Let’s once and for all bury the bridge metaphor. Or – more precisely – drop it in the ocean and let it sleep with the fishes. Because the digital trans­formation is not a journey. It has no endpoint. We cannot look forward to calm days on a paradisiacal island. No, unfortunately, we are doomed to ­eternal sailing in turbulent waters.

“We are no longer talking about ­digital transformation, but the transformation of digital,” said Nic Newman, Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Several journalists have later made the quote their own. It’s not ­surprising. Newman is right. Every­thing suggests that editor-­driven media, even in the most digitalised markets, now face fundamental changes. Online newspapers as we know them are no longer cutting-edge. They may suffer the same fate as the print editions. It is adapt or die. Again.

This is something we have tried to ­address at Schibsted News Media. In the spring of 2023, a group of ­employees worked to set a ­direction for newsrooms in Norway and Sweden. The goal was not to micromanage ­editors or editorial teams. They are autonomous units and know their users best. Media houses cannot and should not be subjected to micromanagement.

Moreover, for a large media conglomerate such as Schibsted, it is beneficial and essential that media houses do not make exactly the same decisions in all situations. Different approaches ensure broad innovation, ample room for experimentation, and cross-brand learning.

But some trends are so fundamental that no one can afford to overlook them. The changes are so significant that the ­media must colla­borate to adapt to a completely new ­reality. Some of these potential epochal shifts for ­journalism were ­addressed by the project Next Generation Newsrooms. The work resulted in a series of proposals for ­initiatives at Schibsted News Media. Here are three of the most crucial:

Invest in our brands

Invest in our brands with trust and ­authenticity as our main differentiator. In general, Schibsted’s brands have high trust, and we set strict ­requirements to adhere to our edi­torial guidelines. But all media are being challenged by generative AI on parameters such as speed, cost, and product experiences. It will become increasingly challenging both for ­reporters and the audience to ­navigate sources and facts amidst the explosion of content production.

Therefore, there is reason to prepare ourselves for trust and authenticity to be our most important ­value proposition. Authenticity is our strongest card when much of today’s human-­created content can be replaced by generative AI. The media needs to strengthen and nurture trust and authenticity, and equally important: communicate clearly how we work and how we adhere to our ethical standards. We cannot take for granted that the audience understands what lies behind genuine, truth-seeking journalism.

Leverage AI

Leverage AI for better products and efficient newsrooms. Schibsted News Media has been experimenting with AI and robot journalism for a long time and has a strong foundation to build on. However, the use and development of AI tools have often been limited to ­specific groups and have not transpired into widespread knowledge. This cannot continue. Whilst ­generative AI poses a threat to us, it will be a crucial enabler to deliver on customer expectations regarding our product and content. To succeed, time is of the essence, both to reap short-term benefits and even more importantly to experiment and get familiar with AI in the newsrooms, to keep up and adapt.

After the project group deli­vered its recommendations, all ­media houses in Schibsted appointed AI-responsible personnel. Several teams are collaborating across the board and sharing experiences. We have hired a coordinator with substantial technological and journalistic experience to lead the work. One of the goals is to identify potential new needs and steps in the editorial workflow and recommend the next actions for tooling development. The significant change, however, is not about building tools but creating a culture for experimenting with gene­rative AI throughout the organisation. Even though this technological paradigm shift can be a threat and must be met with healthy criticism, we must also embrace all the opportunities we now have. They can represent a new spring for journalism.

Challenge ourselves

Challenge ourselves from within and outside. If we are to be completely honest, not much has changed since the first online newspapers became accessible to everyone in the early 2000s. We still present our content in traditional formats. The storytelling techniques are strikingly similar to those we swore by when print newspapers were at their peak. It’s a paradox. Our users have long since adapted to new content formats. And yes, they actually prefer them to news media.

Surveys show that the next generation of news readers spend far more time on TikTok than on all traditional media. But that’s not all. They also use social media to keep up with the news picture, even during major news events. We cannot overlook this.

Our challenge is that our core audience, the traditional newspaper readers, are highly satisfied with our products. If we change too much and too quickly, they protest. It’s bad for business. The consequence is that we spend a lot of time on incremental ­innovation, but we probably do not allocate enough time and resources to radical changes and ­experimentation. This causes the gap between us and the next generation to widen. And it could become so large that it’s impossible to build a bridge (pun intended) over the chasm.

To avoid this future, it was a clear recommendation from the project that Schibsted allocate more resources to creating news products ­specifically targeted at young people and ­other groups who do not find us relevant ­today. This can naturally happen under an established brand, but we believe that we should also test out entirely new services, not necessarily to ­replace ­today’s websites, but to ­enable experimentation with very ­radical solutions.

The project does not point to a single redemptive solution for the newsrooms of the future. We cannot draw a detailed map to a safe haven for journalism. Our suggestion is ­rather to launch a whole series of large and small speed boats that can provide us with a higher development pace, better dialogue with the audience, and a greater opportunity to adapt to a technological shift that we haven’t seen the likes of since the internet emerged. We are not sure where it will lead us, but we are confident that our fuel will be trust and journalistic credibility.