The editorsweblog.org blog is currently transformed into "The Editors BlogConf in Seoul" with reports and discussions around the 12th World Editors Forum. If you haven't checked it out yet, you should. This is a sneak preview to the future of newspapers. Some current highlights from the blog:

Impressions of the digital media round table

• The mobile phone is the most frequently used content provider in Norway. Average 5 hrs of use a day - and the typical session is between three and five minutes.

• Newspaper will need to create interactive mobile editions of their newspapers - Using VG's example - this is an extension of the newsgathering operation. not a separate business in an off-site locale.

Newspaper Circulation and Advertising Up Worldwide

The circulation of newspapers in the world increased strongly last year,
and, at the same time, newspaper advertising revenues made significant
gains. A survey said that global newspaper sales were up 2.1 percent over the
year. Unlike previous years, growth was not only driven by gains in
developing markets, but increases in sales in many mature markets.

RSS is a great way to attract permanent subscribers

RSS is the necessary tool to aggregate all of a paper’s content into a searchable and topic specific engine that creates a bond with the reader, helping to make trail subscribers permanent, encouraging them to continue coming back to the same paper’s site. RSS changes the dynamic of online news because instead of the reader going to a newspaper’s site or an online aggregator like Google, the newspaper goes to the reader. Skrenta eased some financial concerns that editors have about using RSS feeds by showing that RSS feeds drive traffic back to a website, thus satisfying advertisers.

Google News - Biased?

What values, biases and editorial judgments are reflected in the inclusion of [Google News'] 4,500+ sites, and exclusion of others? We don't know because Google won't name the sources.

Kvällsposten's political editor Peter J Olsson has started a blog. Link via PJ just nu.

In order to raise awareness about international public relations, Scania will sponsor a professorship in international PR at Örebro University for three years. Inger Larsson, former Chief Information Officer at Gambro has been named guest professor.

The second edition of the Swedish blog forum, artfully named Bloggforum 2.0, was held this weekend in Stockholm. I couldn't attend because I had other engagements, but I will try to watch the session about blogging to create confidence which will be on SVT 24 on Friday [link via Bisonblog].

15:30 - 16:30 Bloggforum: Skapa förtroende genom att blogga.
Paneldebatt om fenomenet bloggning, med bland andra Zaida Catalán, fd språkrör Grön Ungdom och Fredrick Federley, förbundsordförande centerns ungdomsförbund. Inspelat vid Bloggforum 28/5. Reporter Sanna Volny.

I will most likely be on radio this afternoon at about 4.20 PM. SR Sjuhärad called me up and wanted me to talk about my blog survey.

Update: Short and sweet. It was only a few minutes, but I survived.

Update II: Kerstin Berminge from Motvallsbloggen was also interviewed, but I wasn't able to hear it.

I'm as prone to go ego-surfing on Technorati as the next guy, but it seems you can't trust the stats at all these days. I've had at least 20-30 different new incoming links to my blog the last week or so but Technorati says I still have 159 incoming links from 120 sources, i.e. same as a week ago. If you check my Technorati cosmos you can see that the first 20 hits are from the last four days, while on the second page you suddenly have blogs that linked to me 75 days ago. The third page (hits 60-80) comes up blank. Très strange.

I read somewhere that a customer that feels mistreated after a purchase tells 12 other people about that negative experience. Well, if that customer has a blog, that figure might now be 10 or 100 times higher.

A few weeks back I spent more than 4,000 SEK (about 550 USD) on wallpaper at my local paint dealer Färgtema in Täby, Sweden. I bought two different wallpapers, loads of paste and putty. We renovated our bedroom and put the wallpaper up and it looked great. I was however a bit bummed by the fact that we had bought one roll too many of the expensive paper (560 SEK each), but that was because it was hard to figure out if three or four rolls would be enough. We couldn't return the extra roll so that money was lost, but there was really no-one to blame. Then the paint dealer sold us 12 litres of paste but we only used up about 4 litres. Of the 8 extra litres we could only return 2.

They had the second wallpaper on stock so any rolls that we didn't use we could return. We ended up using 4 out of 6, and we wanted to return one of these two because it had a few dents in it. The problem was that we didn't discover this until after we had torn the plastic off. So when I went to the store today they didn't want to take that roll back, because we had opened the wrapping and they couldn't get a refund for the product themselves. And not only did I have to argue with one of the sales clerks, but two, so I was feeling a bit uncomfortable and didn't really push strong enough to make them take back both rolls.

From my perspective as the customer, I had spent 4,140 SEK in this store, out of which at least 1,088 for products I didn't use or need (562 + 223 + 223 + 80). So when they question why I want to return one roll ("I'm not accusing you, but it might as well be you who made these dents in this roll") it really made me annoyed. My question is, is your reputation worth the 223 SEK you saved by sending me home with a roll of wallpaper I don't need? Of course not. Do you think I will come back next time I'm renovating my house? I doubt it. So when more and more customers start their own blogs, prepare to read some nasty stories about bad shopping experiences. Your brand is on the line, yes, it's online!

