Editor’s note: Bergens Tidende’s “Journey Around the World” won INMA’s highest award, “Best in Show,” at its Global Media Awards in May 2023.

Schibsted’s Bergens Tidende is the largest regional media house in Norway. Statsraad Lehmkuhl is a famous local sailboat that many people in Bergen take pride in.

So in August 2021 when Statsraad Lehmkuhl set off for its most extensive adventure ever — the One Ocean Expedition — Bergens Tidende (BT) went along. What started with a vague idea became one of our longest-running projects, ending 19 months later with a spectacular homecoming festival. Thousands of people were there to greet the voyagers. The whole city was on its feet.

The quest

Statsraad Lehmkuhl visited 40 ports around the world to raise awareness of sustainability and vulnerable oceans. Through our project, BT readers were able to participate in the entire research quest. 

They were onboard for sunsets and sundowns in the most far-away and hidden places. They sailed the beautiful shores of Patagonia. They anchored up just beyond the stunning beaches of the Pacific islands and the Caribbean islands. And they joined the crew around a roaring Cape Horn.

Every sailor’s dream, we’ve been told.

The new type of feature

Our somewhat fluffy ambition was to inspire readers to acquire knowledge. At the same time, we wanted to be a digital sanctuary, a place to sail away and perhaps dream away.

The basic idea was to create a hybrid between a long read and instant reporting. This fusion evolved to a brand new format. A live feature story, trying to combine fast and instant with slow and dwelling.

It was partly a travelling blog, partly a news feed, but most of all, it was a perpetually updated online voyage. A continuously updated postcard without an ending for 19 months. A story that just kept growing.

Logging the journey

We created a special Web page that, in the beginning, was more of a laboratory. Let’s see where this is going!

The page had a distinctly different feel and featured a detailed 3D model of Statsraad Lehmkuhl. This separated it from other BT content, emphasising that it was something special.

The anchor of the Web page was a 360-degree live mast camera, updated once a minute. BT’s readers could swipe and zoom and explore the destinations as the ship moved from port to port. Or stare at the flat sea. It’s been called a haven for “digital zen.”

One picture each minute for 603 days. That’s about a million pictures from around the world. We experienced some technical difficulties but managed to keep the camera up and running for most of the journey.  

The pictures were used to create video postcards: timelapse, fast videos of the ship entering and leaving lively harbours, or hidden and spectacular parts of the world. They were mini-journeys compressed into a few seconds.

Users received frequent updates of daily life on board, as well as posts based on the captain’s log. The feed also provided pure news and reports on the research onboard. For example, BT reported when world star and hometown hero Kygo boarded at Cape Horn and when the entire crew ended up in quarantine in New York.

We also created a harbour generator, which was a visualisation of where the ship was located on the route and where it was headed. The solution was also used at the famous local aquarium in Bergen, where it was presented on a large screen for all visitors to enjoy.

The homecoming

Since its launch in August 2021, the Web page has generated more than 1 million page views, far exceeding what Bergens Tidende hoped for when we sat sail.

More importantly, in a time when BT’s readers couldn’t travel the world due to the coronavirus crisis, we brought the world to our readers. 

The project has been a playground to test new ways of narrating, but let’s not completely forget the old. The day the ship returned, April 15, it was greeted with a 32-page magazine story in the newspaper. Basically, we took the whole online special and made it into a print special.

The ship was also greeted by thousands of people surrounding the harbour of Bergen.

It was an astonishing attendance which surprised us all, even though we know very well that this city likes to throw a good party.

For Bergens Tidende, the attendance also was a great confirmation. Our readers seemed to have enjoyed the journey.

Photos by Rune Sævig. 

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