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The participants who attended the season opening of MCC Budapest Lectures event series organised by Mathias Corvinus Collegium were able to get familiar with the functioning of 21st century media platforms. The roundtable discussion took place in MCC's headquarters in Tas vezér Street with the participation of Zoltán Szalai, Director General of MCC and Editor-in-Chief of Mandiner; Sohrab Ahmari, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Compact magazine; and Jacek Karnowski, journalist and Editor-in-Chief of Sieci weekly. The event was moderated by Boris Kálnoky, Head of the MCC Media School.
Nowadays there are more and more initiatives to create more new media platforms but only a fraction of them can compete. New platforms often face strong headwinds from almost all directions. What are the factors and aspects that can influence the success of a medium and what are the motivations of the actors creating new platforms? These were some of the questions that the participants in the roundtable discussion sought to answer.
The professionals first talked about what motivated them to create their own media platform. Sohrab Ahmari wanted to provide an alternative for a readership disillusioned with the big media giants and looking for a new source of information. He also wanted to give more prominence to topics that are rarely heard about. The editor-in-chief said that by creating Compact magazine, he wanted to give journalists who were being squeezed out of the big media giants a chance to publish their articles.
Jacek Karnowski found starting his own weekly newspaper an adventure and a challenge. He believes that it is important to add value to what you create and this is especially true for a weekly newspaper. He stressed that any business can only be successful if the founder is an integral part of the life of the business. Karnowski made no secret of the fact that Poland is a particularly difficult place for medium-sized media companies, but he was proud to be the founder and director of a company that has an impact on Polish public life.
According to Zoltán Szalai, it is quite easy to achieve a high number of clicks for articles on lighter topics. The real challenge is to present deeper content in an understandable form. According to the editor-in-chief, Mandiner has always been committed to producing quality content, which has earned the recognition of both the profession and the readership. He said that the Mandiner conveys conservative values, but this does not mean one-sided information, as it provides an opportunity for different opinions to clash.
