Facebook replaces Expressen as Aftonbladet’s main enemy

Joakim at Mindpark ponders over who Aftonbladet’s main enemy today is. The Swedish daily successfully beat its prime competitor Expressen a decade or so ago, and Aftonbladet has remained the leader ever since. Expressen is no longer seen as a huge threat.

“Who is aftonbladet.se fighting against, what threats does TV4 picture, who is the morning press going to beat into humiliation? Who is friend and who is foe?” [My translation]

And maybe the answer is very close at hand. Henrik Torstensson writes about an inteview with Kalle Jungkvist, editor-in-chief of Aftonbladet Nya Medier.

“When Aftonbladet.se recently did a focus group with twentysomethings, the main competitor in terms of time to Aftonbladet.se was said to be Facebook. The choice for young Internet users was to, more or less, aimlessly surf Aftonbladet or Facebook for a while.”

UPDATE 1: Sure enough, there is a difference between Aftonbladet and Aftonbladet.se, and today Jan Helin, the brand new editor-in-chief of Aftonbladet, tells Medievärlden that “We have a distinct competitor, the tabloid Expressen”. He continues to say “Then the picture is more complex in reality, we compete about people’s time and with what you do online. But now the tabloid is in focus and every day we face Expressen on the starting line”. [My translation]

UPDATE 2: Jeff Jarvis also comments over at BuzzMachine.