Ann Axelsson

Opinion as a driver for engagement

A cacophony of content is surrounding us from media and social networks. To get attention you really need to make a difference. Trine Eilertsen from Aftenposten knows how. Opinions have proven to be a great opportunity to achieve user engagement.

Engagement leads to sharing and spreading. Engagement is created when the reader is feeling obliged to take a stand, to reject or embrace, to discuss, to complicate and argue. As readers we are sharing and commenting on texts that mirror our own opinion. And we share texts that do the opposite. Both show the readers’ views, standpoints and attitudes and we see that readers have a need for this.

Engagement is also created by empathy and identification. As readers we share and comment texts that tell something about life, our own or that of others. We see that the more personal the pieces are, the more engagement they induce.

Building relations

This engagement is a great opportunity for the media houses, not least the traditional subscription houses. As the tabloids have spent decades and generations on developing engaging front pages and content that convinces people to buy, subscribed newspapers, like Aftenposten, have followed other routes. We have built relations with readers and subscribers through quality, relevance and importance presented in an objective way.

For a long time now we have seen that our traditional ways of presenting news do not work as well on digital platforms. That is why we learn from Vox, Slate and other websites that connect important matters with new ways of telling them. And it works. Quality never goes out of style – but it comes in a different wrapping.

Exclusive content

However, where we see the greatest opportunities are in the area of opinion. At Aftenposten Mobile the Opinion section is competing with the Front Page as to which is the larger one. 11 out of the 14 most shared items in 2015 are opinion pieces. Good, clear comments by internal voices are important, of course, but the major traffic comes from the outside. It can be contracted guest columnists, but often enough they are voices we have not heard before. They contribute texts with a high degree of impartiality that attract other competent contributors. External voices bring stories about ordinary people who tell something about our society.

Opinion pieces also have an exclusive content, which is an advantage in the struggle for attention. So the opinion section is a driving force in a traffic that is vital to us. This traffic does not emerge on its own and the competition is growing stronger here too.

While our task before was to organize the queue of contributions from readers and make sure that they did not have too many typos when published, our role is quite different today. A modern opinion section is initiating, directing and pruning the debate and it takes care of the contributors. The importance of the latter cannot be sufficiently underlined. It is actually here that the democratization of the debate is happening. Digital editing is a skill and it takes time to correct and distribute a digital piece. When it is well done, the piece will be shared, creating traffic and recirculation into our universe of content as well as new comments.

This competence sets us apart from all other opinion platforms and that is something that we should communicate more clearly to our contributors and readers. It matters to whom you send your piece, it affects the spread, the reading and the impact.

Building self-confidence

A well-run opinion section is editing texts from the elite and from more popular groups in such a way that everybody appears competent. That way we are building self-confidence and we lower
the threshold for participation. We know that many people stay away because they feel they cannot write well enough.

More and more often opinion pieces create openings for news stories because they contain leads or because they reveal an aspect that has not been sufficiently covered. In the fight for the best contributors we notice that it is an advantage if we can develop a news story from the pieces they write.

Opening for new stories

We must admit that there is a big difference between the discussions that are funneled through our opinion editors and those that appear in the comment boxes under our articles. Many contributors
feel ill at ease in the jungle that the self-moderated comments boxes can be and never go there. In a world where debates are going on everywhere, where you can always find a thread or a comments box, it is easy to find others who share your views. But it is the opinion sections that open up debates and show them to a wide audience and who keep the debates going forward.

We can contribute something unique by competent editing, editorial judgments, connections with the news picture and the soliciting of answers from others who bring in new dimensions and new knowledge. This makes it possible for us to own debates and to highlight contributors, which is important for traffic, loyalty and the brand. And, on top of all that, it is at the heart of our role in society.

Talk about win-win!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pMF49H-EDo&feature=youtu.be

by Ann Axelsson

Future Report: Insight story 2016

Technology is changing our habits and lives faster than ever. We took a look at Sweden, as a digitally mature market, to see what’s really going on and where we’re heading. Anders Lithner and Karin Nelsson, from the research company Inizio, guide us through the trends that are shaping the future shown in a survey made exclusively for Future Report

When analyzing yesterday and today to draw conclusions about tomorrow, there are of course a million possible angles. If something has been increasing to this point there is every chance that it will in the future too. We call it a trend. The list of trending phenomena is endless. Anything from a food ingredient or a travel destination to a gadget or a way to say hello can be caught trending.

Behind the myriad of small trends are the megatrends. The megatrends are to the social scientist what the trade winds are to a weather forecaster. Three of the most commonly referred long-term megatrends are digitalization, individualization and post materialism. Studies about the trends themselves are rare. The megatrends are taken for granted and arguments around them are mostly theoretical.

To better understand some of the trends blowing through Sweden right now a unique study has been carried out, using the insight infrastructure set up around the Schibsted/Inizio opinion panel. Sweden, with its advanced digitalization and smartphone penetration, has proven a great place to create a high quality opinion panel, sourced in the Schibsted audience. It is also a great place to study the evolvement of the megatrends, since Sweden in many respects is characterized by the tendencies summarized in them. Sweden is however not alone.

Wheels are spinning faster

As phenomena start trending two things normally happen: The trend accelerates as more and more people jump on the wagon, and counter-trends begin to sprout. This is as true forthe megatrends. The wheels are spinning faster and some actively choose not to be part of the movement. We find evidence of both in the data

When we let people declare their interest in abstract topics and ask whether they think this interest is going to grow or decline in five years’ time, it turns out a large and growing number of Swedes are very interested in “services that free up time”. An important reason for this is that people feel that the wheels are spinning faster. Therefor they are interested in services that save a second or two in each curve along the road.

