Table 1
Degree of local presence of legacy media in different types of municipalities (number of municipalities)
| None | One local office | Two or more local offices | Main newsroom for daily newspaper | Both daily newspaper and local office for public service | Daily newspaper and main newsroom for public service | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Large cities | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Suburbs of large cities | 34 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| Large towns | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 22 | 31 |
| Suburbs of large towns | 12 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
| Commuting municipalities | 21 | 28 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 52 |
| Tourism municipalities | 11 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 20 |
| Industrial municipalities | 12 | 29 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 54 |
| Sparsely populated municipalities | 11 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| Municipalities in high density regions | 2 | 11 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 0 | 35 |
| Municipalities in sparsely populated regions | 1 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 16 |
| Total | 104 | 99 | 14 | 28 | 19 | 26 | 290 |
[i] Comments: Legacy media is here defined as media organizations developed from traditional newspapers (at least 3 days/week) and regional news in public service media (SVT and SR).
Table 2
Number of local offices for local and regional newspapers
| Newspaper group (with number of titles in parenthesis) | 2004 | 2016 | Change, per cent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ander (9) | 17 | 8 | −53 |
| Bonnier (2) | 13 | 5 | −62 |
| Center party (3) | 18 | 6 | −67 |
| EK-group (3) | 7 | 5 | −29 |
| Gotamedia (11) | 44 | 29 | −34 |
| Herenco (7) | 23 | 12 | −48 |
| Independent newspapers (6) | 16 | 16 | 0 |
| Mittmedia (22) | 62 | 20 | −68 |
| NTM (11) | 22 | 15 | −32 |
| Stampen (7) | 12 | 7 | −42 |
| Social democratic party (2) | 9 | 6 | −33 |
| VK-group (2) | 7 | 4 | −43 |
| Total (85) | 250 | 133 | −47 |
[i] Comments: Based on newspapers published at least three days per week. The division between owner groups is based on ownership in 2016 (nationally distributed newspapers are excluded). Figures for 2004 from Nygren and Althén (2014).
Table 3
Hyperlocal media in different types of municipalities
| Free paper in print | Local online news | Subscribed newspaper 1–2 d/w | Community radio and TV | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Large cities (3) | 50 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 66 |
| Suburbs to large cities (38) | 58 | 16 | 5 | 5 | 84 |
| Large towns (31) | 55 | 23 | 20 | 4 | 102 |
| Suburbs to large towns (21) | 10 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| Commuting municipalities (52) | 24 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 35 |
| Tourism municipalities (20) | 12 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 21 |
| Industrial municipalities (54) | 27 | 15 | 5 | 3 | 50 |
| Sparsely populated municipalities (20) | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Municipalities in high density regions (35) | 30 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 48 |
| Municipalities in sparsely populated regions (16) | 12 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 18 |
| Total (290) | 286 | 94 | 51 | 17 | 448 |
[i] Comments: Hyperlocal media is more local than traditional newspapers and public service. The definition of “news media” is to publish or send updates at least once a month. Every title is defined by their “main channel”, the dominating platform both financially and in publishing. Many outlets publish on different platforms, for example free newspapers often have some kind of digital publishing (PDF or news sites).
Table 4
Purpose and motivations for starting hyperlocal media (per cent)
| Important | Quite important | Neutral | Not so important | Unimportant | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| To strengthen local identity and the local area | 76 | 14 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 100 |
| To offer a new channel for local advertisers | 50 | 19 | 11 | 6 | 14 | 100 |
| To be a forum for local democracy | 43 | 24 | 20 | 8 | 5 | 100 |
| Bad coverage from old local media | 41 | 29 | 15 | 7 | 8 | 100 |
| To make money for the company | 28 | 26 | 20 | 10 | 16 | 100 |
| To create work for employed | 10 | 24 | 26 | 11 | 29 | 100 |
[i] Comments: The number of respondents was 97 (response rate of 54 per cent).
Table 5
Producers of editorial content in hyperlocal media (per cent)
| Almost all | A large part | Half | Some part | Nothing | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Journalists | 39 | 13 | 10 | 10 | 28 | 100 |
| Employees (not journalists) | 17 | 8 | 5 | 24 | 46 | 100 |
| Readers/audience | 2 | 8 | 4 | 56 | 30 | 100 |
| Local municipality | 0 | 5 | 2 | 36 | 57 | 100 |
| Local companies | 0 | 2 | 1 | 27 | 70 | 100 |
| News agencies | 0 | 2 | 3 | 19 | 78 | 100 |
| Local associations | 4 | 4 | 6 | 47 | 39 | 100 |
| Other | 6 | 2 | 3 | 32 | 57 | 100 |
[i] Comments: The number of respondents was 97 (response rate of 54 per cent).
Table 6
Revenues in hyperlocal media from different sources (per cent)
| All (≈100%) | Nearly all (≈80%) | More than half (≈60%) | Less than half (≈40%) | Some (≈20%) | None (≈0%) | Sum | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owners/members | 13 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 71 | 100 |
| Donations | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 92 | 100 |
| Advertisement | 53 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 13 | 100 |
| Subscriptions | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 88 | 100 |
| Public support | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 95 | 100 |
| Press subsidies | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 92 | 100 |
| Other | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 88 | 100 |
[i] Comments: The number of respondents was 97 (response rate of 54 per cent).
Table 7
Editorial presence of local and regional legacy media and the number of hyperlocal media outlets (the number of municipalities with different levels of editorial presence and the number of hyperlocal outlets)
| Editorial presence of legacy media | The number of hyperlocal outlets in the municipality | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| None | One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six or more | Total | |
| No editorial presence | 37 | 30 | 22 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 104 |
| One local office | 34 | 41 | 16 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 99 |
| Two or more local offices | 2 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| Main newsroom for daily local newspaper | 7 | 9 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 28 |
| Main newsroom for daily paper and local office for public service | 4 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 |
| Main newsroom for both local newspaper and public service | 1 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 26 |
| Total | 85 | 98 | 59 | 33 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 290 |
[i] Comments: The correlation between the degree of presence of local legacy media and the number of hyperlocal outlets is positive (0.40) and significant at the .01 level (Pearson’s r).