In Sweden, it is quite unusual for a new morning paper to appear on the market and establish itself for any length of time. Since the decline of the newspaper market in the 1950's and 1960's, the number of morning newspapers publishing at least one issue per week has dropped from well over 200 to about 160 today. In addition to this, there are a number of geo-graphically concentrated free papers. The Swedish morning press remains strong both in terms of circulation and advertising revenues (Hadenius and Weibull, 2000). A small number of pa-pers have started up over the past few years, but only a few of them have been successful. The successful cases have been papers targeting specific readership groups. The introduction of the freely circulated paper Metro in February 1995 in Stockholm, however, was the start of something totally new &endash; it was a paper directed at the general public, with the content of a regular morning paper and distributed free of charge.
What happened, then, in the Swedish newspaper market to generate the start of Metro? This is the question we aim to discuss in this article, from three perspectives: economic change in the market, reactions from already established papers and readers' use of the paper.
We begin this examination with a short overview of the Swedish press market in relation to other countries, as well as a summary of the concept of Metro.
There are six main features of the newspaper market, which are fundamental to an under-standing of both the Swedish press and the conditions for the development of Metro. The first is that almost all newspapers are mainly local or regional. About 50 percent of the revenues of the Swedish newspaper industry stem from local or regional papers published outside of the three main cities in Sweden: Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö. Furthermore, the morning papers in these urban areas consist primarily of regional coverage, even though they are read by elite groups all over Sweden. Only the two tabloid newspapers published in Stockholm, Aftonbladet and Expressen, can be regarded as truly national papers, distributed and read throughout the whole of Sweden.
A second feature of the Swedish newspaper market is that newspaper circulation is gener-ally very high. Together with Norway and Finland, Sweden lies at the top in terms of news-paper penetration in Europe (Gustafsson and Weibull, 1997). This means that about 450 copies are sold per 1000 inhabitants. Sweden also has a high level of readership, with almost 85 percent of the population between 15 and 80 years of age reading at least one newspaper on an average day. Only the metropolitan area of Stockholm is a relatively weak market. Free sheets or newspapers are relatively few in Sweden, and have by tradition been regarded as low status products.
Thirdly, the typical Swedish newspaper reader chooses a local morning paper as the basis for their reading. National tabloids, which by tradition have been afternoon or evening papers even though they can be obtained before noon, are mostly read in addition to morning papers one or more days a week. Very few &endash; less than ten percent of readers - rely solely on tabloid papers. However, in the Stockholm area, where tabloids are somewhat more local, there is a substantial group that reports reading only tabloids.
Furthermore, newspapers in Sweden are read among all social groups. The newspaper is regarded as a very egalitarian medium; even among blue-collar workers more than 75 percent read a daily paper. The only genuine exception to this rule is found in the metropolitan area of Stockholm, where a large segment of workers are not regular readers.
A fifth observation is that almost 100 percent of morning newspapers are subscription-based and offer early morning home delivery. Readership research clearly shows that home delivery is highly evaluated by readers. Almost 90 percent of regular readers of local morning papers obtain them by subscription. Research has also shown that morning home delivery seems to be remarkably effective.
The sixth and final point is that the Swedish press has by tradition been affiliated with po-litical parties, at least formally; and almost all newspapers still officially declare a partisan orientation. It is important, however, to note that this official declaration concerns their edito-rial pages and not the news itself. One important explanation behind the strong Swedish press is likely to be its political heritage. Newspapers are highly evaluated within Swedish political culture. Thus, there are strong positive norms associated with newspapers, and newspaper reading is regarded as something of a duty of citizenship. However, this readership norm has shown signs of decline in the 1990's, mostly in the big cities, mainly as a consequence of so-cioeconomic changes.
Against this backdrop it is not difficult to understand the launch of Metro in Stockholm in 1995. The basic idea was to reach the 35 percent of the Stockholm households that did not read newspapers on a daily basis. A fundamental notion was the idea that it should be distrib-uted via public transportation. The initiative came from two journalists and one newspaper executive who launched the Metro idea as early as 1992. At that time, however, no one was willing to finance the project, particularly companies within the morning press industry, where free papers were regarded with great suspicion. The person finally willing to finance the publication was the media mogul Jan Stenbeck, who through his lumber and steel company Industriförvaltning AB Kinnevik had already entered the media market during the 1980's by purchasing satellite TV (Gustafsson, 1996a). In 1994, all of the company's media operations &endash; including the newspapers &endash; were consolidated into one subsidiary, the Modern Times Group, or MTG, which was the firm that financed Metro.
