Over the last three decades the German Bauer Media empire has systematically invested in the Polish media market. Due to a well-devised business strategy Bauer Media Group not only have built up a strong market position but continued to expand despite the global decline of the print industry. While successfully broadening its offer to new readers, the company managed to hold on to its key segments, i.e. women’s press, entertainment and TV magazines, teen and computer magazines. This article examines Bauer Media’s presence in Poland since 1991. It combines an outline history of its Polish operations with a close analysis of the company’s key market expansion decisions, quantitative transformations of its print offer and its response to the new, more digital and more social, media environment.

In 1989–2017 women’s magazines were an important segment of Poland’s media market dominated by international publishing houses like Bauer Media, Edipresse Polska and Burda International. Each year they launched new leads (a total of about one hundred in that period). Most of them were successful in terms of sales and ad revenue. This article tries to chart the quantitative changes and major trends in the women’s magazines market as well as analyze the role of foreign capital in its development.