Mid Sweden University

The media industry in general and the newspaper in particular is going through major changes – technological, logistical, economical – due to the dropping sales and width of the printed daily newspaper. Few organisations have been spared the necessary rationalizations and cut-downs in staff. All of them are expected to produce more and better content, in more and new channels and platforms, with less resources. Some have been preparing for this a long time, others have never entered the digital world of news. In qualitative interviews with informants from six swedish newspapers, coming daily, we study their strategies for a digital future – where the attention of the audience is hard to get, advertising incomes are sparse, many of the competitors offer their products for free and development of new technology, new competition and changing consumer patterns is accelerating exponentially.

The results show that those not yet successful on the internet will implement paywalls of the metered model within the next six months, to make up for lost income, one already uses a hard paywall and have lost most of its traffic, and one will not use a paywall – though they have a premium service – fearing all readers will stop visiting their site. Those who are making paywalls a reality in Sweden next year still believe in the printed newspaper, and also in a loyal reader, who will be rewarded with more than those who choose the free alternatives. Their perspective is optimistic, though very uncertain, as to the future prospects of making money from digital products.