and leading position in the Polish media landscape, the company is not immune to the same issues facing other publishers around the world: a challenging, stagnant advertising market, especially for local media.
So where will the growth come from in the future? Agora has three clear areas of focus.
1) Digital subscriptions: The delivering quality part of the strategic equation starts with the journalism produced at Gazeta Wyborcza, says Hojka. The newspaper’s website was one of the first in Eastern Europe to launch a (hybrid) paywall in 2014 – and succeed at doing so.
Today, Hojka said Gazeta has 300,000 paid digital subscriptions, and it continues to be a core pillar of growth. “Building that direct relationship with our audience is so crucial today and going forward,” he said.
2) Podcast subscriptions: Agora’s latest paid digital play, however, has come from audio, specifically paid-for podcasts. Hojka said that Agora is the second-largest radio group in Poland, with nine national and regional stations attracting 8 million listeners daily. Off the strength of that, Agora has accumulated 50,000 paying subscribers to its portfolio of podcasts.
“There is an explosion of audio popularity,” Hojka said. “But it seems like it is likely to be dominated by the big techs and the advertising space. So we are betting on subscriptions.
“It’s not easy, and it indeed goes against the common perception of audio: radio has always been for free, so, sound familiar? People are even a bit more reluctant to pay for audio. But we are succeeding step by step.”
3) Digital OOH advertising: The last part of Agora’s growth strategy comes from digital Out of Home (OOH) advertising. Agora is already the country’s largest OOH advertising operator, Hojka said. But he said digital OHH is the company’s fastest growing segment with revenue growing 70% YoY last year.
“We see the potential there to help to stabilise our financial results, our financial security quite well,” he said. “Of course it has its own challenges – regulatory and competition from retailers – but it’s really going well at the moment.”
Leaning on diversification
Agora also runs 54 cinemas across the country, visited by 12 million people a year, said Hojka. They are backed up by Agora’s “Dream Auditorium” concept to help deliver a next-level cinema experience, featuring premium sound, picture quality and reclining seats.
“And guess what? This is the one business where young people are not a problem,” Hojka said. “In the age of VOD and TikTok, the next generation is still massively showing up for movies.”
Speaking of movies, Agora is the No. 1 movie distributor, but also produces movies. The company also publishes books and organises cultural festivals.
Trusted brands will always stand out
With such a broad portfolio and with generative AI lowering / removing entry barriers to the industry, Hojka was asked by Küng how Agora’s brands can continue to stand out in Poland.
“I think strong, trusted brands are our best insurance for an uncertain future,” Hojka said. “In general, we believe in building our strategy based on our strengths, not so much on our weaknesses. And we already own strong brands so we want to strengthen and leverage them – even further.
“For instance, if we invest, or if we make an M&A decision, we’d rather invest in the fields that we are already operating in. But we also strengthen them through leveraging the synergies between all our media, especially with cross-promotion.”
Holding the line
Hojka’s pride for Agora hosting the Congress was palpable, but his pride in the company and his country overcoming a difficult eight years of a populist regime recently carried an even deeper sense of belief in resilience.
“It’s not bad for a country that quarrels about everything, including how to boil water for tea,” he said. “But today, when populism is gaining ground in so many parts of the world, we send a clear message: We are not doomed to lies, propaganda and disinformation. There is always a way back. And journalism, independent, principled journalism has a central role to play in that return.
“But we must be strong because the enemies of truth have never been stronger, and our mission has never been more important and more urgent.”
