Digital publishing beyond software

More newspapers choose to have their entire backlist of previous editions digitalized and distributed through their ePaper solution. A digital archive is indeed a large investment, but according to Danish news group Folketidende Gruppen it’s worth every penny.

As a step in a major overhaul back in late 2016, Folketidende Gruppen launched a digital archive with all previous editions of their primary newspaper “Folketidende” - dating back to the newspaper’s foundation in 1873. At the same time, they dropped the print-only subscription and converted this into an “all inclusive”-subscription with access to the ePaper and thereby the archive.

"The digital archive was and is an important tool in our digital strategy. The implementation was the first step of our digital transformation as it was a good opportunity to emphasize the value of our ePaper,” says Michael M. Benzon, Online and Digital Manager at Folketidende Gruppen.

A great investment
Folketidende is a rather small newspaper on a European scale with 11.000 subscribers and an estimated 33.000 readers according to the latest Kantar Gallup figures. So, one would think that digitalizing nearly 150 years of work would be too big an investment. But Michael M. Benzon assures that it's far from the case. 

“We saw it as an investment in our readers and we were hoping that it would result in increased revenues in the long run. Our readers are in the high end of the age scale, so a searchable archive dating back to 1873 was very appealing to them,” he explains. 

“Half a year after the launch, we increased the subscription prices with the biggest amount to date - at a time where we wouldn’t normally be making price adjustments. Despite of this, we experienced the fewest number of terminations ever. So, the big effort and investment around the launch really paid off."

Folketidende experienced a tremendous impact following the launch of their digital archive. But they've also put many resources into it to create awareness about the product.

“We promoted the archive, informed the print subscribers about the ePaper and used all of our own channels to tell about the archive. We made features with local celebrities, e.g. with an athlete who made a big result in the ‘70s and linked it to the paper from that specific day. We invited our subscribers to workshops at our three editorial offices where we would tell about the archive and how to use it while they enjoyed a cup of coffee, a beer or a soda. So, we invested quite a lot in our readers, and I believe that our consistent focus on the ePaper was the primary cause to why the readers chose not to quit," tells Michael M. Benzon.

“We experienced a doubling of pretty much everything. More people downloaded our app, we onboarded more readers and our page views went up. We received an overwhelmingly positive feedback on our workshops, and we can see that the archive is being used extensively." 

Just go for it!
Michael M. Benzon is not hesitant to recommend a digital archive to other media groups who're looking for a way to revitalize their old content. 

"My best advice to everyone who’re considering getting a digital archive is just go for it!” he says.

“The archive launch has really emphasized the value of our ePaper. We’ve obtained more subscribers, and our phoners now have more good arguments when trying to sell our product. But the archive also has great value internally because our writers use it to find old articles etc. So, there’s an economical saving as well because we no longer need to have archives two places - it's all gathered in our ePaper." 

Want a digital archive?
If you want to learn more about digital archives, how your old print papers are digitalized and how it's implemented in your ePaper, then get in touch with your Visiolink contact. They'll be happy to answer your questions. Also, make sure you get a copy of our Archive Report. It can we downloaded by clicking below.

Each year since 2015, Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet has been doing surveys among the readers of their ePaper. They've made Visiolink responsible for conducting the surveys, so to learn more about their motivation for doing so, we’ve talked to Thomas Svensson, Marketing Manager at Ekstra Bladet.

“Basically, it’s just very nice and convenient,” Thomas Svensson begins.

“But it’s also a matter of credibility as Visiolink possess a lot of industry insights. So, they know which questions to ask and how to set it up,” he explains.

“Obviously, we could also be conducting surveys ourselves and track certain things e.g. which device are most commonly used etc. But this type of reader survey provides a very good overview of how our ePaper is performing ,” he states. 

In other words, the reader surveys enable Ekstra Bladet to explore their readers and measure their ePaper's performance. But since Visiolink also conduct reader surveys for numerous other European titles, Ekstra Bladet and their industry peers also get a common basis for comparison for the ePaper that enable them to benchmark against the industry.

Important development tool
Previous results from the reader surveys found its way to the management of Ekstra Bladet where it has been used for development purposes. Thomas Svensson explains that their ePaper solution has been modified solely on the user feedback collected from the reader survey. 

“Additional sports issues, crosswords and local newspapers have all been implemented in our ePaper solution because we could see from the reader survey that this was something the readers wanted,” Thomas Svensson explicates.

VIDEO: Thomas Svensson, Marketing Manager at Ekstra Bladet, about their motivation for conducting reader surveys. 
Note: Apologies for the poor audio quality. The video is subtitled in both English and German.

Thomas Svensson emphasizes that the value they gain from the reader survey exceeds the resources they put into it. Especially as the years go by. 

“The first year was mostly to get a sense of how our ePaper was performing, but the year after that we were able to benchmark against ourselves. This has been an eye opener,” he states and elaborates: 

“It’s this kind of continuity that makes it really convenient. If we were to do it ourselves, there probably wouldn’t be the same stringency. By outsourcing it to Visiolink, we’re kind of forced into a framework. This way we can see some movements and get a good sense of which direction our ePaper is moving,“ Thomas Svensson explains.

Ekstra Bladet is going to run the reader survey later this spring. This will be the fourth consecutive year they put Visiolink in charge of conducting the survey.

How does it work?
The reader survey is displayed as a questionnaire interstitial in the ePaper. This ensures maximum exposure as every reader needs to decide whether or not they want to complete the survey. 

In order to get as many surveys completed as possible, we recommend that you offer a prize to a randomly selected respondent. This will increase the readers' motivation for completing the survey. 

The interstitial will run for a specific period of time. Afterwards, our Business Consulting team gather the results and summarize it in a report. This report will not only show your results, but also how you benchmark against other titles of similar type and size as yours.  

The results from all of the reader surveys Visiolink conduct on behalf our customers also form the basis for our annual European ePaper Benchmark Report. 

Want us to conduct your reader survey?
If you want to know more about the reader survey and how to arrange it, please contact your Key Account Manager. They’ll be happy to tell you more about the costs and what you need to provide in order for us to conduct the reader survey on your behalf. 
You can also find more information about the reader survey by clicking the picture below.