Its strong position in all the available publishing platforms makes VG Norway’s leading media house and one of the media business’s strongest brands.
”With its readership penetration in the national newspaper market, VG is a special newspaper product even in a global context. By establishing VG in new channels on the Internet and mobile phones, this position has been strengthened so that VG is now read daily by around 50 per cent of the adult Norwegian population,” says Schibsted executive vice president Birger Magnus.
Largest newspaper in Norway
The core of the VG Group is the VG newspaper, whose daily circulation is twice that of Dagbladet, its main competitor in the single-copy sales market. VG is thus by far the largest newspaper in Norway.
VG Multimedia
Based on the printed newspaper’s dominant position, the media house has captured a corresponding online position through the VG Multimedia. Among other things, the company operates Norway’s largest website, vg.no, which is at the forefront in online developments related to reader interactiveness and user-generated contents. VG Nett has also had great success with Vektklubb.no, a pay service website for weight reduction.
VG Multimedia is also at the forefront when it comes to using mobile phones as a publishing channel and is well positioned for the growth which is expected in this area. VG Mobil is a leading provider of news and entertainment on mobile phones.
The coordination of news published online, in printed newspapers and on mobile phones
The VG media house deliberately focuses on extracting the synergies that exist between the online and printed newspapers, and has very successfully cross-promoted its publications. Competitions and voting are started, for example, in the printed newspaper and completed online. Blogs and user-oriented articles are used in the printed newspaper to make the diversity available in the online version visible. The launch of Vektklubb.no, a weight loss site, in 2005 shows how a VG innovation can give the printed newspaper popular, good contents while also allowing VG.no to develop a revenue producing user group.
VG will continue to focus on this type of coordination between the online and printed newspapers and mobile-phone news, with the clear goal of making all the publishing channels even larger and stronger.