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Berlingske Media embraces the nuances and necessities of paid content and social media

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As we lead up to INMA’s European Conference in The Hague, The Netherlands, September 26-28, here’s a sneak peak at some of our speakers and their thoughts on the challenges and opportunities facing our industry.

We start with Pernille Tranberg, strategic advisor and head of editorial development at Berlingske Media, based in Copenhagen, Denmark. In a Q&A session with INMA correspondent Marek Miller, Tranberg gives us her take on paid content, social media, and differentiating newspaper content from the competition.

INMA: What is your opinion about paywalls and paid content?

Tranberg: It is a must-go. As an original content producer, you have to have many small revenue streams in the future, and paid content is going to be one of them. It is not going to compensate for the losses many will have from paper revenue, but it will be one stream that will help a little. However, we can never sell news stories; they will always be in the free flow. We have to go deeper and sell highly in-depth quality content, and then use the news stories to lead to the paid content.

INMA: During the INMA European Conference, you will be speaking about innovative ways of using social media. Social is for the masses, thus hard to be monetised as masses do not want to pay for content. Where can publishers look for revenues in their social media activities?

Tranberg:
Social media is a tool to lead your paid users to your paid content. FT.com and WSJ.com can use social media and still have paid content. So can all others. Apart from using social media as marketing and branding platforms, you can also sell directly through social media — e-commerce and Groupon-like-selling. Many social media users don’t mind good offers, if they are seriously good and relevant. Finally, many journalists love power and feeling influential. They can use social media to “oil” that sense.

INMA: What is the best way to engage a reader on social media and make him become faithful to the newsmedia brand?

Tranberg:
Giving them relevant, surprising content, and content they can laugh about. If you laugh or feel surprise or feel enriched and more clever after seeing and reading content, you want to share. Sharing is often a sign of faithfulness.

INMA: How do/will you differentiate your brand, your news site from the competition?

Tranberg:
Competition is not really from other original content producers, as they are becoming fewer. Competition comes from bloggers, user-generated-content, and free content. With those glasses, I believe that you can differentiate by making content you can trust.

More and more content online cannot be trusted. Check out these articles: “The best book reviews money can buy” and “How a bogus Apple rumour hoodwinked online news outlets.”

For more information on and registration for our European Conference, please visit our Web site. INMA correspondent Marek Miller will blog live from the Conference at forum4editors.comSee you in The Hague! 

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