The paper newspaper is becoming an increasingly rare sight when several of the country’s morning newspapers are struggling with the economy. Above all, the local newspapers are facing huge challenges for their survival, according to media researchers.
Fewer release days
Several newspapers are reducing the number of publication days for the paper newspaper. One of them is Östersunds-Posten, which from March next year will only publish a paper newspaper three days a week.
– We are making this change because we have to purely financially. But we will still come out with the paper newspaper three days a week and the other days we have the e-newspaper which looks exactly like the paper edition but is instead available digitally for our readers, says Andreas Olsen, editorial director at Östersunds-Posten.
Rural areas are hit the hardest
Östersunds-Posten is far from the only newspaper that goes in this direction. The media group Stampen – which includes fifteen subscription morning newspapers – will from 2027 only have paper newspapers in the urban areas. The reason is financial:
– Distribution will be too expensive. The paper also has to support itself and will remain within very limited geographical areas, says Stampen Media CEO Johan Hansson to the industry magazine Journalisten.
The ads end up on Facebook
According to media researchers, it is a natural development that the media houses reduce the paper newspaper and switch to investing more in digital
– It is difficult for newspapers to keep the old things because so much of the advertising money today goes to the big tech giants such as Facebook and Google. Then it is natural to make a transition more to the digital, says Ingela Wadbring, media researcher at Mittuniversitetet.
How then does Östersunds-Posten answer the question if they do not let down the readers who prefer the paper newspaper?
– I understand that it will be a big change for those who read the newspaper in paper form. But ÖP is both in our app and online, so I hope that more and more people will find us there. And I also believe that the paper newspaper, even if we reduce the number of publication days, will remain for a long time to come, says Andreas Olsen.
Mostly older people who read on paper
The reading of daily newspapers on paper has steadily declined in Sweden in the last decade. Last year, only one in five newspaper readers – 22 percent – chose paper. And it is perhaps not entirely surprising that the elderly prefer to smell the ink.
According to The Internet Foundation’s latest report are used, printed newspapers are used to the highest degree by the oldest, i.e. those in their 20s, 30s and 40s (64 percent). The proportion of readers then drops significantly already among the 50-somethings (43 percent). Print newspapers then continue to lose readers with falling age.