Following the success of the Metro concept in Stockholm, the idea spread to other towns and countries. Today, the MTG Metro exists not only in Stockholm, but in Göteborg and the Skåne region in Sweden, in Prague Czech Republic, in Budapest Hungary, in Helsinki Finland, in several cities in the Netherlands, in Newcastle Great Britain, in Santiago Chile, in Philadel-phia USA and in Zürich Switzerland. More establishments are currently underway.
One of the foundations of Metro was the importance of the fixed format. Those who would be reading the paper would have only a limited amount of available time, but they should still be able to obtain a quick overview of all relevant news. Further, the paper would be read in a crowdy environment at a hectic time. Considering this, the paper had to make compromises. It would have a tabloid format in combination with short articles and a limited number of pages. The leadership of the paper was well aware of journalists' desire to write at greater length, and therefore chose a fixed format, a basic mold which applied to its editorial content as well. Because Metro as a business idea is identical wherever it has been launched, the same basic mold has been applied throughout, which means in principle that the paper looks the same regardless of which country it is in.
The few content analyses that have been conducted on Metro (Gustafsson, 1996b; Lars-son, et.al., 1998; Ljung, 1998) reveal both similarities and differences vis-à-vis the traditional Swedish morning press. The results can be summarized editorially in terms of Metro's short news, no traditional opinion material, a lower portion of sports and accounting material such as the stock market or sports scores, a larger portion of entertainment but less culture, a larger portion of TV/radio material as well as a lack of family pages. The selection of which news to present is similar among the different papers. Worth noting, however, is that the proportion of advertising in Metro is about the same as in Dagens Nyheter and Göteborgs-Posten &endash; the largest morning papers in Stockholm and Göteborg &endash; about half of the material in the paper.
A paper with such a short, concentrated news presentation with a serious tone has not existed in the Swedish newspaper market for a very long time. Rather, the development has been in the opposite direction, with increasing amounts of material in the morning papers (Høst and Severinsson, 1997) and increasing sensationalism in the single copy sold evening papers. During the 1980's there was also a reader reaction against the all-too-voluminous big city morning papers, which were considered cumbersome and difficult to read. This criticism must be seen against the backdrop of the fact that even low income groups are avid newspaper readers in Sweden (Weibull and Kratz, 1995).
On average, advertising finances over 60 percent of the local morning papers in Sweden. The figure is higher for the larger cities: the percentage of ad-based financing in the largest papers in Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö has occasionally risen as high as 75 percent. Also the largest morning paper in Stockholm, Dagens Nyheter, a politically liberal paper, is somewhat odd in a Swedish context, while it has such a strong position in the advertising market in spite its rela-tively low coverage according to Swedish standards. Its conservative competitor Svenska Dagbladet has a circulation of only about 15 percent (TS-boken, 1999) and has had difficulty in the advertising market; it has, however, received state press subsidies which have been mar-ginally important for its continued survival.
When Metro began in Stockholm, it relied exclusively on advertising revenues. In order to succeed economically, it was important to streamline its organization. Distribution through public transportation was of course cheaper than costly deliveries to individual households, but the general cost and revenue profile of Metro also looks different than the traditional Swedish morning papers. The most important difference is the personnel structure. For exam-ple, compared to approximately 400 journalists' work for Dagens Nyheter and 300 work for Göteborgs-Posten, about 20 journalists are employed at Metro in each city in which it oper-ates. Costs are kept low by the fact that the majority of Metro's content stems from the main Swedish news agency (TT), in addition to a reliance on numerous freelance journalists. The only cost, which is similar for Metro and other papers, is the paper itself. Metro does not have its own printing press. Instead, it uses the printing presses of others. Given the fact that the price of printing services has remained low in Sweden, this too amounts to considerable cost reduction.
MTG calculated that it would take three years for Metro to generate a profit in Stock-holm, but in actual fact it only took one year (Gustafsson, 1996a). At first, it was even possi-ble to decline advertising, a reflection of the belief that the proportion of ads in the paper should not be too high and the number of pages should not be too great. Following the removal of introductory rebates after the first six months, however, it was necessary to continue fea-turing a large number of advertisements. A great success was attained when Metro was able to feature the attractive addition of classified ads. For the past couple of years, the paper in Stockholm has featured a supplement for classified ads at least once a week.
