Editor-driven content is a competitive advantage

In recent years, many battles have been fought between Norwegian media and multinational competitors for advertisers' budgets. Norwegian media have suffered many defeats against large and heavy international giants. Now the tide is turning - and editor-driven Norwegian media are once again on the offensive.

Those of us who represented media that were edited according to the editorial charter have probably previously been seen as a bit backward. We were being overrun by multinational giants like Google and Facebook, American and multinational companies that were said to represent the future. At the same time as they tried to portray traditional media as "old-fashioned" and conservative.

There is no doubt that we editor-controlled, with long Norwegian traditions, have had a common enemy for many years. According to the latest status report from the Norwegian Media Authority, global players such as Google and Facebook made off with NOK 7.1 billion of the Norwegian advertising billions, which amounted to just under NOK 20 billion in 2020.

But we, in the editor-controlled media companies, have been true to our philosophy - and now the results are coming. We have - almost as a matter of course - maintained the integrity and editing in accordance with the editorial charter, and clearly distinguished between advertising of many kinds and editorial content.

Development of digital advertising solutions

Thanks to our excellent editorial products, we at Aller Media have never lost faith in advertising as a source of revenue. That is why we have strengthened our entire internal advertising apparatus and especially the digital parts of this.

Digital advertising solutions have developed in all varieties in recent years, including display, TV/video, search, influencer marketing and much more. The possibilities are many, and we have chosen to make use of a majority of them. This has created growth - and satisfied customers. It is therefore not without reason that we have added 11 new heads to our commercial department in the last couple of months.

These new minds challenge us. They come from the outside, have slightly different frames of reference and sources, think a little differently than us - and we benefit from that. It may make us a little sweaty at times, but we all benefit from being put outside our comfort zone. That also applies to me.

The advertising products are more numerous, the traffic on our editor-controlled websites is greater, the niches deliver a greater number of unique users than before and we know far more about the users and their usage situation than before, not least through the use of aID. Put another way: Our quantity has increased during the pandemic - and the quality of our data has improved accordingly. Yes, we now have 2.5 million unique users on a weekly basis.

Two trends that are reversing

It is not only Aller Media that is experiencing a positive development. Several of the other Norwegian and editorial-controlled companies are reporting an increase, which is gratifying.

There have been several clear trends in the advertising market in recent years, but some of the trends seem to be changing. The trend of digital advertising increasing will continue. All signs point to that.

But there has also been a trend of the multinational giants taking an increasing share of the advertising pie and the editor-driven media losing ground.

These are two trends that are now reversing. Editor-driven media can look back on a good 2021 in terms of both consumer numbers and advertising revenue, and through increased usage and solid media data, we are in the process of recouping advertising dollars from global companies.

Together with the other Norwegian and Nordic players, we have started to recapture the advertising millions. 2021 gave us the confidence.

Let's get our advertising money back!

Editorial content is also important for the machinery of society, and the credibility of editorial products is in itself an actual commercial value. In this way, editorial content has become a competitive advantage in the battle for advertising dollars.

Chris Tallerås Steen, Commercial Director