Mittmedia, a regional media group in Sweden, embarked on a digital transformation journey in the 2010s – a time when digitalisation significantly impacted the newspaper industry and its consumers. Mittmedias vägval [Mittmedia's Choices] offers valuable insights into managing structural change within the media industry and what it was like working within the Mittmedia Group. How does a traditional local newspaper company manage digitalisation while remaining relevant to its communities under difficult economic conditions?
The consequences of digitalisation
The authors, Ingela Wadbring, Jonas Harvard, Ulrika Hedman, Catrin Johansson, and Lars Nord*, explore Mittmedia’s commitment to their “digital first” strategy, aiming to replace the print newspaper with digital products.
“Mittmedia went one step further and pursued digital transformation more bluntly than any other newspaper group at this time”, Harvard says.
But this move wasn’t without tension – decisions to centralise its newspaper operation with several editors-in-chief each responsible for multiple titles and a central unit for editing for all newspaper titles, along with cost-cutting, affected the local news quality. Readers felt that the newspaper was losing its local character.
Working conditions and an award
The authors describe Mittmedia as acting like a fast-growing tech company, but without the financial backing to innovate quickly, and there was immense pressure at all levels of the organisation. According to Wadbring, the leadership was so focused on a single direction – “the Mittmedia way” – they sometimes failed to take into account the negative impact the transformation had on the employees of the company.
“Those who didn’t agree either had to change their mindset or leave. Among the employees, however, the experience varied – some were hired as digital spearheads, while others faced the possibility of losing their jobs. Many older people struggled to keep up with the new pace and technology, making it a tumultuous time in general”, Wadbring continues.
But Mittmedia’s approach to digital transformation was also met with positive reactions. An example of this is the award for the most innovative company that Mittmedia was awarded by the International News Media Association (INMA) in 2014.
Unique material
The book is based on a research project, “Business as unusual: Journalistik, ekonomi och ledarskap i Mittmedia” [“Business as unusual: Journalism, economics, and leadership at Mittmedia], and retrospective interviews with employees, representatives of the union, and the leadership. The researchers have had access to a large set of internal documents, giving them a unique “behind-the-scenes" perspective on Mittmedia’s digital shift.
* Lars Nord, professor at Mid Sweden University and the fifth author of the book, passed away earlier this year.