It’s a wrap

Here you will find a digest of the Tinius Trust’s activities and engagements in 2018. Read, watch and listen to get […]

Here you will find a digest of the Tinius Trust’s activities and engagements in 2018. Read, watch and listen to get to know us better.

The Tinius Trust is set up to work for a long-term, healthy financial development of the Schibsted Group and thereby to ensure free and independent newsrooms, quality and credibility in all of Schibsted’s publications. When necessary, the Trust shall also work to impact the general conditions essential to ensure a free and independent press.

Ole Jacob Sunde, board chair of The Tinius Trust, gives the following comment on 2018.

(Audio in Norwegian)

The norm is to start of by stating that this year has been the most important in our history. Is has, but the Tinius Trust can look back on several important years, board chair of The Tinius Trust, Ole Jacob Sunde says.




In 2018, the consequences of having a long-term shareholder has become clear. The The Trust, being a long-term shareholder, has given Schibsted muscles to develop, and thereby realize high value within for example the classified business. Marketplaces International (MPI) has grown into a world-wide company based on Scandinavian technology, and collaboration across different countries where Schibsted is active. This is one evidence of success in 2018, Sunde says.

The CEO of the Tinius Trust, Kjersti Løken Stavrum, also share her perspective on 2018.

Audio in Norwegian.

In addition to being a forward leaning owner of Schibsted, deeply engaged in and supportive of the upcoming division of Schibsted, we have worked to bring attention to the unequal playing field with the tech giants. We also identified the need for transparent ethics in the era of algorithms, and find it interesting to see what an hot topic this has become during 2018, CEO of the Tinius Trust, Kjersti Løken Stavrum says.

A small selection of the Tinius Trust’s activities and engagements in 2018 are presented below. Take the time to read, watch and listen to get to know us better.

THE SCHIBSTED DEVELOPMENT

Monitoring, analyzing and nudging the development of The Media Group Schibsted is the main task of the Tinius Trust.

In September 2018, the announcement was made that Schibsted is planning to spin off it’s international online classified sites, thus establishing two new growth companies in 2019. The Trust voiced our support to the demerger of Schibsted on the same day, the 18th of March. Read the message here.

The demerger is a wise move to enable the international marketplaces to optimize its value creation within a new structure, says Ole Jacob Sunde, Board Chair of the Tinius Trust.




In our opinion, the demerger will kick off two different business models; one for Schibsted ASA and one for the Marketplaces International (MPI). To us, the ownership MPI will be a long term financial investment, Kjersti Løken Stavrum, CEO of the Tinius Trust says.

MEDIA FORECAST

What are the most likely forecast for the publishing media business? Terje Seljeseth, head of analysis at the Tinius Trust, is constantly monitoring the figures and keeping a finger on the pulse of business development.

We analyse and deep dive into the facts and figures on media development. We share and discuss insight and hypotheses with stakeholders within media businesses. In spite of the encouraging increase in the numbers of digital subscribers, we fear this will not make up for the loss of revenue from print. Thus, there will be a challenging need for business development within publishing, head of analysis at the Tinius Trust, Terje Seljeseth says.




After years of downscaling and cost cut as part of the digital transformation, we think it is time to look at media, journalism and publishing in a renewed perspective. There has never been more need for – and acknowledge of the value of – quality based, trustworthy information than now. In this perspective, we still look at the future as challenging, but also promising. We expect a new wave of rewarding innovation in the newsrooms, Seljeseth says.

ANALYSES & INSIGHTS

Norway and Sweden are the two countries with journalistic publishing activity in Schibsted. How different is the role of journalism perceived in the two countries? We conducted a survey on the question and found that:

• All respondents value the importance of journalism. Politicians value free and independent journalism higher than the general public and the general public in Norway a little bit less than the general public in Sweden.

• The survey indicates that the hope for increased importance of journalism is bigger than the actual belief that journalism will have an increased importance in the future.

• A majority of elected officials in Norway and Sweden beliebe that the disclosure of misconduct renders consequence for those criticized. The general public in both countries are less convinced about this.

You can download the survey here.

The report was presented in May 2018 at the annual conference “The Power of Journalism” hosted by both Schibsted and the Tinius Trust together.

The purpose of this conference is to provide a deeper understanding of the impact of journalism in society. On stage were reporter from Schibsted along with contributions from Maria Ressa, later appointed person of the year by Time magazine, awarded investigating reporter Dan Josefsson in Swedisk public broadcasting, Madison Marriage (Financial Times), CNNs Jim Acosta.

Remember audio, as this video is not texted.

PUBLIC DEBATE

Schibsted and the Tinius Trust have for some years already been engaged in the debate on leveling the playing field within the media sector, notably the technology giants. As part of this debate, the finance committee in the Norwegian parliament met to discuss whether Norway should implement a separate “Google-tax” while waiting for a OECD-initiative on this question. In February 2018, both Ole Jacob Sunde, Chairman of the Board in Schibsted and the Tinius Trust, and Rolv Erik Ryssdal, the CEO of Schibsted, entered the hearing. The message was clear: We need politicians to take action in leveling the playing field.

Video in Norwegian.

To be able to contribute to and take part in the public debate on media business, podcast has turned out to be a valuable platform also for the Tinius Trust.

In 2018 we launched the podcast series Tinius Talks on media business and development at large. You find the library here.

So far, we have published 16 episodes and shared knowledge, ideas and reflections from over 30 media leaders and specialists. Let us suggest you listen to the episode with tech analyst and founder of Stratechery, Ben Thompson, as guest.

You can also watch a video interview with Ben Thompson made on the same occasion.

Throughout the year we also publish articles on current media topics on Tinius.com. This year we have keep a watchful eye on the development of data harvesting and GDPR. As part of this, we have put light to need for transparent ethics in data harvesting and the use of algorithms. Our most read article this year is written by Anna Felländer on this particular subject. Read her article here. [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_gallery el_id=”gallery-119728″ type=”carousel” medias=”1180,1173,1181,1175,1177,1176,1178″ carousel_lg=”3″ carousel_md=”3″ carousel_sm=”1″ gutter_size=”3″ carousel_interval=”3000″ carousel_navspeed=”400″ stage_padding=”0″ single_overlay_opacity=”50″ single_padding=”2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]In August 2018, the Tinius Trust joined in on Arendalsuka, the largest political gathering in Norway. We arranged two debates, one discussing what brand building means to media, and the other discussing if journalism is free and independent. The second debate was replicated at the Media Conference held by Mediaforum in Strömstad/Sweden in October.

The global #metoo-campaign sparked a debate in Norway on the lack of diversity within the managing positions in the media houses, also within Schibsted. The board of the Tinius Trust decided to take a clear stand on the matter, and published a statement in late December 2017.

When published, Kjersti Løken Stavrum stated the following.

The debate on the need for greater diversity and women in leadership across media businesses, also within Schibsted, made the Board impatient to clarify the excpectations of the Tinius Trust on diversity and equal opportunities.

You can read the statement here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]