Jakob Moll reveals how the Danish company with community at its heart keeps scaling to neighbouring Nordic markets, and how you too can build a deeper relationship with your audience with their tried-and-tested model
This article was migrated from an old version of our website in 2025. As a result, it might have some low-quality images or non-functioning links - if there's any issues you'd like to see fixed, get in touch with us at info@journalism.co.uk.
Nordics have a good rep – news outlets generally enjoy higher-than-average trust and audiences are more likely to pay for news. But that doesn’t mean that launching a news outlet here is a guaranteed success.
Co-founder and international director at Zetland, the Danish membership-driven news site, Jakob Moll has overseen the company's expansion from Denmark to Finland, and now Norway, with Germany next on the horizon. His secret weapon isn't sophisticated market research or focus groups but genuine curiosity about what people actually want from their news.
To successfully carry out their Norwegian expansion, Zetland has helped put together a team in Oslo, that recently began building a community from the bottom up, engaging nearly 1,000 people in the first few days. It is the beginning of the period they call the “listening phase.”
“I just went through their answers,” said Moll. “There are so many people who have great ideas about how they want to be informed and the information needs of society.”
The listening phase so far confirms what Moll suspected: “We talk down to people, we underestimate the attention span of young people,” he said, adding that despite Norwegian journalism being generally good, people are overwhelmed and worn down by depressing news that traditional newsrooms prioritise.
Zetland’s expansion philosophy is deliberately humble: “We believe that publishing belongs in the hands of local founders, who understand the local culture and context. That’s why we call them founders – they call the shots.”
In Norway, that means backing three local journalists to launch Zetland's new local title, Demo: Ingrid Tinmannsvik leads the effort with experience in reinventing journalism formats; Bendik Mondal is an award-winning filmmaker; and Helle Holås is a top-noch community organiser. This trio brings a blend of skills in editorial innovation, storytelling, and grassroots engagement.
Demo will be initially supported financially by Zetland, reinforcing the company’s commitment to local leadership and investment in new markets. Ingrid Tinmannsvik has publicly emphasised the need for new approaches in Norwegian journalism, given the dominance of long-established publishers.
Zetland’s model has already shown its potential for scale. In January 2025, the publisher launched Uusi Juttu in Finland, which now boasts more than 18,000 paying members. This milestone demonstrates the viability of Zetland’s community-driven approach outside Denmark and provides a strong foundation for further expansion.
While Zetland feels reasonably comfortable in the Nordics, Germany is a harder nut to crack. The country with 83 million people living in 16 federal states is very diverse, and that will have to be reflected in the community the publisher is building. “I worry people will simply not notice us,” admits Moll.
Still, he feels confident: “We know the country so well, in many ways it’s culturally similar to Denmark,” he says while recognising that the scale and stakes are much higher in Germany.
What drives this expansion isn’t just business. Moll believes journalism can do better.
“Journalism has the potential to be a much more positive force in society, especially in a time when so many other forces are pulling democracy in a different direction."
For democracy to improve, journalism needs to play a different role, he argues. Zetland’s approach is that journalism, tech, and business are all part of the solution: “We need to be as good at tech as at investigative reporting.”
The key lessons for journalists wanting to build community:
This article was developed with AI assistance before it was edited by two humans.