Segments are drifting apart

We also find polarization. A lot of data in our surveys suggests that different segments of the population are gradually drifting apart. Either people work out a lot or not at all. Either they vote for the established political parties or they are passionate in their sympathies for anti-establishment parties. Either they consume a lot of news produced by journalists, or barely any at all. These distances between groups pose challenges, to politics and democratic institutions of course, but also to anybody involved in media and communication.

How about mobile? Isn’t the explosion in anything related to mobile a megatrend of its own? In fact, mobile is the burning glass where the rays of the other trends come together. Needless to say mobile is tightly connected with the force of digitalization. It is also the most individualized media. People tend to use their phones almost like extensions of themselves.

Mobile is also closely related to post-materialism. Postmaterialism is the transformation of individual values from physical and economic to new individual values of autonomy and self-expression. The phone itself is physical of course, but its content is not. The selfie taken with the phone, the social media post containing the selfie and all the likes that it gathers, are great examples of non-material entities that are considered important by a lot of people. We shall begin with looking at some trends related to mobile usage.

40 per cent paying with their mobile

It is said that people are more likely to return home if they forget their mobile in the morning, than if they forget their wallet. Wouldn’t it be great if the mobile in fact was the wallet? As it turns out, that is becoming reality. As recently as 2012 less than 10 per cent of Swedes had used their mobile to pay for something. Now 40 per cent has, and the growth exceeds all previous curves for mobile functionality.

When asking people to estimate when they started to use their mobile phone for different things asides talking in it, we identify three developmental waves. Most functions – like surfing, using maps, streaming music – took off in the second wave beginning in 2007. Using the phone as alarm clock and phone book makes up the first wave that started long before phones were equipped with touchscreens. And using the phone to pay for things instead of cash or cards is taking off in a third wave beginning only in the last two or three years.

Interestingly the third wave is growing steeper than any of the earlier waves. It took many years for the mobile to replace the pocket camera or the paper calendar. It will take years for the mobile to replace cash and cards too. But fewer years. The speed of change is increasing. This is one of the fundamental laws of digitalization.

Still old infrastructure

When digging into how mobile phones are used in payment situation, it is apparent that the old infrastructure with bank payments and credit cards is still lurking in the background. A lot of people are accessing sites online with their phone to buy things. But the actual payment method is often still of the same kind as it has always been on the Internet.

The one explosive exception is Swish that has claimed a strong position in short time. Swish is different in the sense that it sits more closely integrated with the phone itself and that it actually replaces the credit card. Swish has three million registered users in Sweden with its 10 million inhabitants. Swish is owned by the Swedish banks and has only been around for two and a half year.

This study clearly identifies mobile payments as an area about to explode. The majority of Swedes also think cash will eventually disappear altogether. Two out of five Swedes think this will happen within the next ten years. Ten years is a long time, but considering that cash has been around for more than 2,500 years, we are talking about truly disruptive development.

In The Swedish Time Use Survey, conducted by Statistics Sweden, one of the areas that is increasing most dramatically, taking up more and more of our time, is workout. This is another field where many of the megatrends come together. Caring about one’s own body is a typical post-materialist value that also trends hand in hand with the concept of individualization.

Generally a majority of Swedes work out regularly. The difference between young and old also indicates that this is an area where something is happening. Most young Swedes work out between monthly and weekly. Older segments tend to either work out even more often, or not at all. Consequently this too is an area of gradual polarization.

The world of workout and exercise also touches digitalization. Almost a third of Swedes use a mobile app to help them manage their training. These days we talk a lot about big data, but there is a parallel explosion in tiny data. People engaged in sports such as running often turn themselves into statistics, keeping track of their heartbeat, pace and steps per distance. A lot of people that haven’t yet started also express interest in using technical equipment like fitness trackers, workout bracelets, pulse watches etc.

We believe, acknowledging that fitness and workout are close to the center of trend development, is important for the understanding of where we are heading. It drives technology towards the next generation of connected devices; it goes hand in hand with general health trends. And as anything really trendy it creates gaps between those that are in and those that are out.

Women are texting more

Technological evolution also changes how we communicate with each other. Wearables and the Internet of Things will surely only broaden the palette. In Sweden, according to our survey, mobile phone is by far the most used technology for interpersonal communication. But other channels are used as well and here too the differences between groups are big and growing. For women texting on the mobile is considered a more important means of communication than talking on it. For men it’s the other way around. For young people social media and messenger apps are more used than landline phones. This is not the case for people over 50. People over 50 also place greater importance on email and less on texting.

One megatrend – often attributed to the young generations – is the idea of post-materialism. We hear anecdotes of tenyear-olds that when asked what they wish for their birthday cannot come up with anything if they already have a mobile phone. All they really need is inside that phone anyway. In this study, even on the total population level, we note that only one in five claim they want something material for their next birthday. It is far more common to wish for some kind of experience or event, like a concert or a night on the town.

Post-materialism should not be confused with asceticism. Not having to worry too much about economy is considered a basic condition for caring less about the material aspects of life. A kid that doesn’t have shoes, clothes, a bicycle, or a mobile phone for that matter, probably wouldn’t find it so hard to come up with something to put on the wish list for the next birthday.

