Catholic Publication in Poland

Today we visited a well-known Polish publication with a long and rich history. Tygodnik Powszechny was established in 1945 as a weekly lay catholic magazine. Decades later, the publication remains relevant by continuing to transform itself with timely current events content and digital technology. For the first 40 years of the publication’s existence, it served a very important role as a forum for “free” speech while Poland was under communist regime. While the published content wasn't completely free, censorship of religious content was less stringent so people sought it out as a source of freedom. Many of the past editors of Tygodnik Powszechny are held in high regard for their service during the difficult years before 1989. These editors had to carefully manage the relationship between the Soviet regime and the desires of the public to read genuine content that wasn't overly censored. From 1989 until today, the magazine has competed with other popular weeklies in a continuously growing free market economy.  In order to keep a strong readership base that spans many generations, Tygodnik Powszechny has built a digital presence with a website, Facebook page, twitter handle, and Kindle edition. They have also expanded the political section, and shortened the articles to accommodate the interests and habits of younger readers.

This was one of my favorite company visits thus far because the United States doesn't have any publications of this nature. Also, Tygodnik Powszechny has a rich history that in my mind exemplifies Poland’s national character of perseverance. On our tour we also learned about the strong connection the magazine had to John Paul II who authored several articles. The office was humble, and the staff quite small. However, the exclusive team is clearly very experienced and their hard work is tangible. I was surprised to hear that each journalist must write up to three pages of content weekly and serve an editor function as well. The close-knit group was compared to a “special forces unit” because they work so closely to accomplish the lofty goal of producing premier content week after week. I am familiar with all of the hard work and time that goes into producing a magazine publication. I worked on a team of about 200 people that produced a monthly lifestyle magazine. In comparison, the small and passionate staff of Tygodnik Powszechny manages to publish weekly, and keep the nation up to date with relevant news content and current social issues.