Media Innovation in a strange Place: Newspaper differentiation on Åland

18 Pages·2015·0.37 MB·English

LIndén, Media Innovation in a Strange Place
Media Innovation in a strange Place:
Newspaper differentiation on Åland
Carl-Gustav Lindén
Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki
[email protected] KeyWords:
Media innovation, Media competition, Media imitation,
AbstrAct Åland
This essay examines the cultural, economic and political contexts of the small but vibrant media market
on the Åland islands as well as competition strategies deployed by managers at two local Finnish newspa- The Journal of Media Innovations 2.2 (2015), 40–57.
pers, Ålandstidningen and Nya Åland. The case study has a managerial framework and aims to address DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5617/jmi.v2i2.993
four questions: 1) what is the foundation for newspaper competition at Åland; 2) what institutional drivers http://www.journals.uio.no/index.php/TJMI
determine the way these organisations operate; 3) how do managers experience competition and innova- © Carl-Gustav Lindén 2015.
tion; and 4) what are the implications for society?
The essay is based on semi-structured interviews. The analysis shows that copying and imitation are an
integral part of competition and it can be argued that competition leads to less, not more, differentiation,
with highly substitutable goods produced for the same group of consumers. Imitation is known to be a
common practice in the media world. There is evidence that news agendas in the Åland newspapers
diverge only marginally from each other. However, it can be argued that competition is good for local de-
mocracy since there are at least two platforms available for public opinions. Local business can also gain
from the fact that competition lowers prices for advertising space. In this sense a linear view of competition
between media as a single explanatory framework for innovation and differentiation is not satisfactory. The
dominance of one owner in both newspapers complicates the overall picture.
The Journal of Media Innovations 2.2 (2015) 40
LIndén, Media Innovation in a Strange Place
ÅlANd As A MedIA MArKet only takes place between daily newspapers pub- owned media being less common (Zabaleta, Ferré-
lished in different languages, Swedish and Finn- Pavia, Gutierrez, Fernandez, & Xamardo, 2014a).
The tiny Åland with its 6,500 islands and 28,900 ish. Here, the market leader and legacy newspaper In that comparison, the media landscape in Åland
inhabitants is an autonomous part of Finland bor- Ålandstidningen (established 1891) and challenger appears as balanced.
dering Sweden. However, it is one of the ten wealth- Nya Åland (established 1981) are competing head
iest regions in the EU and in terms of immigration on.
the fastest growing in the Nordics after Iceland and Media supply on Åland can be seen as “insti-
Norway; the population has increased by 17% since tutionally complete”, present on all relevant plat-
1990 (The Nordic Council, 2014). Åland, the small- forms with a diverse and rich content of good qual-
est of three self-governed regions in the Nordic ity (Moring, 2007). It is a dense media market with
area, is characterized by a strong local culture and around 60 journalists and four major media out-
common identity (Wasström, 2002). Even though lets. The ratio between the population and journal-
Swedish is a small minority language in Finland, as ists on Åland is 466 to 1 compared with 2,241 to 1
a whole the territorial dominance of the minority in other European minority areas (Zabaleta, Ferré-
is not challenged (Moring & Kivikuru, 2002). Main Pavia, Gutierrez, Fernandez, & Xamardo, 2014b).
sources of revenue are shipping and tourism, more This could also indicate an oversupply of news and
than two million visitors a year, representing 19% other journalistic content.
of GDP (Rundberg & Kinnunen, 2014) as well as The total value of the Åland newspaper market
wholesale, banking, food production and software (advertisements in print newspapers and online as
development. Politically Åland is centre-right with well as revenues from newspaper subscriptions) is
the only party to the left, the social democrats, re- estimated to be slightly over six million euros.
ceiving 18.5% of the votes in the 2011 local parlia- In addition to the two newspapers there is a pub-
mentary elections. lic service company, Ålands radio och tv, founded
This is also the only region in Finland with com- in 1996 and financed with licence fees as well as a
petition between same language newspapers, apart private radio station, Steel FM.
