03-09-2007

Naming of new Agora chief signals move beyond press sector

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    Polish media company Agora SA (www.agora.pl) has named broadcast executive Marek Sowa as the new president of its management board in a move that signals a shift in focus toward the electronic media.

    Sowa replaces Wanda Rapaczynski, a former New York banking executive who returned to her native Poland in the early 1990s to head the media company, whose flagship business is the leading Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.

    Agora's operations include publishing of newspapers and magazines, out-of-home advertising, radio broadcasting, online activities and selling collections of books and books with CDs and DVDs. The company will announce a new strategy in coming months that is expected to expand its activities beyond the press sector.

    Previously Sowa was with the international media group Liberty Global in Poland, serving as vice president of UPC Polska and a member of the supervisory board of Canal+. His appointment was announced Aug. 30.

    He was also business development director for @Entertainment, Inc., a multimedia holding company listed on NASDAQ, and headed the satellite music channel Atomic TV (now MTV Polska).