The implications of Metro for the other morning papers in the advertising market in Stockholm are not easy to map out. A review of relevant professional journals and research data indicate that Metro has taken advertising shares from other Stockholm papers &endash; but less clear is the actual extent of this share. The big city press as a whole has increased its advertis-ing revenues, and the advertising market as a whole has increased as well. There are reductions in advertising volume among both Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, but Metro's adver-tising does not correspond to the decline in the two other papers. Advertising on the Internet and an increase in direct advertising can serve as two alternative explanations for the reduction of advertising revenues among Stockholm papers. General economic conditions in the country, along with the decision by Dagens Nyheter in the late 1980's to invest in a new printing press have also contributed to the worsening economy of that paper (Carlsson, et.al., 1999; also professional journals).
When Metro was launched in Göteborg in February 1998, it encountered a different type of market than the one in Stockholm. In this region, the liberal paper Göteborgs-Posten ac-counts for a larger market penetration than both the Stockholm papers combined &endash; 60 percent. The social democratic paper Arbetet has a penetration of only three percent (TS-boken, 1999). Thus, in Göteborg there wasn't the same empty space to fill, as was the case in Stockholm, neither in terms of the readership market nor the advertising market. While Metro turned a profit almost immediately in Stockholm, the same cannot be said for Göteborg. It was calcu-lated that Metro in Göteborg would reach the break-even point during 1999. Since this time, however, nothing has been heard in the business journals about Metro's results in Göteborg, which might be interpreted as a sign that these hopes have not been realized.
One explanation for Metro's situation in Göteborg is also the fact that the situation in the advertising market is completely different from that in Stockholm. With one morning paper which has long dominated the market and has well-established relations with advertisers, Metro has had difficulty moving in. Metro's appearance in Göteborg appears to have influ-enced the advertising market only to a limited degree, and the same can be said for the reader-ship market, although this has also included problems, e.g. the fact that fewer persons in Göteborg are using public transport.
It is also difficult to say anything about the Skåne region, where Metro has only been in operation for half a year (since autumn 1999), but the market encountered by Metro in this region consists of a liberal newspaper - Sydsvenska Dagbladet &endash; with a penetration of about 46 percent, and a social democratic paper &endash; Arbetet &endash; with a penetration of about 19 percent (TS-boken, 1999). What is new in the Skåne region is Metro's cooperation with one of the established papers, Arbetet, concerning advertisments.
Metro in Prague and Budapest &endash; the two cities outside of Sweden's borders where Metro has existed the longest, since 1997 and 1998 &endash; continue to operate at a loss. It has been easy enough to attract readers in both cities, but difficult to attract advertisers. The advertising markets in eastern Europe continue to differ from that of western Europé, being much lower and less stable. In addition to this, the costs for MTG increase with each new start-up, since already established papers participate in the bidding.
To summarize, it can at least be said that Metro has gained a strong position in the Stock-holm market. Economically the paper performed well very quickly, and advertisers have dis-covered the paper, which today has a greater penetration than Svenska Dagbladet, the second biggest subscribed paper there. On the other hand, Dagens Nyheter remains the newspaper in Stockholm with the largest circulation.
As has been pointed out above, MTG has exported the Metro concept to a number of coun-tries and newspaper houses in many countries are hurrying to establish themselves before Metro appears on the scene. The strategies that can currently be observed in other countries are both similar and dissimilar from the strategies utilized in Sweden at the start of Metro. Counter-strategies involve, among other things, the start-up of one's own free papers, legal measures and content changes in the traditional papers.
In Stockholm it was mainly Dagens Nyheter &endash; the largest morning paper &endash; that reacted against the start-up of Metro. On the editorial pages, attempts were made to influence opinion against Metro. The authorities were called upon to provide assistance in making Metro's ex-pansion more difficult, particularly the introduction of Metro Weekend, which MTG started up in Stockholm in September 1996 as a subscription-based weekend paper, independent from Metro with its own editorial staff. The greatest stumbling block was distribution, in that Dagens Nyheter together with Svenska Dagbladet own the distribution company for morning papers in Stockholm, and they were not willing to distribute Metro Weekend. As a result, Metro Weekend had to shut down just a few months after it was launched.