from the national evening press (Ilta-Sanomat and Generally minority media in Europe is mostly
Iltalehti). In other regions and cities competition publicly funded, with privately owned and socially
The Journal of Media Innovations 2.2 (2015) 41
LIndén, Media Innovation in a Strange Place
lIterAture revIeW innovation should decline with fiercer competition, order to reduce price competition (Borenstein &
while empirical evidence suggests that increased Netz, 1999). The first incentive, to imitate, is com-
Newspaper competition is a topic broadly aban- competition stimulates innovation as well as re- mon in the media business, leading to content ho-
doned by media researchers and most of the litera- search and development (Aghion, Bloom, Blundell, mogenisation (Boczkowski, 2010).
ture is dated, indicating that the decline of newspa- Griffith, & Howitt, 2005; Tingvall & Poldahl, 2006). Competition and innovation are closely linked
per rivals in the same area has been a long process It has been noted that media competition induces concepts. According to Best (1990), the focus on
(Engwall, 1981; Lacy, Shaver, & Cyr, 1996; Rosse, vigour but leads to diminishing returns; lower pric- price represents “old competition”, whilst he la-
1980). For instance, in Sweden only four competi- es, additional features or other changes in products bels a focus on quality, innovation (and creativity)
tive places remained for paid newspapers in 2013 and services that mainly benefit customers (Picard, the “new competition”. Innovation in journalism
(Thorén, 2014). Overall, competition between me- 2011, 76). A lack of competition could mean stron- and media as a source of competitive advantage
dia is weak compared with other industries (Picard, ger profits and more resources for innovation, but has become a prominent research subject in recent
2011: 155). However, there is a renewed inter- can also cause organisational inertia and failure years and there is tremendous opportunity for in-
est among economists in newspaper competition to respond to technological change, among other novation and learning (Gynnild, 2014; Kauhanen,
(Argentesi & Filistrucchi, 2007), especially in the problems (Küng, 2007, 115). Kaivo-Oja, & Hautamäki, 2007; Meier, 2007; Nor-
two-sided markets where media compete for both A key concept in competition is differentiation dfors, 2004; Picard, 2010; Picard, 2011; Westlund
readers and advertisers (Anderson & Gabszewicz, which allows companies to position their offering & Lewis, 2014). Technical equipment and content
2006). Newspapers have been able to subsidise so that consumers can distinguish this from what software are becoming cheaper and easier to use,
journalistic content by charging advertisers for ac- the competitor is selling, be it price, quality, usabil- the marginal cost of digital distribution, processing
cess to consumers. ity, image, convenience or service. As part of the power and storage capacity is negligible and the ap-
Against this backdrop, Åland offers a rare pos- cultural industries newspapers can differentiate in petite for new things among the audience is grow-
sibility to explore the dynamics of rivalry and co- the manifestation of political, cultural and social ing. Most newsrooms have also reached a critical
existence that existed in the newspaper market preferences which, if honest, represents an authen- mass in technology in terms of general computer
before consolidation of dailies started in the late tic expression of organisational culture. Economic use and adoption of online resources (Garrison,
1970s (Salokangas, 1999). models of product differentiation propose that 2001). Still, the lack of a consistent innovation
In theory competition creates needs to develop firms face two opposing incentives: (1) minimise management strategy seems to be common in the
new products and services, but here lays a contra- differentiation in order to “steal” customers from newspaper industry (Adams, 2008) and this is ob-
diction to practice. According to Schumpeter (1934) competitors, and (2) maximise differentiation in vious, for instance, in the leaked New York Times
The Journal of Media Innovations 2.2 (2015) 42
LIndén, Media Innovation in a Strange Place
innovation report (Sulzberger, 2014). For legacy Besides the cultural values and ideology of an structural conditions that shape communication”
media accustomed to a relatively stable working en- organization two other factors determine the ca- (Trappel, 2015, 15). I back up my argument with
vironment the digital transformation is often felt as pacity for change: its resources and processes evidence that radical innovation, something totally
a threat and convergence (Jenkins, 2006), the leap (Christensen & Overdorf, 2000, 68). Research on new, is often taking place outside traditional com-
from print to digital publication as well as integra- innovation in Norwegian newspapers (Krumsvik, panies, such as newspapers, which are more fo-
tion of different content, audience and producers is Skogerbø, & Storsul, 2013) indicates that there is cused on incremental innovation, that is, improve-
indeed a challenge for both journalists and publish- a stronger stimulus for innovation in large media ments of what they already did before while only
ers. The slogan “digital first” is being replaced by companies compared to small, independent news- slowly adapting to digital transformation (Norman
“technology first”, indicating that media companies papers. The success of minority media, because of & Verganti, 2014).
