Revenue and Branding Strategy in the Norwegian News Market

Future revenue streams for journalism are said not to lie in breaking news, but in specialist journalism that can engender income to sustain news production. A case study of the Norwegian TV 2 News Channel, however, shows that its profit-making features lie not in its content but in its mode of distribution. The added value of the channel to DTT subscription packages is as much due to TV 2’s market power and news brand value as to the news channel concept itself. This article analyses the function of the news channel in today’s competitive journalistic landscape from the perspective of news sociology and media economy, presenting a quantitative content analysis of the news output of TV 2 News Channel, qualitative interviews with TV 2 news editors, and analysis of key strategy documents of the organization.