It’s no secret that young people today consume news differently. At Expressen, a leading Swedish newspaper, we strive to meet young people where they are — on platforms like TikTok — to engage with them in meaningful ways.

By creating journalism tailored for the platform and continuously experimenting with formats using data-driven tools like our bespoke TikTok Score, we have connected with a significantly larger portion of the younger audience and expanded our storytelling across platforms.

Why Expressen invested in TikTok

Young people today don’t visit traditional news sites as frequently; instead, they’re often scrolling through social media feeds where content is fast-paced, visual, and interactive. At Expressen, we recognised this shift and increased our focus on TikTok, aiming to engage young Swedes and make credible journalism part of their daily lives.

But breaking through TikTok’s algorithms and capturing attention in just a few seconds is no easy task. We focused on creating content that was not only informative but also visually compelling and highly engaging.

Key strategies

In early 2023, we reorganised our social media efforts, focusing more on video platforms like TikTok. Our strategy centred on four key objectives:

• Trustworthy news coverage: We deliver the news using strong, relatable personalities. These news anchors have become well-known among young audiences, helping forge a deeper connection with our content. This personal touch ensures that our audience feels included, whether we’re covering major news events or lighter stories.
• A strong relationship: By consistently delivering valuable content that keeps the audience informed and entertained, we aim to grow followers who see Expressen as a go-to source for news. With uniform graphic templates, the audience quickly recognises our videos.
• Highlight our platforms: We want to guide users from TikTok to our app and Web site, creating a seamless cross-platform experience for those who want to learn more about the stories and get more frequent news updates. 
• Take social media videos to our app and site: We have created an innovative TikTok-inspired video player experience and expanded vertical social media storytelling to our own platforms, providing more content and formats to our users and enabling new advertising opportunities.

To continuously refine our efforts, we developed an internal tool called the TikTok Score. This tool goes beyond basic metrics, combining quantitative measures like video views, reach, and engagement rates with qualitative insights such as viewer retention and the number of comments each video receives. By analysing this data, we can adjust our content strategy in real time.

Value and growth

Our strategy helped us build a loyal following and make a significant impact on the platform, and we were recognised as the most engaging Swedish media account on TikTok.

Expressen’s TikTok video views surged over 150% from the previous year, the number of followers doubled, and our reach grew significantly. A large majority of viewers were under the age of 34. This engagement has strengthened Expressen’s reputation as a trusted news source for a challenging demographic.

Our journey on TikTok is about more than just numbers; it’s about making news accessible and relevant to younger generations. We’re now applying these insights in our broader digital strategy, including initiatives like our Young Audience Focus Month, to engage young readers across all platforms and create meaningful, lasting relationships.

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