Not that you need more evidence that journalists read blogs, but I couldn't resist showing this article from Aftonbladet this week. It's about the cult of the iPod and has references to this post on my blog.

Cool stuff, everyone. I've been nominated for MarketingSherpa's 2nd Annual Reader's Choice Blog Awards.

Voting has already started and ends Wednesday June 8th.

"Prizes this year include a "Winner" icon for your Blog, a special coffee mug, and your name and blog URL on our site and in a press release."

C'mon everyone, I really want a new mug. Vote for me here and do it now. (Pretty please with sugar on top?)

Oh, and while you're at it. Adland is nominated too so give them your vote as well. Åsk rules, you know.

[Edit: I mixed up Adland with Adrants to the amusement of Niklas at Researcher.]

A bunch of bloggers have been to Swedish public service television SVT today. Jonas and Anna were in the studio this morning to talk about blogs on SVT1. Haven't seen it yet but you're supposed to be able to view it via a link at Jonas' blog.

I was there myself over lunch, invited by SVTi to talk about blogs with the management of SVT. I'm not going to get into detail what we talked about, but they were very interested and asked a lot of good questions. Per Gudmundson was there as well to give them his views, so you kind of get the grip on where much of the discussion took place. About 20-25 people showed up (yes, it's a big company).

Så var den då klar, "BloggSverige - en undersökning av svenska bloggare och bloggläsare". 600 svenska bloggläsare svarade på en online-enkät från den 12 maj till 16 maj 2005. Vi kan redan se att bloggar börjar konkurrera med etablerade medier om uppmärksamheten. Undersökningen visar att hälften av alla svenska bloggläsare spenderar mer tid på att läsa bloggar än vad svensken gerenellt spenderar på att läsa dagstidningar. (34 minuter eller mer per dag mot 28 min).

60,4% av alla bloggläsare har en egen blogg vilket stärker tesen om att dagens mediekonsumenter allt oftare också är medieproducenter.

Den genomsnittlige svenske bloggaren är:

· man
· 26-35 år gammal
· har högskole- eller universitetsexamen
· båda föräldrarna är födda i Sverige
· vet inte vilket parti han ska rösta på om det vore riksdagsval idag (största parti av de som valt var folkpartiet)
· bloggar för att han gillar att skriva
· bloggar på svenska
· är inte anonym
· läser 6-10 bloggar dagligen
· spenderar 6-10 timmar per vecka med att läsa bloggar
· använder oftast eller ibland en RSS-läsare för att läsa bloggar
· läser bloggar för att det är mer personligt än andra medier
· hittar nya bloggar via länkar på andra bloggar

Den genomsnittlige svenske bloggläsaren (inklusive de som har egna bloggar) är:

· man
· 26-30 år gammal
· har högskole- eller universitetsexamen
· båda föräldrarna är födda i Sverige
· skulle rösta på moderaterna om det vore riksdagsval idag
· har en egen blogg
· läser 1-5 bloggar dagligen
· spenderar 2 timmar per vecka med att läsa bloggar
· använder aldrig en RSS-läsare för att läsa bloggar
· läser bloggar för få fler synvinklar på nyheter
· hittar nya bloggar via länkar på andra bloggar

Myten om den liberala bloggaren är väl bara delvis sann. Visserligen är (fp) det största partiet bland bloggare (23,1%) och det är en borgerlig majoritet bland bloggare, men skillnaden mellan blocken är relativt liten (52,6% borgerligt mot 47,6% vänster, inklusive Feministiskt initiativ). (m) och (s) ligger inte långt efter med 22,3% och 20,2%.

Den stora borgerliga övervikten återfinns istället bland bloggläsarna, dvs samtliga i undersökningen. Där har de borgerliga partierna en majoritet på 62,4%. Skillnaden beror på en mycket stor grupp bloggläsare som inte själva bloggar, och som lägger sin röst på (m). Alla dessa siffror är borträknat en stor grupp osäkra väljare och de som inte röstar alls.

Hela 22,2% av alla bloggläsare vet inte vilket parti de ska rösta på. Ytterligare 5,9% skulle antingen inte rösta alls eller rösta på något nischat parti som Junilistan. Det finns alltså anledning för de etablerade partierna att ta med bloggosfären i sin valplanering inför riksdagsvalet 2006 då många bloggläsare är osäkra på vilket parti som ska få deras röst.

Andra intressanta resultat från undersökningen är att 60,7% av alla bloggare är män. Männen bloggar dessutom i hög utsträckning under eget namn (30,6% anonyma), medan kvinnor väljer att vara anonyma (60,6%). Med anonym avses att man inte har både för- och efternamn angivet på sin blogg.

