Sweden’s largest daily Dagens Nyheter today announced it has quit its current agreement with TT, Sweden’s leading news agency. The goal is that DN will manage without external news agency material from the beginning of next year. Recently Metro, the free daily, announced a similar decision. Metro previously relied heavily on articles from news agencies and it is estimated that Metro spends close to 10 million SEK a year on TT news.
– We need to own our own material. It is becoming increasingly important to own the intellectual property rights to be able to forward them to other channels, Chief Editor Sakari Pitkänen then told Resumé.
– We have examined what we get from TT and found that the price tag is too high, said Charlotta Friborg, Dagens Nyheter’s Administrative Chief Editor.
Metro will increase its own staff while DN will use its current editorial staff, which already is under pressure from reductions.
– News are summarized in so many places today. Maybe time has run out on traditional local news agencies, Sakari Pitkänen told DN.