Overconsumption a threat

But there is also an environmental side to the post-materialist trend. Our surveys show many Swedes identify over-consumption as a threat to the Earth and its future. As part of that we see, for example, that second-hand shopping is a very popular phenomenon. This today is a highly digitalized activity with Schibsted media at the very core of the market. The study also identifies a growing tendency to use digital services where the company behind doesn’t have a warehouse full of things to sell. It is often noted that Spotify doesn’t own records, Uber doesn’t own cars and Airbnb doesn’t own houses.

This study clearly identifies this propensity towards indulging in consumption without really contributing to manufacturing. We note that this attitude – and the sharing economy that goes with it – belongs primarily among the young and welleducated in the urban areas. This is the target group where early adopters of new trends are commonly found.

The research findings presented in this text are just a few examples from the surveys regularly carried out by Schibsted. There are of course numerous findings in this data, high and low. We note that, on average Swedes think that self-driving cars will be on Swedish roads in eight and a half years, that 27 per cent shop for groceries online but that only six per cent does it on a regular basis, that certain demographic segments show a rapidly growing interest in security for themselves and their loved ones, and much more.

Read the full report

http://schibfr16.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Insight-Story-–-Full-Report.pdf

by Ann Axelsson

The universe of messaging

At the dawn of time there was email – the actual definition of an Internet killer app. As the mobile phone rose to prominence shortly thereafter, we got text messages, or SMS. Today, the number of messaging apps is exploding. Whether we want to build our brand or use new services, it’s a jungle. Future Report asked Christian Printzell Halvorsen, Schibsted’s own expert on the subject, what to make of it all.

From 31 trillion 2014 to 100 trillion 2019. That’s how much analysts expect the number of messages to grow. Growth in pure messaging services are even expected to outpace that of ordinary social media apps in the coming years, according to some.

“Messaging is one of the strongest trends right now, around four to six of the top-ten most downloaded apps globally are messaging apps,” says Christian Printzell Halvorsen, Chief Product Officer at Schibsted Classified Media.

So what’s behind this explosion? One answer is the wish to separate different kinds of communication. “Users don’t use only one messaging app, they keep two, three, or four, and they use them to various types of communication depending on their specific needs,” notes Christian Printzell Halvorsen.

He and other observers of the business of messaging see a future where users have to evaluate a whole array of messaging apps to see which ones best suit their specific needs, often coinciding with the ones that friends and family use.

Like a friend of mine. To her, and a growing number of other professionals, messaging apps and social networks have long evolved from extensions of personality and hobbies to finetuned marketing tools. While social media, like Facebook and Instagram is carefully tuned to portray a perfect image, private conversations are kept on Snapchat or Facebook Messenger, not to mix the two. Some may even keep conversations with family and friends on one or two apps, channel work matters through a third, using a fourth and fifth as advertising boards.

Adding built-in services

But many messaging apps are also quickly evolving into everyday-utilities, with built-in services.

Mobile payments is already an important part of the messaging app community, and it’s growing. Alongside with the booming trend for mobile communication are numerous attempts by banks and tech companies, such as Apple, to once and for all have us abandoning our wallets and start paying for food and send money between accounts with our smartphones. We can already send money via Facebook Messenger, and Snapchat launched Snapcash last November, enabling peer-to-peer payments between friends.

“The feature to send money is being built into almost all of these messaging apps,” says Printzell Halvorsen. “Look at the classifieds business for example, where a user easily can ordera new product, change an order or pay for it via the smartphone.”

Other services like e-commerce, breaking news stories, booking tickets and managing reservations are all part of what experts see as the real new trend in messaging. “App owners are opening up their platforms so that others can build new services around the messaging feature,” says Christian Printzell Halvorsen. “What we get are different sorts of B2C (Business to Consumer) solutions that make it easier for companies to communicate with their customers.”.

This creates an environment where we can ditch other mobile services simply because their features are now included in one or several messaging apps.

What if, for example, your news, financial transactions, your business contacts, time schedule and calendar were rounded up in one or two applications on your favorite gadget?

Or all services in one app. In China this is happening. Within the WeChat app you can reach numerous services that are part of a digital ecosystem. From fixing your nails to ordering a cab.

An assistant of your own

Users want things to be simple, but simplicity can also mean concentrating multiple features and services into a few, optimized apps.

And speaking of easy. What if you had an assistant in your messaging app? That’s what Facebook recently announced. M is a personal assistant built into Messenger that can buy things, deliver gifts, make reservations or arrange travel if you send a request. These requests will then be fulfilled either through artificial intelligence or manual work by a staff of people and it’s part of a larger trend often called “conversational commerce”.

As far as data traffic goes, the number of messages is forecasted to double by 2019, according to a June report by Juniper Research. The growing trend is driven largely by popular apps like Facebook’s WhatsApp and Line, one of Japan’s leading mobile messaging services.

For app makers, depressingly enough, revenues and profits are not likely to increase at nowhere near the same rate. In terms of revenues, according to Juniper’s calculation, the messaging market as a whole will actually decline in the next four years to 112.9 billion USD in 2019, down from 113.5 billion USD in 2014.

“My guess, though, is that regular text messaging is included in these numbers. The underlying trend is a strong shift from telecom operators to new apps,” Printzell Halvorsen notes.

