In this track, there were two presentations. The first one was from two Norwegian journalists working for NRK, Constructive Editor Ingrid Tinmannsvik together with News Editor Erik Kroken.
Erik started the session claiming there is an increase of young people avoiding the news all over the world and what needs to be done is showing them that there is still hope. That’s why the Lyspunkt website was founded, giving people hope with constructive stories. So far, they’ve had a huge engagement – three million page views with one million users. They are also huge on Snapchat with 280,000 young subscribers.
They aim to strengthen and develop democracy and culture. “You can be critical and constructive at the same time,” says Ingrid, noting the importance of explaining things in a way young people find interesting and are able to understand. According to this they have four needs: understanding, community, break, and hope. This generation also enjoys healthy debates and visual elements paired with correctly used humor.
The next speaker, Tav Klitgaard, CEO of online magazine Zetland,unveils the secrets behind the company’s success – and explains why half of their subscribers are under 35 years old. Although the company didn’t initially aim to attract mainly the young audience the digestible and authentic format of the content Zetland creates seems to be appealing especially to the news fatigued and overwhelmed young people.
With eighty percent of Zetland’s content being available in audio, readers can take a break from their screens. Emphasizing the customer centricity, journalists create content that is not only trustworthy but also friendly and authentic – they try to make you feel as if you listened to your friend sharing a fascinating story in a cafe. By no means the article should feel like a journalist’s homework.
