Wirtualna Polska

History

The two founders of the portal, and Leszek Bogdanowicz, created it whilst in Germany in 1995. Initially named Wirtualna Akademia, it was a web directory. It was later renamed to Wirtualna Polska and soon gained a stable headquarters in Gdańsk. Borzestowski sold his shares to other investors in 2005, and the company has grown significantly since then; its e-mail service, Poczta WP, was established in November 1998 and has since become extremely popular.

Ownership and structure

In 2014, Orange Polska sold all shares of Wirtualna Polska to Grupa o2, another mass media company, for 375 million zł. The purchase was funded by the private equity firm Innova Capital. From March 2018 to August 2024, Wirtualna Polska's owner was Joanna Pawlak. She was succeeded by Jacek Świderski, the owner of Wirtualna Polska's holding company.

On 16 November 2020, Marcin Meller became the editor-in-chief of Wirtualna Polska, a position left vacant by the departing after a scandal in February 2020. On 4 December, Meller also left the role and was replaced by . On 1 March 2023, he was in turn replaced by .

Controversies

In January 2020, the investigative journalism portal OKO.press published an article detailing the alleged collaboration of Wirtualna Polska with the Ministry of Justice, primarily by censoring material criticizing Zbigniew Ziobro and writing articles expressing support for the ministry under false surnames. The aforementioned editor-in-chief, Tomasz Machała, was forced to resign following an internal investigation.

References

References

1. (10 August 2004). "Historia Wirtualnej Polski według Marka Borzestowskiego".
2. (2004). "Historia www.wp.pl".
3. (23 October 2013). "O2 kupuje Wirtualną Polskę za 375 mln złotych". [[Forbes]].
4. Wojtas, Tomasz. (24 October 2013). "Grupa o2 kupuje Wirtualną Polskę za środki Innova Capital".
5. Słomski, Damian. (27 March 2018). "Przetasowania w zarządzie Wirtualnej Polski".
6. (1 August 2024). "Zmiana na czele mediów Wirtualnej Polski. Odchodzi szefowa".
7. Erling, Barbara. (18 November 2020). "Marcin Meller nie planuje rewolucji w WP, ale zapowiada transfery".
8. Niepytalski, Michał. (7 February 2020). "Sprawa Machały to ostrzeżenie dla mediów".
9. (4 December 2020). "Marcin Meller nie jest już naczelnym Wirtualnej Polski".
10. (9 February 2023). "Paweł Kapusta naczelnym Wirtualnej Polski. Odchodzi Piotr Mieśnik".
11. Klauziński, Sebastian. (15 January 2020). "Jak Wirtualna Polska promuje Ziobrę. "Łączy nas z Ministerstwem Sprawiedliwości wiele interesów"". [[OKO.press]].
12. (6 February 2020). "Wirtualna Polska odnosi się do zarzutów – komunikat prasowy". Wirtualna Polska.