This hasn’t frightened off neither small nor large players. The all-mighty Facebook, awash with profits, has been using massive amounts of cash to buy up competitors within the hot messaging business. In 2014 it spent a staggering 19 billion USD to acquire WhatsApp, which continues to pile up hefty losses. On the other hand, statistics indicate that WhatsApp is leading the global messaging race with some 800 million users, followed by Facebook messenger and Chinese instant messaging service QQ Mobile as the top three competing messaging apps, although the numbers are somewhat sketchy. “Facebook and others can either win the marketplace, or buy the competition. They’re buying these companies that ride the wave, but it’s not investments that they intend to grow,” Tech Analyst Jeff Kagan says, adding, “Except once in a while. If you put enough quarters into the slot machine, you’re gonna get a jackpot. But most of these investments are wasted.”

Exploring different paths

Other apps operating in the twilight zone between messaging and social media are exploring different paths to fame and fortune. If you sign up for an account with Path, for example, the social media app founded by former Facebook manager Dave Morin in 2010, you’re not likely to find many friends if you’re Swedish, Norwegian or even American.

In Indonesia, however, it’s another story. Limiting the maximum number of followers to 150, the Path’s idea is to build close-knit and small online communities of trustworthy followers. That concept never earned much traction in places like Europe or the United States. But somehow people in Southeast Asia, and especially Indonesians, found the prospect intriguing, so much so that the country now holds the largest number of Path users anywhere.

Path and others have yet to figure out how to profit from its growing user base.

Some app developers choose to go big in the financial markets, hoping investors will keep the company floating until a profitable business model emerges. In May 2015 reports came that Line is preparing for a dual listing of its stock in Tokyo and New York. Owned by a Korean search portal, Naver, Line boasts 205 million users and seeks to challenge Facebook’s WhatsApp. Line is making money, too, charging users for games and personalized icons to spice up their conversations. The company has doubled its revenues in one year.

Still others are betting that what we want is content and that partnerships with credible content providers will provide the much-needed positive cash flow.

In 2013, Evan Spiegel, the CEO of Snapchat, turned down an alleged offer from Facebook to acquire the company for 3 billion USD. At the time, Snapchat had no revenues, much less profits.

Spiegel’s move was widely regarded as the stupidest business decision of the year. In the beginning of 2015, though, people stopped laughing as Snapchat launched a new feature called Discover. In it, eleven media companies – including CNN, Comedy Central, Cosmopolitan and National Geographic – are given an open channel into Snapchat’s users, many of whom are teenagers (around 70 per cent of all Americans between 18 and 29 use Snapchat, according to Cowen, an analysis firm), where editors post daily video clips and stories.

In an instant, Snapchat had created a new advertising market worth millions with an audience consisting almost solely of the coveted teenagers. The publishers in Discovery sell their own ads, handing over a small percentage to Snapchat.

Suddenly, Snapchat’s valuation well north of 10 billion USD seemed to make a little more sense.

Of course, Snapchat still runs the risk of losing its appeal among its current young user base, notes Rebecca Lieb, an analyst at Altimeter Group.

”Snapchat is the darling this year, but how about next year, when the novelty wears off,” Lieb says to Businessweek. ”It’s not sustainable”.

Becoming a bigger part of our everyday life

Yet, the idea of connecting users of messaging services with high-quality content may seem like a win-win deal for both social media firms and media companies. Over at Facebook, business developers this year have engaged media companies to actually start hosting some of their content, like stories, videos and photos, rather than just linking to them. ”Instant Articles” was formally announced by Facebook in May, featuring deals with nine publishers – including The Guardian, NBC News, the New York Times, the Atlantic and Buzzfeed.

And while not a messaging service, Spotify, the Swedish music streaming company, took a step similar to Snapchat’s in May when it launched a revamped version of its app, featuring video content, podcasts and other types of media from well-known sources like the BBC, alongside with music.

By becoming a bigger part of our everyday life, Snapchat, Facebook and others clearly hope that money will follow.

But there is another reason behind these companies interest in our messages. The trick they’re trying to pull off, Printzell Halvorsen explains, is to funnel massive amounts of user data into advanced marketing, providing the delivery of tailored ads and enabling for other businesses to build their own, unique solutions based on the messaging platform. “The insight Facebook gets into their users’ behavior is quite formidable,” he says. “They know exactly what people communicate about, and they can use that information in ads solutions, for example.”

That has raised privacy concerns, but so far hasn’t stopped especially teenagers to dive head-first into the widening selection of mobile communication solutions.

”To a growing number of other professionals, messaging apps and social networks have long evolved from extensions of personality and hobbies to ne-tuned marketing tools.”

Keeping up - a full-time job

One thing is clear – keeping up with all new messaging apps is fast becoming a full-time job.

Hardware can provide some relief. LG, Samsung and Apple are all selling wearable watch-like gadgets that help sorting through inboxes and alert users when someone seeks contact. Without doubt, life becomes a little easier when a quick glance on your watch is enough to determine if a new mail, text or Instagram post require your attention.

By using built-in speech recognition software, it’s now possible to dictate a reply by just talking to the gadget. Provided, of course, that being seen in public talking to your watch doesn’t embarrass you.

by Ann Axelsson

Snapping all the way to the white house

Teenagers know it, and so does Hillary Clinton – Snapchat is a must. 60 per cent of Americans between 13 and 34 years are using the app, and several American presidential candidates are doing the same to get their message out to first-time voters. The challenge is to catch their attention in the right way, says Louise Roug from Mashable.

“There is no harder riddle to solve in politics than reaching young Americans who are very interested in the future of their country but don’t engage with traditional news,” a former advisor to President Barack Obama told the New York Times earlier this year. “Snapchat may have just made it a whole lot easier to solve this riddle.” The article posed the question: “Will 2016 be the Snapchat election?” – a question much debated since.

