The Man Who Changed the Automotive Media Market in Poland for French Cars and is Unknown in France
WARSAW, Poland, August 31, 2018 (Newswire.com) - 14 years ago the Polish journalist, traveller and photographer Jedrzej Chmielewski hit upon the idea to create an online magazine devoted only to French motor vehicles. His team was joined by Krzysztof Gregorczyk – his friend from the Citroen Club. Today Francuskie.pl is probably the biggest website about French motor vehicles around the world. Now it is celebrating its 14th birthday.
Everything began in times when Communism was collapsing in Poland. At that time, the founder of Francuskie.pl became familiar with Citroen BX for the first time. His uncle arrived from France in a brand-new hydro-pneumatic car. Jedrzej was fascinated with the car so much that he promised himself that he would buy it when possible. A few years later, his dream came true. During that time, the rapid transformation of the political system was occurring in Poland. New technologies emerged. Jedrzej Chmielewski had always been keen on the Internet; he designed first web pages and websites already in the times when a majority of Poles were unaware of the existence of the global network. In Poland of those days, the Internet was accessed via a modem connected to the computer and special access phone number.
Jedrzej rode a Citroen BX, and later he switched to a bigger and more luxurious Citroen XM. He actively participated in the fan club of this brand. The idea of Francuskie.pl occurred to Jedrzej when he was reading one of the automotive magazines published by the German corporation Axel Springer. He noticed that French cars were presented there quite unfairly. Already at that time, he recognised the great power of the Internet and the community of brand fans. The beginnings of Francuskie.pl were modest. The project accelerated when Krzysztof Gregorczyk, Jedrzej's friend from the Cytrynka Club, joined the Francuskie.pl team. Together they created the website step by step after normal working hours. A few articles were added every day. Today the database contains over 14,000 texts.
Apart from writing, the authors of the website undertook other actions. In 2006, they took a Dacia Logan MCV from the press park. During three days, they travelled by it over 5,000 km from Warsaw to Geneva, Marseilles, Venice and then back to Poland. They wrote an enthusiastic review: Dacia Logan MCV gives the driver what he pays for. Nothing more, nothing less. At that time, Dacia was ignored or ridiculed in the Polish automotive press. But a few years later it turned out that Jedrzej and Krzysztof were right. In 2008, they travelled further thousands of kilometres by Dacia Sandero within a trip around Europe (Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia). In 2010, they visited the Crimea together with well-known journalists of the Polish Television (TVP) and Radio Zet. In 2011, they travelled to Turkey and Georgia. They covered a record distance of 11,000 km. When they test vehicles, they do this as accurately as possible. Jedrzej even travels to the United States for meetings of French cars owners. Two years ago, U.S. officer Customs and Border Protection could not believe he was going to Carlisle for this purpose. "Are French cars in the USA"?
Francuskie.pl integrates and supports the community of Polish fans of French motor vehicles. Clubs and societies know that they can rely on Jedrzej and Krzysiek. Recently they have been joined by Malgosia Kozikowska. Before joining Francuskie.pl, she had collaborated the biggest Polish web portal. As she says, she did not expect that this small project could have such a big influence on the entire market of French motor vehicles in Poland. Francuskie.pl has over 200,000 readers every month, and this number constantly increases. Hits of the website are counted in millions. Given the popularity of the French brand in Poland, this is a great result. As we can see, the editorial team has reasons to celebrate.
Source: Francuskie.pl