The document summarizes the coverage by Gazeta.pl, a Polish news website, of the 2010 plane crash in Smolensk, Russia that killed 96 people including the Polish president, first lady, and many other government officials. It describes Gazeta.pl's extensive real-time reporting efforts in the immediate aftermath of the crash, including redesigning their website to prominently feature continuous updates about the crash. It also discusses the memorial services, conspiracy theories surrounding the crash, its impact on Polish politics, and Gazeta.pl's analytics around the heavy traffic to their site during this breaking news period.

1. CATASTROPHY
IN SMOLENSK
GAZETA.PL REPORTING ON THE BIGGEST
NEWS IN POLAND’S MODERN HISTORY
Paweł Stremski
Head of News, Gazeta.pl

2. JP2 The bigest news You could imagine in
Poland? Death of the pope John Paul II

3. CONTEXT

4. KATYN
22,000 polish officers killed by Soviet army during
WWII. All shot in the back of the head

5. KATYN
Mass graves in forest in Katyn discovered in 1943
by German army. Germans: Soviets did this

6. KATYN
Stalin denies. „It is Germans, who killed polish
officers”. Taboo topic in Poland until 1989

7. 70 ANNIVERSARY
Polish politicians, families of the murdered officers,
want to commemorate the anniversary in Katyn

8. TWO VISISTS
7.04.2010: Donald Tusk and Vladimir Putin pay
tribute at the cemetery in Katyn

9. 10.04.2010
At 7.27 polish Tu-154 takes off from Warsaw with
the president Kaczynski and 95 people onboard

10. 7.15 Jak-40 with journalists lands in
Smolensk. Our reporter onboard

11. 8.46 Presidential Tu-154 crashes near
the airport in Smolensk

12. 8.55 Polish camera operator was one of
the first people on the crash site

13. 8.56 „Oh f..., it’s a polish plane!”

14. 8.50 First footage from the crash site
made with a mobile phone

15. 9.06 „Wiktor, prezydent is not coming,
Plane has crashed!. I’m not kidding!”

16. 9.20 First version of the article about
the crash appears on Gazeta.pl

17. 9.40 Live interview i TVN24. Left wing
party leader walks out of the studio

18. 8.46
13.30 Live interview i TVN24. Wojciech
Tusk: „A modern world has never
Oleniczaktragedy out on air
seen a founds like this”

19. NEWSROOM
Newsroom was full an hour after the crash, 30+
people, editorial meetings, redesign planning

21. CHAOS
List of passengers. Hard to confirm who was onboard.
Reuters: 87 dead. RT: 132 dead. Rumors: 3 survivors?

22. 96 DEAD
President, First Lady, members of Parliament,
politicians, generals of the Polish Army, chairman
of the National Bank of Poland, priests...

23. REDESIGN
Huge „Main Topic”, news space x 3, lifestyle - out,
entertainment - out, news ticker - in, slideshow

24. B&W Black & white versions of most of
our homepages

25. 9>27 We tripled number of news links,
added hours, „finger on the pulse”

26. MAIN TOPIC
New element of the website created 3-4 hours
after the crash. Huge title, photes, slideshow

27. LIVE TEXT
Best way. Keeps readers updated. Always
something news. Mix of news, opinion, multimedia

28. INTERACTIVE
Better way to explain what happened

29. SOCIAL MEDIA
Special FB profile, +18,000 fans in a day.
Every crash related information. Links to
other sources. Huge traffic to our site

30. UGC Last photo of the Tu-154 plane
made after take off by our reader

31. UGC
Separate discussion boards: memories, discussions
about a funeral etc. Huge: +100,000 post

32. UGC Houndreds of memories sent by
readers, friend, familys

33. PRINT EXTRA
Saturday free afternoon extra edition ready in 5
hours after the crash

34. PRINT EXTRA
Sunday morning free extra edition ready in 15
hours after the crash

35. PRINT EXTRA
Monday’s book of the dead. All 96 victims featured
in 30 hours

36. MAGAZINES
Weekly supplements re-edited from scratch in 36
hours

37. PEOPLE Explosion of emotions on
the streets. Who to blame?

38. CONSPIRACY
Home made analysis spreading across the web.
Lot of conspiracy theories, huge impact on society

39. AGENDA We broke the news: president
will be buried at Wawel

40. DEBATE „The decison about the
funeral at Wawel to fast”

41. PROTESTS „REALLY EQUAL
THE KINGS?”

42. POLLS
Nation divided.
Gazeta.pl
becoming a
platform of
discussion

43. ASH CLOUD
Big news, president’s funeral
on Sunday

44. ASH CLOUD
Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull forced
29 world leaders to cancel their visit

45. FUNERAL
President Medvedev as
one of the guest

46. PHOTOS
Prime minister Tusk and prime minister Putin
at the site of the crash

47. PHOTOS
First Lady „coming back” to Presidential Palace

48. PHOTOS
Georgian president Saakashivili kissing
Kaczynski’s granddaughter hand at Wawel

49. PHOTOS
President Kaczynski’s brother praying after the
coffin flew back from Smolensk to Warsaw

50. PHOTOS
Hundreds of thousands of Poles waiting in line to
pay tribute to the presidential couple

51. PHOTOS
Photos by our reporters exhibited
on streets, published as a book

52. „THE” PHOTO
A plane landed on the Hudson River. Photo taken by
the man from the passing ferry. Published on Twitter

53. „THE” PHOTO
First photo from the chapel, made by a young
politician, friend of Kaczynski’s family, Published
on Twitter. Huge debate about selling privacy

54. TRAFFIC
Over 10 times more pageviews on our news
section on the day of the crash.

55. GOOGLE
Enoromous traffic from Google - 1,3 mln visits on
news section during the first week after the crash

56. WHAT WORKED?
Turning pages into black&white - prepared
Whole home page dedicated to catastrophy
Turning the ads off - preapred
Minute by minute - simple, but really worked
Live video - exactly what people wanted
Memories - houndreds of e-mails, posts
Special Facebook profile - another channel

57. WHAT HAS NOT
WORKED?
Automated home page printscreening
Reporter on site new less, than we did
Structure of information - chaos
Interactvive graphics - not enough, not precise
Same things done twice
Hoaxes, conspiracy theories living their own life

58. EARLY ELECTION
Two of four most popular contenders died in crash

59. SUCCESSOR
Kaczynski’s twin brother gest 47 percent of votes

60. DIVIDED NATION
SUCCESSOR
Defenders oftwin cross vs.gest 47 percent of votes
Kaczynski’s the brother „where is the cross?!”

61. THANK YOU
FOR ATTENTION
Paweł Stremski
Head of News, Gazeta.pl