100 million users

First launched under the coy name “Picaboo”, Snapchat may have begun as a sexting app for teenagers. But as other ephemeral messaging apps have waned or died, Snapchat has continued to grow. Today, only four years after its launch, Snapchat has become a behemoth that neither publishers nor politicians can afford to ignore. Snapchat attracts more than 60 per cent of American smartphone users between 13 and 34 years old. It has 100 million active users, and gets more than three billion video views every day.

Given those overwhelming numbers, political candidates wanting to expand their base, especially among first-time voters, have quickly jumped on the platform. And the company itself clearly sees opportunity in political advertising. “Snapchat is all about stories, and political ads have become an important part of our nation’s storytelling,” the company said recently. “But political advertising that appears on Snapchat has to be right for our users.”

A playfull approach

Being “right” means being more fun, and several presidential candidates have tried a more playful approach on Snapchat with varying degrees of success. This summer, for example, the Republican candidate Rand Paul posted a short video in which he took a chainsaw to the United States tax code, shredding the sizable document to the soundtrack of the Star-Spangled Banner

Hillary Clinton has also been “snapping” and even joked recently about the fact that Snapchat content isn’t permanent. Referring to the controversy surrounding her use of a private server for emails during her time as Secretary of State, Clinton quipped: “You may have seen that I recently launched a Snapchat account? I love it,” she said. “Those messages disappear all by themselves.” It’s a joke – but it’s also one of the platform’s main qualities. While diaries, photo albums and social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are places for carefully edited posts about one’s self and life, Snapchat embraces the ephemeral. “Snaps” are no more than ten seconds long and disappear after 24 hours, removing the fear that the shared content – explicit or not – will come back to haunt you. As the company writes, in a subtle dig at the competition: “Snaps are a reflection of who you are in the moment – there is no need to curate an everlasting persona.”

Immediate and intimate

Impermanence means some degree of privacy, and for a generation who has grown up under surveillance – online and in real life – that’s compelling. Snapchat is a space where you can do and say silly things – and likely not be held accountable later. (Though it is, of course, possible to screenshoot snaps.)

It’s impermanent but also immediate and intimate, allowing anyone to instantly share video and live moments to a huge audience without the filter of other networks. The result is at times silly, at times profound, but oftencompelling. It feels like a conversation among friends, peppered with short videos, photos, stickers and emojis.

Users can navigate between three different “screens” – one for messaging with your friends, one that showcases public stories and Discover – the platform’s news partnerships with carefully selected publishers that in the U.S. include BuzzFeed, the Daily Mail, Cosmopolitan, CNN and Mashable.

Mashable started publishing stories on the platform early on, and that’s paid off in terms of building a loyal audience. For the team that’s devoted to creating the animation, motion graphics and other multimedia for the Snapchat Discover channel, the strategy is simple: Be creative, authentic and always ask yourself, “how can we best get, and keep, audience attention on this on-thego platform”?

In 2008, Barack Obama famously used Facebook to mobilize younger voters, which paid off at the polls, and infused his campaign with a sense of vigor. In terms of the 2016 election, any candidate – or publisher – who wants to reach younger, tech-savvy voters will have to develop a Snapchat strategy that’s engaging and distinctly different than the one-directional messages on television networks and older social platforms since the absence of a “stream” means that, ultimately, users have to come to you.

Designed for mobile

“You have to take someone out of the conversation they’re having with their friends,” says Claire Wardle, Research Director at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. Wardle believes the platform is interesting because it has shown what content designed specifically for mobile can look like, suggesting how traditional events such as Iowa State Fair, one of the earliest political events of the U.S. presidential campaign season, can be covered in more compelling ways. “It really made what should be a dull political event look interesting,” she says.

For publishers, the platform presents both an opportunity and a challenge. While it’s a place to meet new audiences, it’s still a closed system that doesn’t allow news organizations to link back to their own sites. In other words, success on Snapchat doesn’t necessarily translate into audiences “at home.”

Another challenge is that Snapchat shares little demographic data and that, unlike Facebook where publishers and politicians can target content, it’s all but impossible to get Xads or stories in front of particular users. As Wired recently wrote: “Snapchat’s entire business model is built around keeping user data private, a fact one Republican digital strategist called ’antithetical to advertising’.” (Snapchat’s CEO Evan Spiegel once described targeted ads as “creepy”.)

But perhaps the most significant challenge of them all, whether you’re a publisher or a politician, is to create content that’s informative – yet at the same time fun and engaging.

As Wardle puts it: “You don’t want to come across as the dad dancing at the wedding.”

by Ann Axelsson

The way we watch television

New habits and behaviors are revolutionizing TV. No one really knows where it’s going. But there are some trends that might be of help. Together with the research company Blue Carrot we’ve listed ten.

1. Declining Linear viewing

Viewing figures in the Swedish linear TV-market has decreased with nearly 10 per cent the last three years and is estimated to keep dwindling . UK, US and many other countries experience the same negative development

2. Consumers constantly connected

A US survey shows that 40 per cent of the population are always connected and never unplug from their technical devices . One out of four have experienced something unfortunate such as dropping the phone in the toilet or walking into a pole while on the phone.

3. On demand viewing

78 per cent of adults, and 90 per cent of those under age 39, use on-demand TV-viewing, and 62 per cent binge watch content . Netflix increases by over four million subscribers per quarter this year – and has yet to enter China…

4. Mobile becomes outstanding number one

This year there are more devices with mobile connection than people on earth . Mobile video consumption has increased with 71 per cent since 2012 and 16–34 year olds spend more than half of their total viewing time on a mobile device .