Further the owners of Dagens Nyheter &endash; the Bonnier Group &endash; launched a freely distrib-uted weekly newspaper, Avisen, which since 1997 has been delivered to all households in the greater Stockholm area once a week. The paper was owned together with a Danish company. The start-up of Avisen was not very successful and later the Bonnier Group pulled out of their co-ownership.
But also, Dagens Nyheter as a newspaper product has changed as a result of the start of Metro in that it became thinner during weekdays and thicker on weekends. They also offered weekend-only subscriptions, even in the Stockholm area, which was not possible before (Gustafsson, 1996b). Finally, the most recent example in Stockholm in which one can assume that Metro has played some role as a source of inspiration is Dagens Nyheter's plan to start an afternoon paper, DN City. The idea behind DN City is to present a lot of local news and a youthful profile. The paper is paid, but will cost half of the price compared to other newspa-pers. A similar example in Stockholm is the company OTW Publishing, which has plans to distribute a free newspaper called Stockholm News (and eventually even Göteborg News and Malmö News. The editorial staff will be somewhat larger than Metro's, and the direction of the paper's content is primarily geared toward politics, the economy and foreign affairs.
In Göteborg, Göteborgs-Posten's answer to Metro was the paper GP Extra, which was distributed free to all non-subscribers in the region once a week and contained material previ-ously published in Göteborgs-Posten. Also local free papers in central Göteborg was released by Göteborgs-Posten, both to subscribers and non-subscribers. The distribution of GP Extra ceased after about a year. Though the reasons behind its closure are not completely clear, a reasonable explanation is that Metro did not become the great threat that had been expected.
Sweden is not the only place in which the branch and individual newspaper houses re-acted. A few examples of start-ups outside of Sweden which can quite clearly be seen as reac-tions to the view that Swedish Metro was seen as a threat include the following:
In several cities &endash; Zürich, Santiago, Newcastle, Philadelphia &endash; there have been discussions and lawsuits involving the name Metro and the distribution of the paper. These disagreements are for the most part as yet unresolved.
Metro is thus a paper that engages already established papers, both in Sweden and in other countries where Metro exists or is expected to establish itself. That reactions appear and that counter-measures are introduced is hardly surprising, since the advertising market and the readership market are naturally influenced by the introduction of a new paper.
Circulation is one measure of a paper's success on the readership market, if not the only measure. Both in Stockholm and Göteborg, circulation reductions in the previously established markets can be observed. Worth noting, however, is the fact that the downturns in certain cases began before Metro entered the scene (Table 1). At the time of this writing, TS figures for 1999 are not available, thus the figures in the table only extend through 1998.
Table 1. Circulation in Stockholm's and Göteborg's A-regions, weekdays, 1990-1998
(thousands of copies)
|
Stockholm |
Göteborg |
||||||||||
|
Subscribed morning papers |
Single copy sale evenings |
Subscribed morning papers |
Single copy sale evenings |
||||||||
|
Dagens Nyheter |
Svenska Dagbladet |
Metro |
Afton-bladet |
Expressen |
Göte-borgs-Posten |
Arbetet |
Metro |
GT |
Afton-bladet |
Expressen |
|
|
1990 |
310 |
137 |
- |
101 |
173 |
230 |
17 |
- |
66 |
16 |
19 |
|
1991 |
301 |
137 |
- |
100 |
169 |
228 |
15 |
- |
66 |
15 |
18 |
|
1992 |
304 |
127 |
- |
101 |
171 |
230 |
15 |
- |
65 |
15 |
17 |
|
1993 |
304 |
120 |
- |
93 |
151 |
225 |
15 |
- |
60 |
13 |
15 |
|
1994 |
301 |
123 |
- |
96 |
141 |
228 |
16 |
- |
53 |
14 |
13 |
|
1995 |
292 |
115 |
*211 |
92 |
128 |
228 |
14 |
- |
46 |
15 |
12 |
|
1996 |
280 |
111 |
229 |
96 |
113 |
223 |
12 |
- |
42 |
17 |
12 |
|
1997 |
267 |
121 |
228 |
102 |
106 |
223 |
12 |
- |
39 |
20 |
11 |
|
1998 |
272 |
115 |
225 |
97 |
103 |
222 |
12 |
73 |
36 |
20 |
10 |
|
+/- 94/98 +/- 97/98 |
-29 |
-8 |
+1 |
-38 |
-1 |
0 |
-3 |
0 |
-1 |
||
|
Percent diff |
-10% |
-7% |
+1% |
-27% |
-1% |
0 |
-8% |
0 |
-9% |
||
Source: Tidningsstatistik (TS) for respective years.
