Bold, brilliant sports coverage from Gazeta Wyborcza, the leading Polish newspaper.
Grzegorz Piechota writes me:
“The whole newspaper world switches to more compact formats, but
sometimes the news breaks so big that we miss we don’t publish a broadsheet.Today UEFA announced that Poland and Ukraine will together host
European Football Championships EURO 2012. It is absolutely sensational news -
we have never organised such an event. And we won over Italy (can you
imagine?) and Hungary with Croatia.”
Here you have the two pages of today’s Gazeta Wyborcza – the front one and
the last one, linked together to cover the news of the day, probably the news of the year.
“There are two mastheads and two logos: one in Polish language, the
other in Ukrainian.There are two cover headlines: *Poland – Ukraine We Won!* and *Ukraine
- Poland Together Today*.We report the news – *Miracle in Cardiff* (where the decision was taken
by UEFA), *Gilowska found a billion* (about another miracle – money
found in state budget to start preparations), about political situation in
Ukraine.Of course those stories can’t be devoted only to today’s (or rather
yesterday’s) news. They focus on future events: expected boom in economy,
business, investments. We go deeper inside the paper.We publish also a front page commentary – that football can open doors
for Ukraine to the European Union and we – as Poland – have to do a lot
to help our neighbours go through this door.Inside: 12 pages just about this topic.
- Visuals of projected stadiums (and empty spaces today in those
places).
- Maps of highways to be built.
- Review of businesses to be done and prosper in next several years.
- Calls for action: to drop visa restrictions for Ukrainian people to
Poland, how to make border-crossing easier, why not invite Ukraine to
the EU and end all those problems?
- Inside stories about negotiations between Poland and Ukraine, talks
with UEFA.
- People behind the news: the controversial Ukrainian oligarch who was
the most important person in those negotiations.
- Exclusive polls we assigned.”
Poland and Ukraine are the winners.
But Gazeta Wyborcza too.
This is a terrific news package of what INNOVATION calls anticipatory journalism.
Well done!