In today's Meet the Media, Przemek Pająk, founder and editor-in-chief of Spider's Web (spidersweb.pl), talks with Mariusz Pleban. Przemek is a founder of the Spider's Web Group, which in addition to Spider's Web includes: Spider's Web Rozrywka, Autoblog.pl, Bizblog.pl, Spider's Web+ magazine and Beprawnik.pl. Television expert. Nominated for the prestigious Grand Press Digital award. Included in the New Europe 100 list of leading entrepreneurs from the so-called New Europe under 40. Ranked 16th in Brief magazine's 2015 ranking of the most creative people in business.
Mariusz Pleban: Przemek, are you more of a blogger, journalist or entrepreneur?
Przemysław Pająk: Definitely an entrepreneur. Spider's Web has turned into a big media project and the days when I could afford to just be a journalist are long gone. I regret it a little, because I love writing. It's a pity that I so rarely find the time for it at the moment. On a day-to-day basis, I am the head of a media company that gives work to more than 50 people. And I have the typical management responsibilities of a sizable organization.
MP: The world of media, the titles you have created and own (or co-own) are Spider's Web, Spider's Web+, SW Entertainment, Autoblog, Bizblog, Bezprawnik. Have I left anything out? How did you come to be where you are?
PP: Well, organically and slowly. I actually started as a blogger in 2008 writing mainly about Apple. I was still working full-time in marketing and PR in the FMCG industry at the time and blogged after hours. Month by month, year by year, the audience grew, the first advertising partnerships appeared and... The situation grew up to try and make a business out of it. I left my job in marketing at the end of 2011 and since the beginning of 2012 I have been developing Spider's Web already from the position of head of the organization. The first collaborative bloggers appeared, then over time we built up the structures of a fully-fledged media company. 12 years later Spider's Web is a mature and recognized brand on the Polish web journalism scene.
MP: How large an audience do your titles and channels have now? Who is reading, who is watching you?
PP: We are currently visited by a total of over 6 million users according to Gemius data. So we are talking about real users who visit our services within 30 days. Our main audience is male, from large and medium-sized cities, with secondary and higher education. Although we also have sites such as SW Rozrywka, where 48% of readers are women.
MP: Please tell us what topics are currently clicking the most? Do you see any trends over the last few years?
PP: Yes, the interests of the audience are changing strongly, but this also has to do with the development of Spider's Web. It used to be that the biggest interest with us was the system wars: PC vs Apple, iOS vs Android. Today, as the mobile market has matured, these topics are less popular. However, it is worth remembering that we have not been a strictly technology website for a long time. We have Bizblog, which covers business and economic topics, Autoblog, where we write about motoring, and Rozrywka, where we write about digital culture. And if I had to name one topic that is currently on a massive wave of reader interest it would be the energy transition.
MP: As the Danish physicist Niels Bohr, winner of the Nobel Prize, was once to say: "Forecasting is difficult, especially when it concerns the future". But try to tell me, do you see any particular direction in audience interest based on these historical trends in 'clickability'? What do you think will be clicking in a year and in five years' time?
PP: Ha, I wish I could be sure that in five years' time there will be online journalism of the kind offered by Spider's Web at all. The threats are huge, led by AI. And not at all because artificial intelligence will take journalists' jobs away, but because it seems quite real that AI will simply take journalists' jobs and create a personalized medium for the audience itself.
MP: Let's stay in the future for a moment. It used to be that media was only in print, then the internet came along and media became consumed through PCs as well. Then came the mobile revolution. Then came Spider's Web. What impact will evolving technologies have on your titles and your work? Let's continue with the AI theme – will artificial intelligence be a revolution? Will it be immersive technologies?
PP: I am very concerned about this and all media owners should be on guard. Immersion, augmented reality will plough through the media market totally. And you will have to adapt in order to remain relevant. There are bound to be entirely new forms of media, of journalistic content. I remember when we started out, it was at conferences and press trips that classic print journalists looked at us bloggers with disdain. Unschooled, can't write, break the rules of journalism – that's what they said about us in corners. Today, it is journalism that has grown out of the blogosphere that is mainstream, and we look at tiktokers as nutters who have no journalistic skills whatsoever. And it is they who will probably soon be the journalistic mainstream. They will be followed by another group, probably grown out of immersive technology media with yet another preparation for the profession. And so it will go on. For us, for Spider's Web, it is crucial to embrace all new forms of journalistic expression with our legs. Hence we are both on the web, and Facebook, and YouTube, and TikTok.
MP: Technology has become a staple in our lives, in our work, but is the profession of tech journalist/blogger/influencer now a dream profession? Is journalist/blogger/influencer nowadays basically one profession? What are the reasons to start a career in this profession?
PP: I would call influencers more like youtubers or tiktokers. Bloggers today are online journalists, working in editorial offices for the brand of a particular medium. Of course, as is the case in journalism, we also have celebrities, but nevertheless the majority of the community are hard-working journalists. Is it a dream profession? I don't know. I would certainly like to dispel the myth that journalist/blogger is an easy and pleasant job. Contrary to belief, it's a tedious daily job that requires constant activity and mental engagement. Believe me, not everyone is up to it. Someone wise once said: "The trick is not to write 10 great texts, the trick is to commit 2,500 capital articles".
MP: You have many years of experience working with PR professionals from companies and agencies. What do PR professionals score the most with you in?
PP: It is extremely difficult to be a good PR person today. Also because there is such a perception of the profession that anyone can do it and the barrier to entry into the industry is very low. Meanwhile, a good PR person today is someone who, instead of writing boring press releases, is able to build a partnership with a journalist. It is very difficult to do this today, not least because PR agencies, together with their clients, rely on mass communication. From the perspective of us media, this is a dead end. This is why I value working with PR professionals with whom I have direct, usually long-term contact. This cooperation is based on mutual trust, understanding of needs, discretion and respect. I deeply regret the fact that, in recent years, a great many excellent PR specialists who worked in a style that suited me have left the industry.
MP: And the negative points? What could they do better?
PP: Sorry if I sound brutal, but it seems to me that 80% of PR work, especially that which reaches journalists, is completely unnecessary. 9 out of 10 press releases sent out by PR agencies are completely unnecessary – either late in relation to media reports or completely out of the journalist's interest. And 90% of them automatically land in the bin. However, I find it difficult to point to any remedy to improve this. It seems to me that this whole part of PR work needs to be fundamentally changed.
MP: Finally – in 10 years, in 2034, will you be a blogger, a journalist, an entrepreneur? Or will you be doing something completely different?
PP: I will definitely stay in the media because I don't think I can do anything else well enough to make money from it. Besides, I'm a media junkie and can't imagine life without the media.
MP: Thanks for the interview, Przemek!