​Students found solutions for the newspaper industry

How can media company Hallpressen attract a younger audience? That was the question for 55 students this Wednesday, when they participated in JIBS Entrepreneurship Challenge.

For the fourth time, Jönköping International Business School organised the competition, which aims to stimulate creativity, entrepreneurship and teamwork. The prize money comes from a fund consisting of shares donated by “Aktiestinsen” Lennart Israelsson.

This year media company Hallpressen, publisher of several local newspapers and news sites in Sweden, presented the challenge. Many in the news-industry experience how young people consume news in a different way than previous generations, and that few of them read and pay for printed media. That’s why Hallpressen saw an opportunity in letting the students themselves come up with ideas to attract a younger audience.

“These have been three incredibly rewarding days for us. I was impressed by the students' commitment and it was interesting to get so many smart ideas from people who do not work in our industry daily”, said Ronny Karlsson, head of digital development at Hallpressen.

38 teams signed up for the competition, and of these, 15 were selected to participate. All teams had to consist of at least one student from JIBS and one from the School of Engineering. On Monday 13 April, the participants visited Hallpressen, where they were given background information about the company. Then they had 24 hours to think of an idea and prepare a pitch. On Wednesday morning, all the teams presented their ideas to a jury, and six were selected for the finals, held in front of a large audience at JIBS.

Before the finale, students were treated to a talk and question session with the Swedish Minister for Enterprise and Innovation, Mikael Damberg, who spoke on the climate for entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs and innovation in Sweden.

The winning team, walking away with SEK 60,000, consisted of two Masters students from JIBS and two bachelor students from JIBS and the School of Engineering: Patrick Morak, Alexander Kreil, Anja Freudenberg, and Christian Schneider. The jury praised them for their long-term thinking and their awareness of the brand, and their idea of making use of micro-payments instead of subscriptions.

“We had a great group dynamics, and our four different backgrounds has been a big advantage for us, because we see things in different ways. We wanted to create a sustainable solution that Hallpressen can work with for a long time, so we decided to combine their existing products in new ways”, said the winning team.

The team’s idea partly consisted of getting new readers involved through an app where you read an article and then choose if you want to pay for it.

The other teams that participated in the contest also came up with interesting suggestions. Many had thoughts of mobile solutions and the fact that young people prefer to read brief news, and that payments must be made easy. But they also took into consideration that Hallpressen must hold on to their high quality and credibility, as well as its focus on local news. One group suggested that the news could sync with reader's interests and sveral touched on user-generated content and social functions.