Piano Media a.s.

Polish Media to Launch Piano’s Online National Paid-Content System

Warsaw, Poland, July 18, 2012 – Seven major Polish media representing 27 national and regional newspapers, 14 magazines and Poland’s national public radio will join Piano Media’s national online common-payment system on July 18, 2012. With the simplicity of Piano’s one login, one payment access to a multitude of media, Polish digital visitors will be able to view premium content and services on 42 different websites for just €4.70 (19.90 PLN) per month. This is Piano’s third national payment initiative in the past 14 months.

Poland represents Piano’s largest market with a population of 38 million people and over 19 million Internet users. “Poland allows us to demonstrate how well our system works in larger markets,” said Piano’s Chief Executive Tomáš Bella. “We are already known for our innovation. Now we will prove our innovation is scalable.”

Polish National Radio, domestic publishers Agora and Murator along with four internationally owned publishers; Edytor; Swiss-German Ringier Axel Springer Poland; British Mecoms’ Media Regionalne; and Germany’s Verlagsgruppe Passau Polskapresse; will join the growing worldwide paid-content trend with their entrance into the Piano system.

Agora’s Digital Content Publisher, Michał Gwiazdowski, said Poland’s largest media publisher chose Piano’s system because “The process is simple and efficient for our users. One payment provides them with access to content from many sites by various publishers. For us, Piano’s system is the next step in building our Internet publishing strategy for our press titles, which in turn will help us to continuously deliver – both online and offline - the premium content provided by our editorial teams.”

Added Media Regionalne’s Tomasz Krawczyk, Deputy National Director of Editorial Development, “We hope, through this common project by Polish media, the Polish digital platform and online business will gather new momentum. We believe that in the foreseeable future paid-content will become a very important element to our development as content provider.”

Other publishers, who want to test the paid-content market without negatively impacting page-views, were impressed by Piano’s strategy, shared-knowledge and easy technical solutions. “We believe that Forbes.pl, with its premium content matches very well with the concept of Piano,” said Alex Uchański, Chief Digital Officer of Ringier Axel Springer Poland. “We benefit from the support that Piano Media is providing us.”

Piano relied on the wealth of knowledge gained from its Slovak and Slovene subscriber databases to convince Polish media to launch the system. “The media were very comfortable talking with us and were happy we could advise them about how and what works within a paid-content platform based on our knowledge from Piano’s Slovene and Slovak subscribers,” said Bella. “Our success in there means we have experienced-based knowledge that allows us to identify content most likely to be valued by users.”

Some media will use the system to release material previously only available in print prior to Piano’s launch. “When we started Piano in Slovakia 14 months ago,” said Bella, “only about 5% of the available content was in the system; in Slovenia 10%. However, in Poland between 10-15% of media content will be included, and a lot of content that has never been online before will now be available. We are adding a lot of value for a Polish Piano user.”

Ewa Bartnikowska, Editor-in-Chief of Gazeta Olsztynska agreed, pointing out that subscription revenue is important for getting new content online. “We still have some high quality content not published online. Thanks to Piano, we will have a chance to monetize this content and finance more articles, some which will be written especially for the paid section of our websites.” Marek Stankiewicz, Strategy and Internet Product Development Director at Polskapresse agreed, “We are trying to find the online business model that will be less dependent on advertisers, Piano’s system will help increase subscriber-based revenue.”

With Piano, media choose what content of theirs will be put into the system and what benefits digital readers will receive. Some media will provide ad-free versions of their sites, while others will offer premium access to their content before it is released to the public or even offer exclusive material available only with a Piano subscription. Initially, Piano's presence on the media’s sites will be the appearance of Piano's login icon, the Piano Bar, at the top of each page. Then in August, a free trial program will be on offer, followed by the start of the full Piano subscription system in September.

Piano’s success has inspired publishers worldwide. Piano is in negotiations with publishers on several continents and has plans to launch an additional market by the end of 2012.

Important Statistics (Gemius.com)

Seven Participating Media with 42 Brands and Publications

AGORA

• National Daily News:
• wyborcza.pl
• Lifestyle Magazines:
• poradnikdomowy.pl
• czterykaty.pl
• ladnydom.pl
• e-ogrody.pl
• magazyn-kuchnia.pl
• logo24.pl