In spring 2011, Stig Waagbø was tasked by Media Norge’s group management to examine possibilities for setting up a programming community for the subscription newspapers outside Norway. In fall 2011, Krakow was chosen. In the space of a few months, Schibsted Norge Digital (SND) had hired tenfolds developers in Poland. Many of SND’s management team closely monitored the project to make sure that development work ran smoothly. It did not take long before other communities in Schibsted signaled a need for more developers. In spring 2012, SND developed a partnership program that enabled other media houses to participate in the collaborative project running in Poland. Today, all the media houses in Norway and Sweden are involved in the project, and Schibsted Tech Polska (STP) has with its 115 employees established itself as an important development community for Schibsted’s publishing activities.
“The growth in Poland has exceeded all expectations. STP has become an exciting and diverse development community that works on a range of technologies across the Schibsted companies. We are a young, hardworking and dedicated knowledge community based in Poland. I really look forward to devoting my full attention to further developing this in cooperation with STP’s management team and Schibsted’s media houses. The main challenges will be recruitment, cooperation across the companies, and employee satisfaction in a market characterized by tough competition from the employer perspective,” says Waagbø.
Together with Waagbø and SND’s management team, Tomasz Zarzeczny has done a great job in building STP. Zarzeczny will now take on a new role, where he will be tasked with setting up a consultancy community for the Schibsted companies in the Gdansk region. This increased demand for developers has meant that Schibsted Tech Polska will establish itself in another location in Poland in order to be able to recruit the best talent from different labor markets. Setting up in the Gdansk region will also create new opportunities for the Schibsted companies.