New look

Changing templates too often is a syndrome of newcomer in bloggers community ;-) I hope the patience of my small audience isn't overused already...

TV shows

Desperate Housewives grab me every week. It's highly ironic that in Poland this series was introduced by a station, which is everything but cool and innovative, while its top-notch urban competitor invests heavily in domestic Ally McBeal copycat.

PS. It may be amazing for Americans, but in Poland two powerful ABC shows - Lost and Desperate Housewives - are put in deadly competition for Thursday prime-time viewers by two different broadcasters.

Gladwell published in Poland

Two excellent books were released in Poland this year. Somehow both were not properly orchestrated so I got the news by accident.
The first was absolutely fantastic ''Fast-Food Nation'' written by Eric Schlosser. In september famous Malcom Gladwell's ''Tipping Point'' hit shop shelves. As far as I know one publisher bought copyrights for ''Blink'' - Gladwell's second book.

Compact change

Last week I watched the film ''The end of affair'' and as usually lent an attentive ear to dialogues. One line was especially striking. ''You changed your newspaper once and you soon got used to it.'' This is how wife tried to explain to her husband dealing with huge changes.

The problem is that nowadays people don’t change newspapers, but newspapers are in constant change. Ready or not, someday you get something completely new instead of your good, old paper and have to get used to it. Like I have to get used to new ''The Wall Street Journal Europe'', which went compact some weeks ago. WSJ is my favorite daily, read both in print and online, but today I’m confused for the first time, because it takes much more minutes then ever before to find what I need. Where’s the A-head with its unique features? Where’s Networking section?

As an industry insider I understand the nature of such transition, but as a reader I repeat every day while opening my WSJE: ''God save my New Yorker''.

My friend's blogging

There’s not too much things that could be better for journalist than being an inspiring person. My friend Chris Borowski started blogging (http://traveling-life.blogspot.com)! It’s a great news, because it was a big pity for me, when he decided to leave Reuters, where he was a telecoms & IT correspondent and move out from Europe. From now on he’s online and his comments on different things including street fights in Paris and Polish rap are available. Of course his Traveling Life is not about mergers and acquisitions, but he’s the guy who looks broadly and who knows what he will cover next... ;-)

PR w RP

Byłem gościem na konferencji branży PR-owskiej. Wraz z szefem jednej z agencji i menedżerem odpowiedzialnym za PR w jednej z firm finansowych zajmowałem się oceną jakości komunikatów prasowych. Czasem chodzę na takie spędy, bo uważam, że opowiadając tym ludziom o swoich potrzebach i standardach zawodowych w jakiś sposób na nich wpływam, co może ułatwić mi pracę. Jednak gdy wracałem do domu tamtego wieczoru dwie rzeczy przyszły mi na myśl.

Po pierwsze, że przez to chodzenie i mówienie chyba wyrastam na dyżurnego krytyka PR. Jest to o tyle niebezpieczne, że wkrótce zapewne zacznę przynudzać i sam będę źle się z tym czuł. W końcu będzie tak, jak z pewną publicystką znaną w całej Polsce ze swoich feministycznych poglądów. Zadzwoniłem do niej 2-3 lata temu z prośbą o skomentowanie rozerotyzowanej reklamy jednego z polskich banków. - Proszę mi wybaczyć, ale nie chcę się wypowiadać na ten temat. Już nie chcę odgrywać roli dyżurnego betonu feministycznego - powiedziała do słuchawki zmęczonym głosem.

A po drugie, jest rok 2005, a polski PR wciąż rozmawia o rzeczach tak podstawowych, jak sztuka pisania komunikatów prasowych. Czy naprawdę powinienem brać w tych rozmowach udział?