of the future will need to develop their own techni- small size, is restricted by limited audiences and
cal solutions (Solis, 2014). scarce financial resources such as advertising rev-
While technology is important, the primary enues (Zabaleta et al., 2014a). Most innovation
brakes on media innovation are mostly cultural, categories (product, process, packaging, and pric-
sitting within the newsroom; research suggests that ing) are built on the assumptions of affluence and
they are systemic and rooted established practices abundance, not scarcity. Therefore it makes sense
and preferred work patterns (Ess, 2014) and that to analyse minority media within a scarcity frame-
the ideology of journalism practice is embedded work.
in a particular form of production (Thorén, 2014). Finally, there is a need to critically evaluate the
Switching the newsroom mindset from products concept of innovation. The pairing of creativity and
to services, from hardware to software, and from innovation is seen as something of a “magic bul-
audience to users is not an easy endeavor. Experi- let”, as a solution to all problems (Pratt & Jeffcutt,
ments with what works and could work in terms of 2009, 3). Relatively straightforward invention
securing financial resources are producing mixed and design is also often confused with innovation
results and there is no successful single recipe of (Nyre, 2014). I will here use the term innovation
media transformation and adaptation (Holm, Ul- in a limited sense, as design of new services and
høi, & Uliyanova, 2012; Storsul & Krumsvik, 2013; products or improvements of existing supplies
Thorén, 2014). rather than as a research framework for “social and
The Journal of Media Innovations 2.2 (2015) 43
LIndén, Media Innovation in a Strange Place
dAtA ANd Method viewed twice. After the second round of interviews (2013; 2014) were used as well as secondary data
Nina Fellman decided to leave the newspaper to from the yearly national phone based media con-
This study is based on one set of primary data, ana- become a candidate for the social democrats in the sumer survey (TNS Gallup, 2014). Financial data
lysed with qualitative methods, and on secondary local election. Dan-Johan Dahlblom was appointed on newspaper operations was subtracted from the
newspaper circulation data as well as secondary the CEO of two companies for daily goods, whole- web pages of the companies (Ålands Tidnings-
data provided by the newspapers. The primary data sale and ship supply owned by Anders Wiklöf, Tryckeri Ab, 2015; Nya Åland, 2015).
was generated through repeated in-depth semi- Mathias Eriksson and Mariehamns Parti. The preliminary findings from this study were
structured interviews (n=6) with managers about Audio records of interviews were transcribed by tested and evaluated in a group debate with around
competition and innovation. A fixed set of themes a research assistant and texts were broken down in twenty local journalists in December 2014 and the
was developed to make sure that the categories parts so that data could be compared, conceptual- discussion helped the author to rethink some of
were consistently covered – namely, innovation, ized and categorized. After that statements were the arguments in this essay. These journalists par-
competition, differentiation, and societal implica- interpreted and contextualised within broader ticipated in an event open to members of the local
tions. The interviews were conducted in April 2012 frames of reference instead of just providing a cate- association for journalists and they represented
with a follow up in January 2014 to record change gorisation (Kvale, 2007). The meaning of the inter- newspapers as well as radio and freelancers. The
over time. view texts goes beyond a structuring or description debate was moderated by the author.
At Ålandstidningen the editor-in-chief Niklas of the manifest meanings of what is said.
