Newsmill is up and running

2 September 2008

Journalists and editors PM Nilsson and Leo Lagercrantz are launching Newsmill, a news-driven social medium for the debate on current affairs issues, co-owned by Proventus, Bonnier AB and PM Nilsson/Leo Lagercrantz. Both worked on the Swedish tabloid Expressen for a number of years, PM Nilsson as a political editor and Leo Lagercrantz as an opinion editor. They left Expressen last autumn to start Newsmill. Karin Eder Ekman, journalist and former editor of Bang, joined them during spring 2008. In a press release issued in March this year Proventus’ CEO Daniel Sachs said: “I am a firm believer in both the societal benefits and the commercial potential in developing new channels for debate and current affairs journalism.”

What, then, is Newsmill? We asked PM Nilsson to explain:

Newsmill is a site for news commentary and debate. Every day editors will be calling on different writers who possess exclusive knowledge about, and personal experience of, important events of that day. We will define four or five subjects every day and then call people we believe have something unique to say, and immediately invite our readers to do the same. In this way we gain a broad and rich group of contributors.

We also make use of a new journalistic working method in order to democratise and open up the editing of the medium. This means that in advance we publish those issues for which we are looking for writers with inside knowledge, and at the same time invite the readers to contribute. Newsmill regards all readers as co-workers. 

What type of issues will you be taking up?

Everything that is interesting and possible to discuss. Domestic and foreign policy, culture and entertainment, Swedish and international debate; the entire spectrum is our newsbeat.

Is Newsmill primarily a Swedish forum?  Or will foreign voices be invited in? 

Newsmill.se is primarily a Swedish forum, but if the issues concern other countries, then we will find voices who either live there or have their roots there. To take an example, Pakistani voices about the Taliban offensive in Afghanistan are more interesting to us than Swedish voices. 

What is your journalistic idea?

We want to contribute towards a richer and more interesting public debate. We are also convinced that the blogosphere has irrevocably decentralised and individualised the moulding of public opinion. In such an extremely pluralist media market well-founded subjectivity has greater credibility and objectivity. An opinion which has authenticity and is based on personal experience is a better piece of news than the news itself. We want to be the first major site to combine editor-driven and user-generated content and to set the agenda in the debate.

Do you base yourself on any models?

Possibly Huffington Post, but there is no medium today which is like Newsmill.

Is there a demand for more debate?  Are we a debating people?

There is above all a weariness with traditional news and a growing interest on the part of people who have their own experiences of news events and who hold well-founded views about what has happened. There are very many people who know a great deal about their own fields. But you have to search and come up with good projects. Among other Scandinavians Swedes are regarded as very talkative and keen on debate, and this is true to some extent.  Swedes like to discuss the points at issue before these are decided upon; this was clear not least from this summer’s debate on the FRA [Försvarets radioanstalt – the Swedish National Defence Radio Establishment; a new bill would allow them to intercept e-mails with a view to combating terrorism].

There is not exactly a shortage of opinions being expressed… What will you be doing that is not already being done?

If the evening newspapers’ sites are the place where you check up on whether something has happened, then Newsmill will be the site where you can see what people are talking about. There are a lot of opinions, but rather few qualified opinions based on personal experience.

How will you stand vis-à-vis editorial and debate pages in the traditional media?

The editorial pages have a completely different tradition. They have regular writers who are good generalists and are ideas-driven but often have little own experience of what they are writing about. Every day Newsmill will be publishing different writers with great experience of what they are writing about. 

Will you be cooperating with other media?

We have established channels with the Swedish news and current affairs programmes TV4 Nyhetsmorgon, Godmorgon Sverige, P1 Morgon and Studio Ett. Those people who write for us are launched through these debate programmes and there is a considerable interest in such an interchange. Everyone is interested in new voices. 

How will you be profitable? What does your business model look like?

We will primarily live on advertising but the business presents several different opportunities for income.

Read more:
Proventus' engagement in Newsmill
Press release issued on 17 March