Aftenposten is the largest traditional broadsheet morning newspaper in Norway. During the INMA Media Subscriptions Summit on Thursday, attendees heard about a radical change the company made to better target its audience — resulting in a 25% increase in front-page subscriber clickthrough rates.

Aftenposten has 175,000 digital subscribers and around 250,000 subscribers across all platforms. Additionally, “We still have the biggest printed magazine, but of course most of our growth today is put into products in the digital space,” explained Eirik Hammersmark Winsnes, commercial director at Aftenposten.

It starts with goals

 Identifying goals is crucial for anyone, especially a business. Aftenposten had three objectives:

• Reaching 200,000 subscribers by the end of 2024.
• Strengthening its position across Norway.
• Reaching younger audiences.

“It could be tempting to only hunt for the consumers with the biggest willingness to pay in the short run, but we do believe that it’s really important for us to balance short-term growth with a healthy position,” Hammersmark Winsnes said.

To reach its goals, the Aftenposten team had to understand what wasn’t working. The team was missing a clear definition of the audience it was trying to target and what their needs were. That made Aftenposten’s efforts to engage them scattered and complex. It became apparent that the efforts of its editorial, product, technology, and consumer business teams were not unified. 

A new strategy

“We said, let’s scrap all those different strategies per department. Let’s have one strategy, one set of objectives we want to achieve as a company rather than doing it perfectly,” said Karl Oskar Birdahl Teien, product director. 

Aftenposten researched who its consumers are and what they want. Through internal user data and qualitative interviews with the audience, it found four distinct audience segments. People within these segments are unified through their attitudes, needs, and preferences.

This allows Aftenposten to cater to their specific needs. 

Within the target audience, there are still specific characteristics. Aftenposten created four distinct groups: the analyst, the empath, the surfer, and the sporadic. “We have to cater to different needs in different ways to different people. And our ability to do so is really the key to our success,” said Johanne Barman-Jenssen, brand manager.  

Doing the research is one thing, but applying it in practice is another. The team at Aftenposten decided to do it holistically and optimise the entire journey. The team launched a new brand campaign, which was a  “communication concept with our audience in mind,” Barman-Jenssen said. 

Once the efforts of the marketing team drive people to the Web site, the next step is creating relevant content and products. For this, Aftenposten introduced its first home page algorithm in 2017.

“Certain types of content would be relevant for all audiences. There will always be some stuff that everyone should see. But then there are types of content that are only available to niche audiences,” Birdahl Teien said.

Based on their behaviour, people see articles catering to their interests. It solves the key problem of people having different visit frequencies and interests. Aftenposten personalises less when a lot is happening and more when there are fewer major news events. Each team and department has been given clear objectives to flow in prioritised segments based on current engagement.

These efforts worked to make it easier to increase conversion rates. Offering only a few subscription models makes it easier for consumers to choose. However, it also focused on offering bundles with other Schibsted brands.

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