Lampi and the managing director Dan-Johan Dahl- Why the managerial perspective? A common
blom were interviewed. At Nya Åland Jonas Bladh, understanding is that leaders have crucial impact
who was in charge of all operations, both business on the culture of any organization, the shared val-
and editorial content was interviewed together ues, beliefs, behaviour expectations and sense of
with his deputy Nina Fellman, former editor-in- purpose that permeates every level (Martins &
chief. Stefan Norrgrann, who at the moment was Terblanche, 2003). Managers can encourage and
in charge of developing and operating web based reward creative thinking, but also in many ways
television, was interviewed only in 2012. discourage attempts to innovation.
The local business tycoon, Anders Wiklöf, who For the analysis of newspaper circulation and
is the largest owner in both newspapers, was inter- audience reach, statistics from Levikintarkastus
The Journal of Media Innovations 2.2 (2015) 44
LIndén, Media Innovation in a Strange Place
chArActerIstIcs of the tWo blue one (the colour most frequently used in design Case Ålandstidningen
NeWsPAPers and marketing) – was considered more conserva- Ålandstidningen is published six days a week and
tive and friendly to the establishment while “Nyan” the circulation, according to the latest official au-
Following here are case descriptions of the two – the new one or red one – was seen as more mod- dit in 2011 by Levikintarkastus was 8,829 distrib-
newspapers which, despite having the same domi- ern, left-leaning and feminist. These are important uted copies. The company stopped participating
nant owner, try to differentiate with diverging edi- internal and external images that managers some- in the audit the following year and on its web page
torial and business logics. The local business tycoon times have struggled to change. For Nya Åland it is, (Ålands Tidnings-Tryckeri Ab, 2015) claims to have
Anders Wiklöf, who is the largest actor in the mar- for an example, risky to differentiate with political a circulation of 9,577 copies. Ålandstidningen em-
ket for daily goods, is together with two different preferences to the left since the social democrats ployed 20 journalists in the beginning of 2014. As
business partners the largest owner of Ålands Tid- are a relatively small party on the local level. the market leader Ålandstidningen is much better
nings-Tryckeri, which publishes Ålandstidningen, Competition has been fierce and no common positioned to attract advertisers and ask for higher
and Nya Ålands Tidningsaktiebolag, publisher of ground found during the years. For instance, only advertising rates.
Nya Åland. in the summer of 2014 did they decide to merge Together and separately Anders Wiklöf and his
Ålandstidningen was established in 1891 and printing operations. business companion Ben Lundqvist control around
one co-founder was a local political activist, Ju- Readers have shown frustration with the ongo- 37% of all shares in Ålands Tidnings-Tryckeri,
lius Sundblom, considered the “King of Åland” ing brawl between the papers (Luther, 2009) that which is listed on the local informal stock market.
due to his advocacy for separatism, and who also at time develops into the type of political hyper- Altogether that company has more than one thou-
was the editor-in-chief for three decades. The chal- differentiation that, as research shows, might place sand shareholders.
lenger Nya Åland was launched in 1981, origi- tensions on public discourse and undermine de- Ålandstidningen represents a purely commer-
nally as a cooperative by discontent journalists liberate local democracy (Conboy & Steel, 2008). cial business model. The owners expect a healthy
at Ålandstidningen (Forsgård, 2006; Mattsson- On the other hand the competition might inspire rate of return on money invested, which the com-
Eklund, 1991), and was forced from the very begin- journalists in both newsrooms to do their very best, pany has been able to deliver. During the last de-
ning to be creative and lean in producing, printing something reflected in the fact that both newspa- cade Ålandstidningen has managed to financially
and distributing the newspaper. This new venture pers regularly manage to win the national prize for stay in the black except for one disastrous year,
also divided the Åland population in two parts: best Finnish local newspaper. 2007, and by 2011 it was already making a record
Ålandstidningen or ”Gamlan”– the old one or the profit. The newspaper was actually the only Swed-
The Journal of Media Innovations 2.2 (2015) 45
LIndén, Media Innovation in a Strange Place
ish language paper out of nine in Finland to make a The readership of Nya Åland is much smaller and reduce the workforce to trim costs. In early
profit in 2013 (Sjöholm, 2014). than Ålandstidningen in the countryside, but al- 2015 Nya Åland also decided to replace two of its
The turnover in 2013, which includes an adver- most equally strong in the local capital, Marie- five printed daily editions with online versions.