5. Quality content increasingly expensive

Broadcasting rights for The Premier League sold for 5.136 billion GBP for the coming three years which is more than 10 million GBP per game – and 71 per cent more expensive than the last deal.

6. More viral and privately produced content

The top list of most viral videos 2014 ranges from professional initiatives like Disney’s invite to record a “Let it go”-cover to boost their film ”Frost” to privately produced content such as “tiny hamster eats tiny burritos” But there is also numerous example of news spreading. The latest example – the picture of the three-year-old drowned boy Alan Kurdi.

7. Use of a second screen becomes standard

87 per cent of consumers have a habit of using more than one device at a time – 35 per cent of device usage is simultaneous – and 62 per cent of the content is unrelated.

8. Growing ad avoidance among consumers

Adblocking globally grew by 41 per cent from August 2014 to August 2015 – there are now 198 million active adblock users in the world – numbers are before iOS released its AdBlocker.

9. Piracy - A hard kill as a lernean hydra

Almost a quarter of all Internet traffic is estimated to be infringing copyright13. When Game of Thrones season four was released, one million illegal downloads took place – in half a day, and 32 million downloads in a week.

10. Willingness to pay for quality online

Since 2012 the number of people willing to pay for accessing TV content on any device has increased by 25 per cent. Online streaming services will in a few years become the biggest contributor to the American filmed entertainment industry, as the revenue generated by online-TV and subscription video ondemand providers reaches almost 14 billion USD, 1.6 billion USD more than the amount earned from the traditional cinema box office.

by Ann Axelsson

Content is on the move!

We can get it anywhere at any time. Moving content is a whole new game and the war to win the viewers hearts is on. Jan Scherman from Aftonbladet TV believes that experimenting, taking risks and following the users closely is the way to go.

I was there when television had its breakthrough in Sweden. The days of black and white. One, just one TV channel. Broadcasts starting at 6PM and ending 11PM. Yes, such a time actually existed even if it was a long time ago. This was the 1950s.

I watched Sweden winning a silver medal in the Football World Cup. On TV. It was almost surreal. If my parents, who proudly put the TV mahogany cabinet in the living room, had been alive they would have found the TV of our time even more surreal.

At the time there were two TV channels. Along came color, even if certain features in the news program Aktuellt were black and white for a long time. Advertising was prohibited. Not until the 1980s did the satellites and the satellite dishes arrive. The political opposition was massive. But the TV viewers wanted to watch more and anyone who bought a really big dish could choose from more than 20 channels.

Focusing on Sweden it was the industrialist Jan Stenbeck who crushed the Swedish TV monopoly. He started TV3 and bought the Hockey World Cup. Sweden, that had enjoyed peace for 200 years, experienced a state of war, a real TV war. The pros and cons of Stenbeck split the nation into two camps. But the outcome was a given. The consumers, those watching had had their appetite for more TV whetted. New TV. So history moved on to the next breakthrough: TV4. Terrestrial, commercially financed, TV reaching everyone.

I left SVT (Swedish public service TV) for TV4 and threw myself out into a changing world. After a couple of years TV4 had become Sweden’s largest TV channel. And there were many channels. With a new broadcasting technique from analog to digital the content just exploded. Distributors such as Boxer, Comhem, Viasat, Canal Digital and Telia could eventually offer hundreds of channels. The number 500 was reached in beginning of the 2000s.

Greater challanges than ever

Why am I telling you all this? What has history to do with the present? Well, because if someone thinks that much has happened and that there has been a big drama this is nothing compared to what is going on today. Explosion and revolution and all the catsup coming out of the bottle in one go. Any expression meaning quick and dramatic change is correct to use for what is going on now. And the challenges for the media houses are greater than ever. Which is the best way forward? When digitalization came and the old analog network was dismantled, everybody knew that it would mean a sharp increase in the number of linear channels. That is in fact what happened. All TV houses increased their output and international operators were given space in the Nordic market. Today it is more difficult. It is also increasingly the wishes and needs of the consumers that decide the direction in a totally new fashion.

Aftonbladet has laid down its strategy. It rests on a number of pillars:

• Aftonbladet as the primary news source with lots of live broadcasting. We are there as it happens and where it happens!
• Programs that keep stories going and in-depth coverage. For example we produce Aftonbladet Morgon (Aftonbladet Morning), Brottscentralen (Crime Center) and Alla Pratar Väder (Evereybody is Talking About the Weather). We do Party leaders' Debates and extensive live coverage of major events.
• Stand-alone programs with a clear focus on younger people that we have put under the umberella brand Boom. Here you find titles such as Relationsjuryn (The Relations Jury), Älskade unge (Darling Kid) or 53 Snabba (53 quick ones). Here are the new, young and entertaining presenters.
• Seasonal programs, often with a clear interest focus: Health, exercise, food, fashion, travel and everything that catches different popular subjects. The titles of the programs change with the seasons of the year.
• Viral material, e.g. lists and clips from all over the world.
• Developing the business model. How much advertising? Where and when? And how do we build more conceptual solutions when it comes to the financing of new features? The program Sommargrillen (Summer Barbecue) has obvious sponsors and so has Hårdträning (Tough Training).
• More analysis. And still more. We will be better than linear TV in giving the advertisers facts about our viewers.
• Be there on all platforms. TV everywhere and all of the time and particulary when the viewers want it; on the mobile, the iPad and the computer.
• Distribute our content to more platforms than just Aftonbladet. Quite a lot of Aftonbladet TV is on Spotify, some one Youtube. We want to be everywhere.
• Make our platforms better so that those who click and watch can move without friction on our surfaces and easily find what they are looking for.

