Jens Barland | Gjøvik University College (original) (raw)

Papers by Jens Barland

This case study of VG+, the platform for paid digital content published by the Norwegian media ou... more This case study of VG+, the platform for paid digital content published by the Norwegian media outlet VG,reports a process of innovation for new revenue streams in the digital news market. As is typical of suchmedia innovations, development and change have been stepwise and gradual, responding continuouslyto experience. Data gathering and mapping of users’ behaviour have been crucial for these innovations.Such knowledge about users has informed changes to the product, resulting in growth of customers andrevenue streams

SAGE Open

Since the early years of the 21st century, the newspaper industries of Western liberal democracie... more Since the early years of the 21st century, the newspaper industries of Western liberal democracies have been in a perpetual crisis caused by disruptive digital innovators outside the industry. Until recently, the industry and researchers have conveyed a predominantly pessimistic view of the future. This paper argues that after numerous unsuccessful innovations, the industry is now in the middle of a global paradigm shift with a huge impact on journalism as a business and showing a promising path forward. The new “Readers First Paradigm” is replacing “Advertisers First” The former constitutes a new way of doing business, consisting of two main changes: a revised value proposition focusing on reader preferences and subscriptions; a fully digitized operational model built around AI and machine learning. The article shows that until recently, the paradigm shift has been largely overlooked by researchers in the field. Further, a theoretical framework of industrial paradigm shifts is deve...

Ledelse av mennesker i det nye arbeidslivet, 2020

This chapter explores ways in which legacy newspapers may transform their business and operationa... more This chapter explores ways in which legacy newspapers may transform their business and operational models to ensure profitability and protect journalistic ideals. This transformation is explored through the lens of Norwegian media company Amedia, an early innovator. Our analysis sheds light on the ways in which the industry has come to understand the digital attention economy as defined through key innovations initiated by Google and Facebook. At Amedia, these innovations paved the way for a major corporate turnaround in which data harvesting and AI play major roles. The turnaround is still ongoing after seven years, but preliminary conclusions can be drawn. Within an ecological view of organizational adaption, this chapter proposes six theses about design requirements and transformation for legacy newspapers and concludes with four key findings: a) survivability will be difficult without the implementation of a new AI-operational model and business model built on software, b) a spa...

Norsk medietidsskrift, 2021

tion and the students' experience, and, as a result, identify challenges and opportunities. Our a... more tion and the students' experience, and, as a result, identify challenges and opportunities. Our aim is to contribute to a fact-based discourse on such practice-related educational activities. The paper is anchored in both pedagogical methods and relevant theory. On this basis, six learning activities perceived as important in an industry-related collaboration are defined. Students' perceptions of these learning activities are mapped through analysis of data from the study barometer, documentation in the institution's quality system, and qualitative and quantitative surveys. The findings in the article are based on analysis and assessments of data collected against the six defined learning activities, and some of the activities appear to lead to higher student satisfaction and can therefore be considered more important than others.