tising agency, was 6 million euros (6.5 million euros hamn. In the beginning of 2014 the newspaper em- The newspaper could probably not survive in its
in 2012), and the operating profit 0.6 million euros ployed 21 journalists, of which six were part-time. present format without the support from its own-
with a profit margin of 10.6%. Around 60% of rev- Together with the wealthy cultural foundation ers.
enues are generated through advertisement while Konstsamfundet, Anders Wiklöf is likewise the larg- Revenues in 2013 amounted to 3.06 million eu-
only 3-4% was generated online. The commercial est owner of Nya Åland with a combined ownership ros (2.85 million in 2012), of which about 4% came
strategy is to uphold profits and financial stability exceeding 70%. Konstsamfundet is also the owner from online activities.
while gradually and carefully teaching readers as of KSF Media in Helsinki, a holding company for The newspaper has a left-leaning to liberal view
well as advertisers to adopt the electronic version three Swedish-language and one Finnish-language on society and tends to support the social demo-
of the newspaper, which is accessible only through regional newspaper published in Finland. In Nya crats. Its view on autonomy is realistic and situated
a non-permeable paywall. Åland the owners have accepted losses for many within the given administrative and political space.
The newspaper takes a classic liberal view on years and the newspaper business model includes Compared with Ålandstidningen the newspaper
society while editorial values are based on quality, a mixture of philanthropy, patronizing, and public looks more entrepreneurial, looking for new, inter-
tradition, institutions and seriousness. Politically subsidies with social and commercial ingredients. esting and fun things to pursue.
Ålandstidningen represents an expansive view on Nya Åland considers itself a newspaper owned by
the political development of the region and advo- the readers and has around 800 owners altogether.
cates a stronger autonomy. Shares are traded on the local stock market.
Nya Åland has only once made a profit during
Case Nya Åland recent years, 2008-2013. Total loss of the company
Nya Åland is the smaller newspaper with a circula- in 2012 was 0.16 million euros. For 2013 numbers
tion of 6,464 copies in 2012, which was the last year turned downwards and its television operation was
with officially audited numbers. In 2011 the circula- still waiting to break through financially. The loss-
tion was 6,683. The paper version is published five es increased to 0.33 million euros. In late 2014 the
days a week. company decided to sell its company headquarters
The Journal of Media Innovations 2.2 (2015) 46
LIndén, Media Innovation in a Strange Place
NeWsrooM culture ANd where journalists sacrifice economic benefits for complexity and cost of a good and its production
dIffereNtIAtIoN the sake of keeping the newspaper alive. – achieving more with fewer resources (Kumar &
Puranam, 2012, 114). At Nya Åland they have even
In the following part this essay will analyse organ- That cooperative culture is more based on emotions, named the frugal process after a local ship owner
isational culture and how it materializes in editorial but at the same time a hell of a strong force because who operated the world’s largest fleet of commer-
processes and differentiation manifested in politi- they can publish the newspaper even though there cial sailing ships in the 1930s:
cal, cultural and social preferences. Organisational are hardly any people in place. Everything we do we
values, beliefs and images – how we do things over calculate […] we have a strong machinery; when we All along we have used Gustaf Erikson’s method. We
here – is a decisive element of innovation (Martins do something […] we have an economic plan behind run old junk that others have discarded; it is cheap
& Terblanche, 2003). most things. and it works. I do not think that we as a small local
Nya Åland is forced to be innovative because of newspaper with little resources can be cutting edge
its role as the challenger, despite obstacles to de- There does not seem to be any formal strategy when it comes to technology.