Comments: The three lowest rows show differences in Stockholm between 1994 and 1998 and Göteborg be-tween 1997 and 1998 in order to obtain a comparison of circulation figures before and after the start of Metro in each city. A-region refers to the distribution areas of the papers. Sweden is divided into 70 such regions.
Despite the decline in circulation during the entire 1990's, a clear drop can be seen in the Stockholm market in connection with the start of Metro both in terms of Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet. The decline in single copy sale evenings or tabloid papers in Stockholm is more difficult to link to the start of Metro, where above all Expressen slips more or less into a free fall. Aftonbladet appears not to have been affected by the start of Metro at all. Here mar-ket changes have other reasons (cf. Weibull, 1996).
The spread of the Internet in the mid-1990's could, together with Metro, serve as another explanatory factor behind the drop in circulation. While it is clear that newspapers are read on the Internet, it is still difficult to know the extent to which this has influenced overall mass media consumption. There appears to be a relatively small influence, at least in terms of the morning press, but it nonetheless warrants mention as a possible partial explanation for the decline in circulation. Metro, on the other hand, appears likely to have played a significantly greater role.
In the Göteborg region, the circulation of Göteborgs-Posten dropped during the 1990's, but it is difficult to ascribe this drop to Metro. Arbetet appears to be unaffected. In terms of the evening or tabloid papers, there also appears to be no decline that can be linked to the start-up of Metro. Aftonbladet increases somewhat in the Göteborg region between 1997 and 1998 (from 19,700 to 20,300 issues). The figures for the local evening paper in Göteborg, GT, increased in 1999 for the first time in the decade.
In this context, it is important to emphasize the fact that we do not know what would have happened in the circulation market if Metro had not existed. Stability could have reigned, but declines could also have occurred without the appearance of a new paper in the respective regions.
The factors that determine which medium a person chooses to consume are of course many. In the case of Metro, a number of such factors are particularly important. Examples include population conditions in different regions, public transportation settings and conditions in the newspaper markets of the various cities (Wadbring, 1999):
When Metro began in Stockholm, many households lacked newspaper subscriptions; there was thus an empty space to fill, in a completely different sense than was the case in the rest of the country. Analysis of the first period in Stockholm showed that, although the group of readers who gravitated most toward Metro were regular morning paper readers, the paper also attracted people who did not read any newspaper at all (Infratest Burke, 1995).
Perhaps the most important result of the audience studies conducted since then show that Metro has above all broadened the newspaper market (Table 2).
Table 2. Regular readership of morning papers, including and excluding Metro, in the
A-regions of Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö, 1999 (percent)
|
Stockholm |
Göteborg |
Malmö |
||
|
Regularly reading a morning paper, excluding Metro |
66 |
71 |
78 |
|
|
Regularly reading a morning paper, including Metro |
82 |
76 |
80 |
|
|
Difference |
+16 |
+5 |
+2 |
|
|
Number responses |
618 |
1976 |
202 |
|
Source: National and Western SOM, 1999.
Comments: Regular reading is defined as at least 4 days per week.
Above all it is in Stockholm where the inclusion or exclusion of Metro is appears to matter. The difference is 16 percentage points, and Metro has thus made a relatively large contribution in terms of the readership market. In Göteborg and the Skåne region, the differences are not as great.
We can state that Metro reaches many people who previously did not consume morning papers. It is primarily the resource-weak groups in society &endash; particularly workers, immigrants, economically weak groups &endash; who have received a daily paper through Metro. It is not the case that these resource-weak groups canceled their subscriptions to traditional dailies in order to switch to Metro, but rather for them it is Metro or no paper at all. It is also worth pointing out that a not inconsequential portion of Metro's readership is young; the young are a group of people that the traditional morning papers have had difficulty reaching (Wadbring, 1999; forthcoming).
At the same time, there are significant differences in how Metro has been received in Stock-holm as compared to Göteborg and the Skåne region. When Metro was introduced in Stock-holm, there was, as mentioned above, a large gap to fill, since a considerably larger portion of households lacked a morning paper as compared to Sweden as a whole. The same gap did not exist either in Göteborg or the Skåne region, and in both areas, double-reading between Metro and local morning papers is more common than it is in Stockholm. To a certain extent, the dif-ferences can of course reflect the fact that the paper has existed for a longer period of time in Stockholm and therefore has had time to take root. However, this is not likely to be the entire explanation, since the different newspaper conditions in the various cities appears to be a more compelling explanatory factor.
