As reported earlier this spring, the entire Danish media market is in a state of alert. A group of Icelandic investors have announced that they’ll launch a new newspaper, Nyhedsavisen, which is to be delivered for free to (probably) every household in Denmark.
The old-media houses, which didn’t react when MetroXpress arrived in Denmark, have announced a competing free paper. It remains to be seen if subscribers will keep paying with so many free newspapers in their mailboxes. The positive side effect so far: The media job market hasn’t been this positive since 1997.
To those with a special interest in new media, the big surprise came today when Nyhedsavisen announced that they have decided to leave the launch of their entire Web site to Internet entrepreneur Morten Lund.
According to his own CV (pdf file), Lund doesn’t have much (if any) experience with news organizations. Instead, he has invested in a number of Internet startups — most famously Skype. There’s no doubt that Lund’s approach will be completely different from what everyone else in the “news game” would have done.
Two quotes from last year’s “New Media Days” in Copenhagen may give a hint of Lund’s approach:
“I’d never invest in an Internet paper… with journalists and unions in the background.” And to a panel of newspeople: “You never understood the possibilities in blogs.”
This is certainly one to watch.