development. And while the price
of Danish newspapers means their
print version still makes money,
Madsen is betting that with up to
750,000 visitors to
Ekstra Bladet
’s
online site every day, the plan is
working.
VIDEO FORONLINE
One of the key focus areas is
coercing their editorial departments
to produce video for online stories.
Executive Producer for EBTV,
Massimo Grillo, says it’s “an
ongoing psychological battle to
convert print journalists to making
simple video content”. Grillo, a
veteran anchorman, believes many
print journalists are initially
reluctant to make the digital “leap
of faith” fearing it will result in
shoddy journalism. “It’s true we
can live with the unfocused shot in
a good story, we are web TV”, but
signalling “your work is not good,
but we’ll publish it anyway” is a
red rag to journalists. Finding the
balance between having enough
content and maintaining standards
“is a constant battle”, said Grillo.
One method
Ekstra Bladet
uses to
assuage journalists’ fear that online
journalism is a speedy sloppy
misrepresentation of their
excellence is through their new
freemium site, EKSTRA. According
to editor Lisbeth Langwadt,
EKSTRA plays to “our quality news
traditions, in disclosures, detective
journalism, crime investigation,
critical consumer journalism,
politics and sports”. A small
EKSTRA team works to refine
stories from
Ekstra Bladet
’s print
version focusing on quality
journalism that people are willing
to pay almost 4 Euros a month for.
“Almost every journalist at
Ekstra
Bladet
takes part in the process to
produce EKSTRA content”, said
Langwadt. The key focus being
“converting existing users into
paying customers so we can keep
creating journalism that matters
and of course, keep our print
journalists”. It’s an EU trend that’s
recently seen
Bild
in Germany and
the UK’s
Sun
start charging for
content.
FULL-BLOWNSTATION
Like EKSTRA, which wraps video,
audio, photos and graphics around
text, Madsen’s new web TV
platform EBTV seeks to develop
skills that enable journalists to
transition from digital story to web
TV formats. “I was hired to build
on the commercial side and take the
EB brand to a new level in TV and
possibly to a full blown station by
2015, to give advertisers a strong
alternative to current TV
providers”, said Thomas Stokholm,
“
”
The focus
is to keep
journalists,
produce
strong
content
andmake
money
THE CHANNEL
|
DIGITAL
64
|
ISSUE 1 2014
|
THE CHANNEL
Things have
changed so
much, so
quickly that in
three years’ time
we won’t earn any money from our
newspaper”. This chilling
prediction by Poul Madsen, Editor
in Chief of
Ekstra Bladet
, a Danish
print and online tabloid and web
TV producer, echoes print’s
slippery slide into oblivion. And
while the paper edition of E
kstra
Bladet
still accounts for 70% of their
revenue, a downward spiral in
sales 10 years ago signalled the
writing on the proverbial digital
wall. Madsen believes that
becoming early digital adopters
was key to survival: “Sales of our
newspaper dropped dramatically
and we knew that our jobs
depended on going digital”.
Finding the right model to “keep
journalists, produce strong content
and make money” is Madsen’s
primary focus.
Today
Ekstra Bladet
distributes
news and other media across four
platforms: print, free online, a paid
section called EKSTRA and EBTV,
their new web TV channel. It’s a
complex web of traditional news
values and digital delivery modes
that’s making money, but not
without cost. Recently 22 staff were
let go to make way for digital
“
DIGITAL
PERFECT
Danish print publication
Ekstra Bladet
saw the writing on
the proverbial digital wall 10 years ago and has repositioned
to deliver news across four platforms in a complex web of
traditional news values and digital delivery. How do you
convert print journalists to making simple video content
and allay their fear that their craft is being butchered?
Journalist and TV executive producer Ivo Burum who helped EB make the transition
from print to online and web TV gives insight into the project which lays the
foundations for a full-blown news channel