When I came to Aftonbladet in January 2014 I brought a large baggage of experience from the world of TV. I had strong views about what Aftonbladet should be doing. We were to be an own division and do more long programs; half an hour or anhour. We were to start a new linear TV channel. After intense work we got a broadcasting license for the digital terrestrial net.

But we changed our minds and started again. Once, a couple of times. All of a sudden I had entered a world where the audience came in fast and watched even faster. Short clips and bang on to the most important straight away. That’s how the mobile, the iPad and the computer work.

We stopped bothering with the TV channel and chiseled out another strategy. There was no schedule. There were shorter programs, more programs on more topics, more changes of programs, integration with social media, close cooperation with the ads sales, more conceptual deals, more distribution etc. And we now work in cooperation with the news desk. Close to each other. Away with the silo thinking!

Fires everywhere

In the old days when there was black and white, and some color, we talked about campfires. Almost four million people were watching when the Swedish hockey team played against the Soviet Union in the Hockey World Cup. Today there are fires every here and there: On Aftonbladet TV, on YouTube, Twitter or Snapchat. And the TV stories are being shared left and right. That’s how the new campfires are formed.

In earlier times news was only broadcasted at fixed hours. We are now broadcasting live all the time. We can count over 1,000 live broadcasts a year. Several a day. And we go live immediately. It took us a minute to put out the news about the Boston bombing in April 2013. The broadcast then went on for 20 hours. The terror bombing in Paris in January 2015; the same swiftness followed by in-depth coverage. Regardless as to whether it is about a hunt for submarines in Sweden or dramatic events abroad, Aftonbladet TV is almost always first.

We are constantly renewing the program output. In the autumn of 2014 Aftonbladet TV started a live morning talk show, several hours long. In a short time it has altered our morning routines and we can use the reporting in the news flow during the whole day. Every day Aftonbladet Morgon draws an average of 450,000 video starts.

Aftonbladet is growing. We have increased the daily average of video starts by close to 30 per cent. We have increased our revenues by almost as much.

Well, yes, there are lots of figures. In August 2015, according to Orvesto Internet, Aftonbladet had on average 879,000 viewers per day. That means we are the sixth largest TV channel in Sweden!

Feeling, will, passion and engagement are ever more important parts of the future. To dare, to take risks is part of the way to success. A way of working that eventually helps you discover the right way.

I am sure we will have more remakes and changes of strategy. Doing things wrong, adjusting the course, getting on the right track.

Nowadays I tend to say that it is not enough to say “content is king”. The one who knows the most about the viewers hasa clear advantage. It is important to look around you and to listen, not just looking at the reports from Google analytics. Watch what people do when they are watching the big TV screen; they are watching their mobile at the same time. What are people doing on the bus, on the tube, in the waiting room at the dentist and even in the Emergency Room? They are all fiddling with their mobiles. The mobile is our most important TV set. Far from that old mahogany piece in the living room.

For us, all these everyday observations serve as guidance. Aftonbladet TV is swiftness when it happens, where it happens. In-depth is us. Entertainment is us. And not least, we are an ever more important part of the mind-boggling diversity that Aftonbladet has represented for so long.

by Ann Axelsson

Moving Storytelling

We all want to be let in on what’s going on. This last decade’s great change in media has taken this to a whole new level. As media users we can be present everywhere, at all times, and we no longer accept being treated as spectators from the outside. Nora Thorp Bjørnstad, News Anchor and Reporter at VGTV, gives her view on how to take the users safely, well-informed and moved – inside the news.

In this age of smartphones, Snapchat, Vimeo, Periscope and video blogs, anyone can report on screen. You too probably have, or will. When you find yourself in the middle of something that catches the media’s eye, whether you’re a reporter yourself, or just happen to be at the right (or wrong…) place at the right time, chances are you’ll be caught on camera.

I quit a job at the flagship news program of Norway’s state broadcaster, NRK, to join the building up of what is best described as a cheeky little brother on the national media scene; VGTV. No one could tell us for sure what this was going to become. And most of us still don’t know. What we do know is that the only way of meeting the current shift in paradigms in media is to be flexible, curious, and adaptable. The traditional TV broadcasters still have a set of expectations from their audience that makes them stick to a certain format. My experience is that starting on the other side; online, gives a great advantage when the shifting habits of the users is what controls the market.

But in competition with the massive amount of talking selfies out there, how do you stand out as a communicator? How do you make people care about what you want to tell them? This is my humble insight to how:

SHOW, DON’T TELL: Let the viewers see for themselves. The point of live video reporting is images. Some, you will have to create yourself by explaining. But when you can, let the viewers see what you want to communicate. And remember; for those watching, a picture will always win over words. So make sure your story begins with the images you show.

YOU NEED TO MOVE: The age of a humongous film camera bolted to the ground is over. This only gives the audience a limited insight in what goes on. Take your audience with you. Make them see all the things thatcatch your eye. In terms of access to actual impressions, information and knowledgeable sources, you are very privileged to be on site. So be generous; Make the viewers feel like they have this access, too.

LOOK INTERESTED: Act interested. Otherwise, I guarantee you that your audience won’t be. Remember, you’re doing this live report because there’s a story to tell. There’s no point in telling it if people don’t listen.