Norsk medietidsskrift, 2013

Vi oppsummerer denne pilotstudien med følgende observasjoner fra samtalen i lesergruppen: • De fo... more Vi oppsummerer denne pilotstudien med følgende observasjoner fra samtalen i lesergruppen: • De forholder seg til at medier inneholder både journalistikk og reklame, og skjelner mellom disse når journalistikk og reklame fremstår på tradisjonelt vis. • Tradisjonell reklame leses som reklame, og dette leses på en annen måte enn øvrig innhold. Det leses som kjøpsbudskap. Dette leses med skepsis, men blir også oppfattet som positivt når man er interessert i temaet. • Innholdsmarkedsføring oppleves som mindre «masete» enn tradisjonell reklame. Leserne ga uttrykk for at de likte enkelte av eksemplene med innholdsmarkedsføring, og at den kommersielle samarbeidspartneren kunne være relevant med hensyn til temaet. Denne innholdsmarkedsføringen trigget ikke «reklamefiltrene» leserne selv hadde sagt de hadde. • Reklame som kan se ut som journalistikk, blir forvekslet med journalistikk. Det skjer ikke alltid, men det forekommer. • Selv for reklameinnhold som er tydelig merket, kan det bli forvekslet med journalistikk, slik som i eksemplet med VG Partnerstudio og Rema 1000. Der tok det lang tid før dette ble oppfattet som reklame selv om merkingen var tydelig. • Det brukes mange ulike merker for å vise at noe er kommersielt innhold. I sum blir dette uoversiktlig og utydelig for leserne. • Det er forskjell på hvordan merkelappene fungerer overfor leserne. Eksempler på merking som blir oppfattet som reklame er når det står «annonse» eller ord avledet av dette. Det gjelder også «kommersiell markedsføring» og også ikonet av handlevognen. Eksempler på ord som ikke uten videre oppfattes som reklame er merking som inneholder ord som «samarbeid», «partner» eller lignende. • Effekten av ulik merking fremstår som et spesielt interessant spørsmål videre, alternativt også å undersøke om det er andre virkemidler enn merking alene som gjør det tydelig om stoff med innholdsmarkedsføring er reklame. • Forbruker- og livsstilstoff assosieres med reklame selv om det ikke er for bestemte produkter. De gjenspeiler at mediene på disse felt leses som materielle produkter. Noen stoffområder oppfattes som kommersielle, uavhengig av merking. Det var tilfellet med eksemplene Nettavisen Reisetips og Aftenposten Reise. Sistnevnte er journalistisk, men ble lest som kommersielt innhold

This introductory chapter describes how the digitalization of media has boosted the trend of cont... more This introductory chapter describes how the digitalization of media has boosted the trend of content marketing. In the context of digital media, content marketing is growing due to the fact that anyone can publish, anyone can reach a large targeted audience through social media, and professional content publishers can harvest data on their digital users. The definition of “content marketing” is discussed and elaborated, and the new concept of content marketing is related to older content-oriented marketing practices as well. This chapter is based on a Norwegian context and practice, as is the rest of this book

Tekstreklame var konflikten som startet diskusjonene om presseetikk for over 100 arsiden. I dag r... more Tekstreklame var konflikten som startet diskusjonene om presseetikk for over 100 arsiden. I dag reduserer digitaliseringen journalistikkens fortrinn som annonsekanal ogmedienes inntekter krymper. K ...

Digital Journalism, 2021

The newspaper industry is in a deepening revenue crisis and the advertising side of the news busi... more The newspaper industry is in a deepening revenue crisis and the advertising side of the news business has virtually collapsed as a result of global competition with technology platforms, as well as the Covid-19 outbreak. This study examines the business of digital journalism through a revenue diversification lens and maps how the revenue streams of a national newspaper industry is shifting. Our case study is the Norwegian newspaper industry's revenue streams from 2006 to 2019, a media market deemed particularly successful in making readers pay for news online. By means of industry data, we measure revenue diversification by applying the Revenue Diversity Index-an index which quantifies the number of revenue streams and the distribution amongst them for the whole newspaper industry. The findings identify a forced diversification which challenges assumptions of a simple and positive relationship between revenue diversification and economic performance. We find that revenue structures have flipped from an advertising based model to an audience dominated model, with a larger diversity of revenue sources but lower total revenues overall. The increasing prices of digital journalism may further expand knowledge gaps in the population between those willing and able to pay and those who are not.

Norsk medietidsskrift, 2018

Norsk medietidsskrift, 2017

The Journal of Media Innovations, 2015

The Journal of Media Innovations, 2014

Indrek Ibrus and Carlos A. Scolari (editors) Title: Crossmedia Innovations. Texts, Markets, Insti... more Indrek Ibrus and Carlos A. Scolari (editors) Title: Crossmedia Innovations. Texts, Markets, Institutions Publisher: Peter Lang GmbH, Frankfurt, 2012 ISBN: 978-3-631-62228-5 (softcover), 978-3-653-02575-0 (eBook) 319 pages