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Regional press news - this story published 12 October 2006

Weekly paper publishes Polish edition

by holdthefrontpage staff

The Reading Chronicle is publishing a Polish language edition of the paper, targeting the town's huge Polish population.

Today's Chronicle was due to have both an English edition and a separate Polish edition, making it one of the first local papers in Britain to publish a foreign language version.

The move is an attempt to strengthen community cohesion in Reading - one of the major population centres for Poles - while helping to build new audiences for the paper.

The first six broadsheet pages of this week's Chronicle have been translated into Polish, with the help of a local translating company.

Reading Chronicle

Chronicle editor Simon Jones said: "Local newspapers need to adapt to the changes happening in our markets. This is a positive first step in responding to a big demographic shift that is happening in Reading and across Britain.

"Cultural and language divisions in communities can be a big problem. We do not want large parts of our community to feel disenfranchised.

"This innovative launch is an attempt to break that down and to enable the large Polish community here better to understand local services and local issues.

"This is a Reading paper for Polish people, not a Polish paper for Polish people."

Around 5,000 copies of the Polish version were due to published.

Both versions will distributed across the region, with the Polish version available at mainstream newsagents alongside the English version, as well as in Polish shops and clubs.

Simon said that the logistics around translating a newspaper into Polish were huge, and so they turned to Thatcham-based translating company Prestige Network.

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