Epitafium dla "Czasu Krakowskiego" (1990-1997)

Abstract

The first issue of „Czas Krakowski” came out on 28 March 1990. The initiative to set up a conservative daily, which could provide an alternative for the clearly liberal „Gazeta Wyborcza”, was bom among journalists and members of the anti-Communist opposition associated with the samizdat periodical, „Arka” (1983-1996). The chief editor was a poet, Jan Polkowski; he co-operated with Mieczysław Gil and Jan Rokita, Marek Halberda, Łukasz Plesnar and Ryszard Terlecki. From the very beginning the daily had a very legible ideological stand; it was politically engaged, raised polemics and was famous for its spirited texts (eg. famous texts by Wojciech Czuchnowski and Andrzej Patula). In 1992 the editors of „Czas”, among the first ones in Poland, used press games to great effect. The result was impressive: in its peak days over 300 thousand copies were printed and the paper quickly became Matopolska’s biggest daily. However, it failed to maintain that position. Bad investments and marketing policy caused financial problems already in 1994. Improvised reforms and preventive measures failed; the financial problems were getting bigger and a year later (on the 4 May 1997) the paper was suspended. Although a month later, on 6 June 1997, some of the editors tried to reactivate the daily (it was published under a new title „Nowy Czas Krakowski”), its life was very short, and on 2 August the paper was suspended again.