Back from the Brink
A regional media group is wagering its own survival on a strategic pivot toward constructive journalism.
It’s a familiar story for print newspapers, no matter where in the world you live: Declining subscription base, aging readership, loss of advertising revenue, shrinking newsrooms, rise of social media, new threats from AI.
In the Midtjylland (say mid-ju-lun) region of Denmark, the Midtjyllands Avis newspaper has been chugging away for more than 165 years. It’s even older than the world’s oldest steamboat, the Hjejlen, which ferries tourists around its scenic harbor at Silkeborg.
No choice but to change
Despite its historic connection to the community, the paper was facing a crisis of declining relevance. Its subscription numbers had fallen by more than half over less than two decades.
In a profound 2022 wakeup call, 51 percent of Silkeborg citizens surveyed said they would experience minor or no impact if Midtjyllands Avis suddenly ceased to exist.
“Through the years, we’ve lost the connection to our citizens out there,” said Brian Holst, news director at Midtjyllands Avis, a regional media group that today includes three regional papers, two radio stations and a magazine.
“We have to make better journalism. But how do we do that? We have to make a product that people in our area cannot live without.”
In an effort to recapture its relevance — and keep its business afloat — the media group sent Holst to the Constructive Institute, 30 miles east at Aarhus University, to train for three months in constructive journalism.
His job was to bring that knowledge home and put it to work.
Brian Holst, news director at Midtjyllands Avis
To apply the methods of constructive journalism across the media group, Holst appointed three ambassadors — one in each newsroom — and distilled his training into a two-week bootcamp for them.
The team defined a new purpose for the media organization: “To make Midtjylland a better place to live.” It developed an acronym, KLIO in Danish, that offered a new focal point for its reporting: Critical, solution-oriented, engaging and follow-up. The ambassadors were charged with representing KLIO as part of editorial meetings inside their newsrooms.
It wasn’t enough.
“The journalists felt it was too much for them,” Holst said. “They are busy, they have deadlines. And how they have to work with constructive journalism, too.”
Making it work for everyday reporting
Needing a better way to make the concept more accessible and practical, Holst began building out a format book of sample constructive stories, with guidance on how to produce each one. The plug-and-play catalogue lets journalists focus on the reporting, without having also to brainstorm new ways to make a story constructive.
Here’s how Holst describes the process:
Our employees needed something tangible to overlay on their daily journalism. It was important to provide tools for producing constructive journalism without taking several days to produce. The formats include encouraging local dialogue and incorporating more local voices in the newspaper.
We have a strong focus on reaching out to citizens who express themselves on various topics. This can be on social media, as well as on our own platforms. We often create journalism based on these expressions. Especially if a debate post includes a constructive suggestion, we try to escalate it to decision-makers and create journalism around it.
We've also introduced the “debate duel,” where we pit two individuals against each other and ask them a series of identical questions that showcase their differing opinions on a local issue that has been prominent in the newspaper. For us, it's about adding nuance to the debate.
The formats also have a purpose of creating a relationship to the readers. We have formats that involve us taking the editorial staff out into the local areas. In the citizen survey, we asked about the citizens' attitude towards us as a local media house. Here it emerged, among other things, that 80 percent of the citizens could not mention one single name of our journalists. We see this as a big challenge – we must be the citizens' mouthpiece, their friend in times of need and the place they go if they want to focus on a matter. So they need to know who the journalists are. Who is their friend. In this connection, we have noticed that readers are interested when our journalists stick their chests out and present themselves as experts.
That’s also the reason why we have developed the format: “The newspaper/journalist gives you answers,” where the journalist explains a complicated process—or in Q&A form asks five clarifying questions to a politician, expert or the coach of the local professional football team. We want to be an extension of the citizens and make them feel that it matters to engage with us. That we can assist them in becoming more knowledgeable and help them understand complex matters.
The story types in the format book are not only used internally, but also promoted to readers. Stories appear with a blue circle label, denoting the type of constructive format being used. This helps to carry the media group’s rebranding strategy throughout its coverage.
The media group used the format book to produce more than 300 constructive stories during the first six months. Some of the stories follow a simple format, like highlighting a citizen who has made a difference; some are more complex, like organizing a gathering or presenting a range of reader viewpoints on a topic.
Selections from the format book, translated for us by Brian Holst:
Critical coverage that’s also constructive
The newsroom has continued to tackle hard-hitting journalism but has re-oriented its approach. Writes Holst:
We must look over the shoulders of those in power. Ask the critical questions — at the same time as we are solution-oriented and make sure to give those in power inspiration. As in this case, where Silkeborg Forsyning, which is owned by Silkeborg Municipality, lost DKK 70 million on electricity speculation. A bill that falls to consumers. It is our job to ask the questions: What went wrong? Why did it go wrong? And the constructive: What can we learn from the case and how can we make it better?
