The Ministry of Treasury has a serious problem with "Rzeczpospolita". The agreement between the Ministry of Treasury and Mecom, which is the holder of 51% of the newspaper’s shares, makes it virtually impossible for the Ministry to have any kind of influence on managing the company. “It’s a clench situation” – says a civil servant of the Ministry of Treasury.

Meanwhile, the circulation and income of the newspaper have been gradually decreasing throughout the past few years. In 2004 the circulation of the newspaper was about 246,000 copies with about 200,000 being sold.  In 2008 the circulation fell to only 194,500 copies, with only 130,000 being sold. This year the situation is even worse. The circulation dropped to only 177,000 copies with 110,000 copies being sold. "Rzeczpospolita" is also losing its advertisers. In March it was said that the earnings from the advertisements published in the newspaper had decreased by 23,5% in comparison to the last year. This means a 4 mln zlotys loss. Moreover, changing the format has lead to “Dziennik Gazeta Prawna” posing a threat to “Rzeczpospolita” too.

The Ministry of Treasury has been willing to get rid of the newspaper for a long time, but no one is interested in buying it. There have been 3 auctions organized, but the best offer was only 3 million zlotys, while the Ministry was counting on receiving tens of millions of zlotys. But they might eventually decide to sell it for much less than that.
The government’s decision has surprised professor Wiesław Godzic from The Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities. "This is not the right time to play the market, especially in the media, where the situation is very unstable. All the ownership changes in this market should be done very carefully nowadays" – he says.

Professor Godzic believes that the government’s decision results of a wrong recognition of the media market situation. "The government behaves as if it had already passed a sentence upon ‘Rzeczpospolita’. In my opinion, however, it will win the competition with ‘Dziennik Gazeta Prawna’ and will maintain its position on the market" – says Godzic. “Although I personally do not like ‘Rzeczpospolita’, I do believe this newspaper is important” – he adds, and predicts that the shares will be worth much more soon. “You just have to wait for the right sign coming from the market, instead of trying to outrun it” – he sums it all up.

Professor Stanisław Gomułka, former deputy minister of finance, has a different opinion: "During privatization the financial result is not the most important thing. What matters is to sell the company in such a way that would allow further development" – he reminds. He also says that privatizing “Rzeczpospolita” will lead to the government losing its shares in one of the most important mass media. “The mass media should be controlled by the government – which is complicated when the shares are owned by the Ministry of Treasury. Perhaps it is true that “Rzeczpospolita” is not very supportive towards the government nowadays, but if the Treasury decided to keep its shares of the newspaper, it might change its stand in the future. Privatization might stop such a thing from happening.

The professor is also an optimist when talking about the money that the newspaper will be sold for. "The times of stagnation on the stock exchange market are over. In the current situation I do not see any reasons which could stop the government from the privatization of the newspaper, although it is true that the Treasury is not likely to receive such an amount of money it would have received 2-3 years ago" – says Gomułka.