För en utförligare beskrivning vänligen se hela rapporten i pdf-format här: BloggSverige 1.0 (312 kb).

Fotnot: Siffran om att svensken spenderar 28 min per dag med att läsa dagstidningar kommer från Nordicom, Sveriges Mediebarometer 2004.

Några av figurerna i rapporten kan se lite gryniga ut på skärmen om man inte förstorar upp dem. Det ska dock se ok ut på utskriften.

Swedish tech publication Ny Teknik has published its list of Sweden's top 50 IT personalities. Erik Stattin, librarian and arch blogger, grabs place #50.

"Bibliotekarien" Bloggfenomenet har nått Sverige med full kraft. Alla, från tidigare statsminister Bildt till Expressens jeansexpert Ebba von Sydow, har en. Men inflytelserikast av dem alla, åtminstone enligt mediabevakaren Observer, är bibliotekarie Stattin."

Rasmus Fleischer from Piratbyrån, who blogs at Copyriot, is at #9. Niklas Zennström of Skype is new at #1.

Here is a follow up to my previous post about Swedish blogs vs MSM in terms of inbound sources and inbound links. I have added one or two A-list blogs that were not included last time. Apart from that, the main difference is that some media have seen a significant increase in inbound sources and links since last time. I don't know if it is due to the fact that some big media have introduced their own blogs since then, or if it is just temporary mood swings at Technorati. Red is for media, green is for blogs. And as always, stats are fun, but use with an appropriate amount of skepticism.





Footnote: mymarkup.net includes several blogs under the same domain. Source: Technorati.com

Journalist Fredrik Virtanen has been nominated for the Swedish IT prize Guldmusen (the Golden Mouse) for his "innovative" use of blogs. His quit-smoking-blog at Aftonbladet.se has had thousands of visitors since its inception. No wonder Sweden is in dire straits as an IT nation if that's the best we've got. Are there no Swedish Dan Gillmors, Arianna Huffingtons or David Sifrys out there? This is not aimed at you Fredrik, but what a load of boloney.

Fans of Star Wars can start their own blog at StarWars.com. It's a great way to get devoted fans to spread the word about Episode III. And to get them to pay for a membership since only members can start a blog.

Link via Micropersuasion.

A popular misconception among some mainstream media is that blogs are just online diaries, so blogs are a fad. Blogs are a waste of time. Who wants to read all these stories about what people had for breakfast and at what time they walked their dog? Like this quote from a column in Sundsvalls Tidning about journalist Per Svensson at Expressen and his new blog (are bad journo blogs giving the rest of us a bad rep?).

"Alla pratar men har inget att säga.
Alla informerar men ingen vet någonting.
Alla vill bli författare men ingen är ett skit intresserad av litteratur."

Everyone talks but no-one has anything to say. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. Just because there are so called cat blogs out there (not that there's anything wrong with that...), doesn't mean that all blogs are the same. And as always, Amy Gahran at the Contentious blog says it so much better than me. "Too often, blogs are primarily described or defined as personal online diaries." They can be online diaries, but often they are not.

Gahran lists 6 blog myths and stereotypes to avoid. I especially like this one. "Weblogs are personal diaries, usually amateurish". Gahran writes "Well, that’s like saying most of the universe is hydrogen and dust. Yeah, BUT: There are galaxies and black holes and planets and nebulae, too. Which would you rather focus on?"

Minns någon bandet Ojj!600!? De lär ha tagit namnet efter ett mycket lågt arvode (alltså 600 kronor) efter en spelning. Kom att tänka på dem när jag har nu stängt insamlingen av enkätsvar i min bloggläsarundersökning. Totalt har 600 personer svarat, vilket är ett långt större antal respondenter än jag vågat hoppas på. Eftersom jag ska åka till London mot slutet av veckan hinner jag inte göra så mycket analysarbete de närmaste dagarna, räkna inte med någon sammanfattning förrän i inledningen av nästa vecka. Men som en liten teaser kan jag avslöja att kristdemokrater inte verkar ha upptäckt bloggar ännu. På frågan "Vilket parti skulle du rösta på om det var riksdagsval i Sverige idag?" svarade endast 0,8% av alla bloggläsare "kristdemokraterna". Resten får ni vänta på ett litet tag till.

PR blogger John Cass has initiated a corporate blogging survey. If you are a corporate blogger you can click here to take the survey.

A new day, a new media blog. Dagens Nyheter today launched it's first blog. Andreas Ekström writes about the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev. But I am surprised to see the lack of permalinks, RSS feeds, comments etc. You know the drill by know. How come it is so hard for mainstream media to get these things right? Aren't they experts in publishing? Andreas has his own blog, so I had high hopes this would be a proper blog. Now it is just a diary.

Also, see Journalisten about the definition of blogs (in Swedish).