Homogenisation or Differentiation?

Abstract

This paper considers the effects of consolidation on the content of regional newspapers in Norway. A case study investigates how the Norwegian media company Schibsted influences the content of its four regional newspapers Aftenposten, Fædrelandsvennen, Stavanger Aftenblad and Bergens Tidende. The aim is to establish the extent to which levels of pluralism are reducing as a result of consolidation strategies. Schibsted's cost-cutting measures initiated in 2012 include staff reductions, content syndication and centralisation of core services. This trend towards shrinking newsrooms, digital specialisation, and centralised layout and editing is recognised internationally, particularly in chain newspapers. In this study, Schibsted's regional print and online news outlets are subjected to a comparative content analysis aiming to establish levels of homogenisation between the titles. Findings indicate differentiation strategies remain central to regional operations, reflecting the presence of community bonds in local newspaper markets.

KEYWORDS:

• chain newspapers
• homogenisation
• media ownership
• online news
• quantitative content analysis

Notes

1. Schibsted (established 1839) is Norway's largest media company. Schibsted's newspaper subsidiary Schibsted Norge (a division established in June 2009 as Media Norge), comprises Schibsted's four regional newspapers in the national market, Aftenposten, Fædrelandsvennen, Stavanger Aftenblad and Bergens Tidende, as well as the online classifieds service Finn.no, the national title VG, the publishing house Schibsted Forlag and the printing operation NMO Trykk.

2. Current Norwegian ownership regulations divide markets into regional sectors and stipulate a 60 percent cap on total national ownership within one media platform in regional sectors (Lov 1997-06-13-53; see also Prop. 142 L [2012–2013]).

3. Circulation figures for 2013: Aftenposten 653,000; Bergens Tidende 216,000; Stavanger Aftenblad 165,000; Fædrelandsvennen 94,000 (TNS-Gallup 2013).

4. Sundays excluded to accommodate the lower publication frequency of the two smallest papers.

5. Printed editions: Aftenposten N = 578; Bergens Tidende N = 528; Stavanger Aftenblad N = 577; Fædrelandsvennen N = 440.

6. From www.aftenposten.no; www.fvn.no; www.aftenladet.no; www.bt.no.

7. The application Web2PDF is an application for Mac that saves Web pages in the PDF format with HTML codes included.

8. Online editions: Aftenposten N = 536; Bergens Tidende N = 394; Stavanger Aftenblad N = 368; Fædrelandsvennen N = 396.

9. The variables were designed to be mutually exclusive and register variations within the following broad topical categories: politics, crime, economy, social issues, culture, everyday life, sport, accidents and other.

10. Inter-coder reliability was established using two independent coders measuring Cohen's Kappa. Included in the reliability sample were the printed editions of Stavanger Aftenblad 25 January 2013, Bergens Tidende 28 Jaunary 2013 and Fædrelandsvennen 29 January 2013. Content: 84 per cent/0.80 (N = 238), and geographic location: 87 per cent/0.80 (N = 255). As Cohen's Kappa is a conservative measure (in cases of high distribution and low variance), any measure above 0.70 is considered acceptable (Neuendorf 2002, 143–151).

11. Schibsted's newspapers also collaborate with Adresseavisa (owned by Polaris Media), a regional newspaper published in the mid-Norway town of Trondheim. Some form of content exchange has existed between the Schibsted newspapers and Adresseavisa since 1983 (Fosse, Tornes, and Østbye 2010).