Dagens Næringsliv
& Live Center
Norway’s leader in investigative journalism uses
live blogging to keep news constantly fresh
Introduction
The balance between in-depth investigative journalism and leading the charge with constantly breaking news is one Dagens Næringsliv (DN) has prided itself on striking.
With the help of Live Center live-blogging technology, DN found a way to focus journalists’ efforts on investigative journalism and exclusive in-depth stories while continuing to publish a constant and fresh flow of breaking and updated news and information.
Dagens Næringsliv (DN) is a business-focused newspaper in Norway, founded in 1890. DN, part of the NHST Media Group, is one of Norway’s largest and most influential news outlets.
Circulation/readership: 300,000+ per day
The problem
Seeking the best of two worlds
Quality has been a watchword for DN since its inception. As a business newspaper, they have focused resources and time on investigating and publishing exclusive, high-quality stories that demand days to write and weeks or months to research.
Yet as a trusted news source with a reputation for breaking news and sharing up-to-the-second information, DN needed a faster, more convenient way to share more bite-sized, but important, information instantly.
DN’s Target Group Manager, Marit Tronier Halvorsen, explains “We want to be exclusive and have the best investigative coverage balanced with being the best in breaking news. We know that a full article takes a lot of time to produce, but we need to be able to publish something more, all the time, when that high-quality content is being created."
The solution
Giving journalists tools for instant news
Live blogging and DN’s Nyhetstudio filled this role, enabling journalists to rapidly write and post frequent updates to ensure that the freshest information is available and that users always got the impression that every time they visited DN, they would see something new.
DN’s Target Group Manager, Marit Tronier Halvorsen, explained “With live blogging, we can constantly deliver short-form news, which is really fast to publish, and satisfy that requirement for breaking news. Live blogging enables a kind of just-the-facts news flash that creates an impression of something new being published all the time."
The benefits of balance: More time for in-depth journalism, more touchpoints for readers
Live Center opened up possibilities for using resources better, according to Marit. In-depth journalism requires time, resources and focus, and not every piece of data or information requires a full article. With live blogging, it is simple to provide readers with real-time, near-constant updates without taking valuable time away from journalists’ core work or diluting the effect of the longer-form, high-quality content journalists produce.
DN’s Latest News banner prominently crowns the dn.no website and pulls in fresh posts from different live blogs, such as Nyhetsstudio and Investor. This dynamic feature ensures a continuous stream of updates, including breaking news, to serve readers with fresh content at each visit. “Users return time and again because they perceive each time that there is always something new and engaging for them,” Marit shared. “We see a lower risk of churn and a higher chance of gaining new subscriptions by meeting this need for instant, constant information.”
Live blogging allows DN to spin up live blogs for specific, time-bound events, such as for election coverage or to cover updates on natural disasters or health crises like Covid-19.
Conclusion
Continuing to grow while delivering both exclusive content and breaking news will require new strategies.
Marit acknowledged that DN is experimenting with different strategies for subscriber growth and user stickiness/engagement. “The overall strategy so far has been to keep Live Center-based blog coverage open to everyone while decreasing the number of exclusive articles you can read on DN without being a subscriber. We want to give everyone something for free, but reserve high-quality content for subscribers.”
The future may include new monetization possibilities, including in-blog ads.
Ready to try out Live Center for yourself?
2x - 4x
More page views
than regular articles
80%
More ad impressions per page
view than regular articles
60%
Our clients cover live events
60% more after using Live Center