veloping new sources of revenue. The newsroom for innovation at Nya Åland, just an institution-
seems to be a place where the start-up hymn “act alized underdog capacity to generate and imple- The financial support from the owners enables
fast, fail fast, learn fast, and recover fast” is part of ment new ideas, an openness to change (Polansky the newspaper to continue making losses. Lam-
the culture. Nina Fellman said she is “blessed with & Hughes, 1986). A lack of strategy is not uncom- pi picked the online market places Marknaden
a capability to forget all catastrophes.” mon among newspapers (Adams, 2008). However, (Ålandstidningen) and Torget (Nya Åland) as an
even though resources are limited, Nina Fellman example of business potential destroyed due to this
It is better to test things than not to and never get said she believes that if newspaper printing ended fact. Readers do not pay to advertise their goods:
anything done. A newspaper is like a mayfly; if some- tomorrow they would find a way to survive that as “We are stuck with this structure. We have differ-
thing goes wrong one day it is not the end of the well. She noted that with little means comes the ne- ent business philosophies – to Nya Åland it is not a
world. You have to dare to try even though you might cessity to be flexible and economical. For instance, problem that some things are free.”
find out it was just crap. when Nya Åland decided to set up a television stu- The managers at Nya Åland admit that they are
dio it was equipped with cameras, sound system less concerned with the financial side of operations,
The managing director Dan-Johan Dahlblom and lighting bought cheap from a bankrupt compa- though not reckless.
at Ålandstidningen openly admitted to being im- ny. It comes somewhat in line with ”frugal innova- As the second newspaper in its region Nya
pressed with the newsroom culture at Nya Åland tion”, the term used for the process of reducing the Åland received yearly state support for distribution
The Journal of Media Innovations 2.2 (2015) 47
LIndén, Media Innovation in a Strange Place
until 2008 while Ålandstidningen received 50,000 These newspapers also represent the two types survey conducted before political elections. But
euros in special state support in 2009. In Finland of differentiation: Nya Åland tries to avoid a price someone remarked: “To be fair, we steal too”.
the government abolished press subsidies in 2007 competition it will lose by pursuing other ways of
and replaced it with financial support for politi- differentiation while Ålandstidningen wants to Intensified differentiation
cal communication. In 2012 a 9% VAT on printed reduce differentiation and persuade customers – During the second round of interviews, in January
newspapers was introduced and since 2013 the both readers and advertisers – with an image of 2014, the two newspapers were exploring new ways
VAT is 10% (Virranta, 2013). quality for money. This illustrates how competi- to differentiate with format, content and distribu-
Development of television services at Nya tion can lead to less, not more, differentiation, with tion. Both newspapers had introduced iPad and
Åland has been supported with public and insti- highly substitutable goods produced for the same Android apps for tablets and mobile phones. Nya
tutional R&D money. First P24 Media Ab, the lo- group of consumers (Boczkowski, 2005; Picard, Åland put resources into its daily news and weather
cal company that originally worked to develop new 2011). Said Niklas Lampi: “If Nya Åland comes up cast at Åland24 distributed through the web, cable
services for Nya Åland, received support from the with something, then we shall do the same, but bet- and terrestrial networks. News, sport, debate and
EU, matched by the local government, to develop a ter […] regardless of the risk that we are considered lifestyle programmes were produced every day dur-
media platform for local multichannel broadcast- copycats.” ing the working week by two journalists and two
ing. The company merged with local TV channel Here are a few examples of innovation as imita- salespersons/producers.
