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Zetland (company)

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Zetland
Type of site
News
Available inDanish
Created by
  • Jakob Moll (CEO)
  • Silke Bock
  • Hakon Mosbech
  • Lea Korsgaard
EditorLea Korsgaard
URLwww.zetland.dk
RegistrationYes
Users10,000
Launched23 March 2012; 12 years ago (2012-03-23)
Current statusOnline

Zetland is a Danish media company founded in 2012. Headquartered in Copenhagen, it publishes three to four news articles daily, focusing on long-form stories and in-depth articles.[2][3] A subscription-based organization, it had over 8,500 subscribers as of July 2017.[2] The editor-in-chief is Lea Korsgaard [da], formerly of Berlingske and Politiken,[4] who co-founded Zetland along with Jakob Moll (now CEO), Silke Bock, and Hakon Mosbech.[5]

Founded in 2012, Zetland originally created single long-form stories, called e-singles, delivered monthly to subscribers. Journalists would also read their works at public events, similar to Pop-Up Magazine in the U.S.,[6] which have become central to Zetland's business model.[2][5] The company name derives from a hybrid between a zebra and Shetland pony.[2] In 2015, Zetland initiated a relaunch with a crowd-funding campaign which raised over 530,000 kroner (kr.), and additional investments of 8 million kr. The relaunch occurred in March 2016, with Zetland offering daily news articles.[5][7] In 2016, revenue was 6.2 million kr.[2] In 2018 Zetland is to receive 1.8 million kr. for editorial production services from the Danish cultural board Slots- og Kulturstyrelsen [da].[8]

Since the relaunch, notable pieces have included conversations with Justice Minister Søren Pind and British sociologist Anthony Giddens.[9] In 2017 Zetland won a trio of awards from the Society for News Design Scandinavias, including gold and "Best of Show" in the digital news category for front page, and silver in the website category.[10][11]

Zetland has been offering its stories in audio format as well as text, and that has rapidly become the most popular aspect of the site, with 60% of members now consuming their content in audio.[12]

Korsgaard attributes the growth of the title to its focus on a membership model as a community, and a constrained number of stories per day, making the site "finish-able" each day.[13]

References

  1. ^ "zetland.dk Traffic Statistics". alexa.com. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e Lichterman, Joseph (July 25, 2017). "Start your meetings with a folk song — and other ideas from the community-driven, crowdfunded Danish news site Zetland". Nieman Lab.
  3. ^ Ciobanu, Mădălina (13 April 2017). "How live journalism brings people together to build trust and excitement around stories". journalism.co.uk.
  4. ^ Hansen, Kartin L. (31 August 2016). "Journalism startup Zetland will be at SNDS16". snds.org.
  5. ^ a b c Pontes, Angela (23 February 2017). "Danish startup Zetland spreading the love with its membership model". blog.wan-ifra.org. World News Publishing Focus by WAN-IFRA.
  6. ^ Sillesen, Lene Bech (March–April 2015). "The power of Pop-Up Magazine's live journalism". Columbia Journalism Review.
  7. ^ Cobben, Ingrid (23 August 2016). "Innovation in Denmark: building a community willing to pay for quality journalism". blog.wan-ifra.org. World News Publishing Focus by WAN-IFRA.
  8. ^ Andreassen, Andreas Marckmann (12 December 2017). "Tre nye medier får støtte – Zetland får 1,8 mio. kr". Journalisten.dk (in Danish).
  9. ^ Holm, Adam (18 March 2016). "Anmeldelse: Turen går til Zetland". Politiken (in Danish).
  10. ^ Hedegaard, Anne-Laura (28 September 2017). "Zetland vandt guld for hjemmeside. Nu laver de en ny" [Zetland won gold for website. Now they are doing a new one]. Journalisten.dk (in Danish).
  11. ^ Hansen, Kartin L. (27 September 2017). "Finnish and Danish media houses top Scandinavian news design". snds.org. Society for News Design Scandinavias.
  12. ^ "Zetland's members asked for an audio version — and now it's more popular than their written stories". Nieman Lab. Retrieved 2018-05-10.
  13. ^ "Zetland: journalism as (profitable) community service". One Man & His Blog. 2017-04-24. Retrieved 2018-05-10.

External links