Some of what the citizens, and also we as a newspaper, have focused on is the management and especially the board of Silkeborg Forsyning. It is appointed in connection with the constitution of the city council, and the positions on the board are appointed according to who is agreed to be rewarded. Not selected based on skills. We focused on that, and I think that our focus and the pressure we put on the mayor via, among other things, reactions from the citizens and how they did it in Aarhus and other places, and Hans wrote an editorial about it, contributed to her making the decision to remove the board and appoint a professional board from the business world.
Stories covering the mismanagement of Silkeborg’s electric utility focused on both what happened and how a neighboring city, Aarhus, structured oversight differently.
Working differently — and promoting it
Other ways that the media group incorporated Constructive Journalism into its work and brand include:
Reporter-centric branding campaign
Organizing events: The media group hosts debates, author evenings and other events, and actively seeks local partners to create events together. Some events are open to subscribers only.
Open editorial meetings: The newsroom has invited up to 15 readers to sit in on editorial meetings and add their perspective on the newsroom’s plans. “It’s our way of showing transparency and that we are open to new input,” Holst said. “We were overwhelmed about how many people wanted to join us, so now we have to do several meetings because the waiting list is so long.”
Taking back the debate: Pushing back against the free-for-all of social media comments, the media group has been working to bring civic debate back its own platforms in a way that’s constructive. “The ones who disagree, we want to put them together in the newspaper,” Holst said.
Marketing journalists as experts: Particularly for senior staff members with decades of experience, the news group has made their faces and reputations a bigger part of its overall marketing in the region. That includes during coverage of a specific story with high interest, such as a recent decision by elected officials to close a local hospital during nights and weekends. “The people are furious about it, but they know that the journalist who is taking care of this situation is Susanne,” Holst said. “She has written thousands of stories about the hospital, so we promote her. She has real knowledge and can answer all the questions for the citizens.”
Promoting its own role: The media group makes sure to champion its own successes, especially when its work leads to positive outcomes for the community. In one instance, it connected business leaders in a wealthy city with economic-development strategies for rural locations. “We shout it out to everybody, because people think this is positive,” Holst said. “They are tired of this polarization.”
Recruiting and motivating staff
Youth voices in news coverage
Like many traditional newspapers in the United States, the media group has struggled with recruiting young journalists. Holst said he was encouraged by the way students at the nearby journalism school were responding to its constructive pivot.
“When we need a new intern, we have to go there and really try to show them how we work, but this year, we have 30 young people who want to be an intern here,” Holst said.
“In Denmark, the younger generations are more into Constructive Journalism, and we also hope this project will attract younger readers to our platforms. We can feel that younger people are more interested.”
Holst said that the new approach has also brought new motivation for his existing staff:
For far too long, there has been a tendency for ideas to come from above. But I feel a greater enthusiasm in relation to the journalists coming up with ideas for constructive articles.
Like when we focused on the bankruptcy of a large event/city festival in Silkeborg, which ended up with a deficit of a double-digit million amount. We wrote about all the problems, all the associations and businesses that lost in the bankruptcy. And when we had done that, two journalists came to me and said: “Give us 14 days to focus on how we can create the next good town party/Regatta.” And they got that. And they gathered local event experts and looked at how other cities managed to take on the task. And that makes me happy.
Keeping subscribers, losing advertising
At Midtjyllands Avis, the effort to implement Constructive Journalism was happening against a backdrop of war and crisis. Russia had invaded Ukraine, sending shockwaves through Europe’s economy. Advertisers continued to pull back. Prices were going up. The media group laid off three editorial staff members and raised subscription rates.
Despite all these challenges, the paper was able to maintain its subscription numbers — currently about 9,700 — as it practiced and promoted Constructive Journalism.
Unlike in the United States, the media group benefits from government support that makes up about 25 percent of its revenue. Even so, its leaders know depending on that money can be just as unstable as any other source when it hinges on political decisions.
“We have tried a lot over the last years to find out where to make money, because it’s very difficult,” Holst said.
The media group today includes the three newspapers, which have a total of 21 journalists and two photographers covering a region of 1.32 million people about the size of Connecticut. There are also two radio stations and a free ad-supported, retail-focused magazine that is distributed to about 50,000.
“Fortunately we haven’t seen that [subscribers] are getting away from us,” Holst said. “There’s a crisis, there’s a war in Ukraine, so people are scared about using money. But we hope that this constructive model is part of keeping them as a customer with us, in addition to what we are writing in our papers. We are trying to open our doors more, so they connect with us in another way.”
In continuing to chart its path forward, the media group is working on:
Strengthening the paywall on its website.
Using data insights to better focus reporting around impressions, interaction and reading time.
Leaning even more into its local, people-focused branding, contrasting its value against AI.
Adding audio stories and podcasting to its content offerings.
Covering more stories for and about young people.
Material for this story was generously shared by Brian Holst as part of a presentation for the Constructive Institute, and by Zoom interviews and email correspondence.
The Hjejlen, the world’s oldest steamboat, in the harbor at Silkeborg