KEEP IT SHORT: The world of news content is moving fast. Very few people have minutes to spare if what you have to say doesn’t interest them. Compressing your story will challenge you to see what the actual story is about. That often makes it a more attractive story, and you will certainly reach more people that way.

MAKE IT WARM: Just as static, stiff cameras are passé, so are stiff bodies. Make sure you’re warm when reporting, to avoid looking like a frozen popsicle with high shoulders. That is not a confident communicator.

SAY IT SIMPLE: It is literally Chinese fortune cookie philosophy, but this little note I found one evening dining at the local Beijing Palace, struck me as some good advice on how to report live in an engaging manner. Do not try to impress the viewers with fancy words or phrasing. That goes for both reporters and the sources you interview. The only thing you achieve is alienating those who don’t understand. And you want to reach out to as many as possible.

Compared to the other TV channels, we are few and new. This could be a challenge, but ends up giving us great advantages: The viewers of online TV don’t expect the same from us as from the traditional broadcasters we compete against. They accept a product that’s rougher, less polished, less formal. But then again: it’s authentic. We can focus on efficiency, rather than vanity. This makes us work faster and often reach site first.

Another advantage of being relatively “new”; As a media house that mainly consisted of print journalists a few years ago, the video way to break a story is still seen with the excitement of something new. That means a wonderfully enthusiastic attitude to contributing. Everyday we grow stronger, better, inspired by this excitement of entrepreneurs. And before you know it, the flexibility live reporting online makes you strike gold: Vladimir Putin forteller VG om forholdet til Stoltenberg

It means that you can take chances on projects that seem like to much of a risk, like predicting the Northern lights live: Dette har aldri vært sett på direkte TV før (Or check out 2:09:48 of the same clip! We succeded in stunting a 3 hour direct broadcast with guests during the northern lights in the arctic!)

by Ann Axelsson

Autonomous cars and medtech

There’s a lot of prophecies about how tech will change our daily lives. From smart houses to having a robot as your personal assistant. Let’s walk out of the house and look into what self-driving cars might to do our surroundings and get a bit realistic about Medtech.

The advancement of self-driving cars is a bit of an argument, to say the least. Will they conquer our streets in three or 30 years? That’s a bit unclear.

It’s hard to neglect their presence though. Google is said to have driven more than 1,3 million miles, and the number of companies that want a piece of the pie is growing steadily.

But there’s more to autonomous cars than just the transportation part. How will they affect our cities?

In the utopian way of thinking – a city with self-driving cars will be a much better place. Less traffic, no traffic jams, less parking lots, less accidents and no fuzz.

A fact is that large cities like London are thinking of what this might actually mean, when planning ahead. They think about more narrow roads leaving space for green areas, about less investment in infrastructure, and how this might change perspectives – focusing on the inhabitants needs. They also think about how todays infra structure like bus stops and traffic lights could be part of the connected city.

In a self-driving car era we probably won’t own our own car. There will be pools of autonomous cars and we will simply use these with some sort of leasing agreement, in a door to door-system where the car will be no more than a tool to bring you from A to B.

Some argue that this also will be a democratization process, where mobility will be available for everyone – even those who are limited today, like disabled or elderly.

On the downside: yes, all together this is probably an utopian prophecy, at least there will be lots of stages on the way. And which ethical dilemmas might occur, that puts things at stake? How should a self-driving car act when there is a school bus with kids in front and the accident is inevitable? Would it sacrifice the two persons inside the car to save the children?

And what to do if you like to speed of in a nice looking car that you’re really fond of? Perhaps owning and driving a non self-driving car will be like the vinyl record trend today – a nostalgic, somewhat nerdy or perhaps exclusive hobby.

Medtech – taking the load of your doctor

You might find the wearable on your wrist revolutionizing your running. Or enjoy (or not) your watch reminding you that your not moving around enough. But the interesting and game changing thing about health and tech has more to do with real life or death.

Med tech was the largest theme on this year’s tech convention South By Southwest.

Obviously there is no lack of ideas and projects, and medtech could indeed change the future of health care and medicine – if it all comes true.

To trigger your fantasy just a bit:  Wouldn’t it be great if you could take an intelligent pill that scan your status and make sure that you take the right dose of medicine the next day? Or to use bioelectronics medicine instead of chemicals, pills or injections through a small device attached to a nerv, optimize your brain with neuroscience or have a chip restoring your memory?

All this is probably a bit off in the future, though. When speaking of health and medicine it’s another game than keeping track of how many steps you’ve been taking or self diagnoses online. You got to get into the scientific way of doing things, you need clinical tests to prove what works and there’s a lot of regulations. This means resources and long processes.

More down to earth and maybe not so far off, tech and data could take the load of your doctor, for real – enabling her to focus on important stuff. We’re talking about data, your history and medical issues gathered and analyzed. This would also get rid of one of the most expensive challenges in health care – people who seek help when they don’t really need to.

South by Southwest (SXSW)

SXSW is a set of annual conferences and festivals in Austin, Texas, gathering experts and enthusiasts within, film, music and interactive media.
The music festival is regarded as the largest of it’s kind, featuring more than 2 200 acts and attracting more than 30 000 registrants in 2016.
SXSW film started of focusing on indie films but is now also attracting larger players.
The interactive part is focused on emerging technology and trends and attracts start up hunters as well as industry leaders within tech and media. The first SXSW festival took place in 1987.

by Ann Axelsson