The Metro concept &endash; a daily, free paper for public transport riders, designed for easy reading during a brief period of time &endash; has often been described as a unique Swedish export product. Its uniqueness, however, does not lie in its individual characteristics:
These examples can be multiplied, and on all individual points it can be stated that Metro is not unique. What is unique is the combination of all of these components in one paper. This has not been done before.
But the success of the Metro concept is based on five preconditions, which appear to have primarily been met in Stockholm:
The ability to create an editorially accessible newspaper in this situation, was what generated Metro's success. That this was not as easy in places where other media were strong and where there were fewer riders of public transport or the local newspaper tradition was stronger has been illustrated by Metro's subsequent development.
For the most part, Metro's entrance into the mass media market can also be viewed from two perspectives. The first perspective, which has been partly illuminated by our analyses, is that the entrance of a free paper into the market &endash; particularly in the form of a paper such as Metro &endash; poses certain consequences for the traditional press, primarily in two ways. First and fore-most is the effect on advertising-based revenues. The inclination to subscribe to a paper does not necessarily seem to diminish along with the introduction of Metro, but if there is a finan-cial problem associated with the introduction of new media &endash; not just Metro, but also for ex-ample the Internet &endash; then the problem seems to be primarily associated with advertising. The second consequence for the newspaper industry might be that news will be considered a useful commodity which can be obtained for free. Here as well, the problematic applies not only to Metro but to other free media, such as the Internet or radio. In the long run this could lead to a reduced subscription tendency, if not also a tendency toward reduced readership. As yet, however, we have not observed any significant traces of this pattern, although with new generations growing up in Sweden, it could become a reality.
The second perspective puts Metro into the context of Swedish democracy. Seen from this perspective the introduction of Metro has been positive in that it has broadened the newspaper market as a whole. In today's digital society, morning papers continue to be one of our most important sources of information, and those who consume morning papers also tend, to a larger degree, to consume news in other media. That a larger number of people have access to a morning paper &endash; even if it is brief news &endash; must be seen as something positive. Another important factor seen from a democratic perspective in terms of morning paper readership is reading per se. The habit of reading can lead to reading things other than short news articles and can have positive consequences on the whole. Metro can in this context be seen as the 'little sister' who leads readers into the traditional print media and the world of books.
Carlsson, Ulla, Catharina Bucht and Ulrika Facht (eds) (1999) Mediesverige 1999/2000.
Statisk och analys. Göteborg: Nordicom, Göteborg University
Gustafsson, Karl Erik (1996a) Dagspressen i Norden. Struktur och ekonomi. Lund: Student-
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Gustafsson, Karl Erik (1996b) Marknaden för gratistidningar i Sverige. Göteborg: School of
Economics
Gustafsson, Karl Erik and Lennart Weibull (1997) 'European Newspaper Readership:
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Hadenius, Stig and Lennart Weibull (2000) Massmedier. Press, radio och TV i förvandling.
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Hjörne, Peter (1997) Personal interview with Peter Hjörne, by Ingela Wadbring, 971028. Peter
Hjörne is owner and editor-in-chief of Göteborgs-Posten.
Høst, Sigurd (1999) Gratisaviser i Norge &endash; fra lokale småforetak til konsernstyrt forretning?
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Dagens Media
Finanstidningen
Journalisten
Makt & Media
Pressens Tidning
Resumé
Veckans Affärer
Vision
Dagspresskollegiet &endash; "The Newspaper Research Program" &endash; is located at Göteborg University, the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication. To monitor the development of newspapers among the Swedish population, especially their role in relation to other media, the research program Dagspresskollegiet was set up in 1979. The purpose of Dagspresskollegiet is to conduct long-term research and to analyze the national press and its development in Sweden, mainly from a reader's point of view. The objectives of the program can be summarized in three broad questions:
The theoretical framework of the program has been the uses & gratification approach. This means that newspaper readership is analyzed against the backdrop of: 1) people's habits and life situation; 2) the accessibility of media and the characteristics of particular media, and; 3) conditions in society, both national and local.
The Association of Swedish Newspapers mainly funds the program.