 |
 |
Mats Eriksson, President & CEO, and Kalle Jungkvist, Editor in Chief, Aftonbladet New Media, Sweden
At the podium: Mats Eriksson, President & CEO, Aftonbladet New Media, Sweden
Five years ago, the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet had an existential crisis about what it wanted to be, and it found salvation in the internet.
But unlike some other new media stories, this one has a happy result for the printed newspaper – circulation has soared as new media efforts increased.
The idea is deceptively simple: "our goal was to build a media house where readers could reach us anywhere, anytime,' said Mr Eriksson.
For this strategy, the internet is at the centre. All material is published in parallel, but there is more – the company diversified its content (pioneering Sweden's first webcast) and then combined text, audio and video. Finally, it separated its new media operations into a separate company because the culture of internet journalism is vastly different from newspaper journalism.
The web site, one of the most popular newspaper web sites in Europe, has created new revenue streams – the company is now negotiating to sell its web radio news broadcasts to many "traditional" radio stations, for example. All with the Aftonbladet brand.
|
Other Congress Summaries World
Press Trends: Newspaper Growth Continues Covering
China: Business and Financial Reporting Reinventing
the Newspaper Company: Case Study |
It didn't cost a lot to create this, either. Mr Eriksson estimated the net cost for all development over seven years was US$200,000. Last year, revenues were 10 million dollars with a modest US$ 200,000 profit.