Åland24 in 2009. The original platform has been tion. A brief encounter with journalists in the Nya One way of reducing competition is to break
replaced with another one provided as a service. Åland newsroom in April 2012 revealed that they free from spatial boundaries by expanding the mar-
In addition to this Åland24 has received around felt that Ålandstidningen was reaping the fruits of ket size, something Nya Åland tries to do. Åland24
300,000 euros from Konstsamfundet and another their labour by “stealing” ideas for content. During has broadened its coverage to the south-western
foundation, Svenska kulturfonden. a 20 minute discussion journalists came up with part of Finland in the Turku archipelago to reach
Ålandstidningen, on the other hand, is quick to almost a dozen examples, ranging from the mar- an additional 30,000 households. At the same time
examine new forms of media explored by the com- ket place ”Torget” to ”Messa Nyan”, the site where the company has made (so far, fruitless) attempts
petitor, and copy those that are considered profit- readers can use SMS messages to convey their to sell lean television production as a service con-
able. In that sense Nya Åland is an innovation test thoughts. Other examples of content copied was cept. The newspaper also produces news from the
bed. The success of new products and services is capturing new-born babies on photo and publish- islands for the Finnish national news agency STT-
unpredictable and therefore this is a way for the ing them (”Ny på Åland”) and ”Pejlingen”, a voter Lehtikuva and until recently had a similar contract
legacy newspaper to reduce uncertainty.
The Journal of Media Innovations 2.2 (2015) 48
LIndén, Media Innovation in a Strange Place
with the Finnish broadcasting company, Yle, to de- MArKets for reAders, AdvertIsers, In the following part the audience market and
liver television news. NeWs, sPoNsorshIPs ANd eMPloyees the market for news and sources will be examined.
Ålandstidningen, for its part, used resources to
develop the new digital edition and readers reacted From a traditional media economics perspective Competition for readers
quite positively according to Niklas Lampi. Some- newspapers are active in the two-sided markets After a strong start, followed by a long decline in the
what disappointingly for the publisher advertisers for readers and advertisers (Anderson & Gabsze- 1990s, Nya Åland managed to gain substantially in
were still slow to follow and they preferred print, wicz, 2006), producing audiences that will attract the beginning of the new millennium. Nya Åland
illustrating that advertisers might be as conser- marketers of services and products. As the market increased the number of subscribers by 8.8% be-
vative as newsrooms. The newspaper had started leader Ålandstidningen is much better positioned tween 2000 and 2005 while Ålandstidningen was
experimenting with video clips on the web page, to draw readers and advertisers. In the local mar- losing 10% of its circulation during the same pe-
even though not planning a full-fledged television ket there are between 200 and 300 companies that riod (Levikintarkastus Oy, 2013; Levikintarkastus
concept. The newspaper also added sponsored regularly do marketing campaigns. The biggest ad- Oy, 2014). In 2007 Nya Åland introduced its sixth
content known as advertorials or native advertis- vertisers are travel and retail companies, among daily edition and was getting close to overtaking
ing. These are pieces of advertisement dressed like them Mathias Ericsson owned by Anders Wiklöf. Ålandstidningen. But on April 14, 2007 the “blue
editorial content, a practice copied from digital edi- It should be noted that at least three other mar- one” did something seemingly trivial but quite
tions of Swedish newspapers and one of the paths kets exists; the markets for news and sources, spon- radical that changed the playing field altogether;
to new business models for media, breaking down sorships and employees. In the case of Åland the it became a morning newspaper like Nya Åland. It
the news-business boundary (Coddington, 2015; market is small for sponsorships that will enhance was a desperate move. The local mail carrier raised
Couldry & Turow, 2014). the external image of newspapers. Ålandstidningen costs for distribution and Ålandstidningen decided
Overall, the competition for content seems is, for instance, sponsoring the main male soccer to compensate its readers for higher prices by in-
fierce; in the group discussion journalists from the team Mariehamns IFK while Nya Åland has chosen troducing a Saturday paper. Nya Åland surprised
newspapers admitted to constantly checking each to support the female soccer team Åland United. everybody by introducing a Saturday edition within
other’s websites, not just every hour but “every ten Equally small is the labour market for journalists: weeks. Dan-Johan Dahlblom at Ålandstidningen
minutes”, as one participant said. employees mainly transferred from Nya Åland to recalls the moment and the predatory price war
Ålandstidningen in search of better career oppor- that followed:
tunities and job security.
The Journal of Media Innovations 2.2 (2015) 49