Is advertising-funded and supported news media soon to be confined to the pages of history? Perhaps. Are there better business models available for news media businesses? Yes. Does the fabric of our democracy depend on businesses shifting to these better business models? Undoubtedly.
Those are the views of Ulrik Haagerup, the former head of Denmark’s public service broadcaster and founder of the Constructive Institute.
While many in Australia consternate about the fate of ARN and its legal stoush with Mr Sandilands and Ms Henderson, there is another game afoot with far higher stakes on the table.
“The revolution in information and communication technology has probably hit no other sector harder than the news media itself. Hardly any other industry is finding its role challenged so fundamentally, its values and worth being eroded and its business model threatened to the point of extinction,” Haagerup said, addressing the National Press Club in Canberra.
“We now know that we can’t take democracy for granted. Neither can we be certain that we have independent journalists to tell us what’s really going on, especially in our own countries. News deserts grow as the advertisers who finance much of the independent journalism now put their money into the pockets of Meta and Google, even the local grocery store and hairdressers.
“A growing number of news avoiders in our countries turn their backs on traditional news providers as they find journalism depressing, overwhelming, biased and not relevant enough to spend either or money… among, especially women and young people, it has become socially acceptable to say out loud that following the traditional news is not for them.
“At the same time, the business models behind private media are being eroded and the political attacks on public media grow. The Swiss public service broadcaster will, in a few weeks, be voted for by the Swiss public in a referendum put forward by the far right to cut its funding by 50 per cent and that’s just the start.”
In the final quarter of 2025, Meta earned around $82 billion from advertising, Google about AU$116 billion. Comcast is widely considered to be the largest news media organisation in the world. Its entire market cap is smaller than those two figures combined.
Constructive Journalism
His remedy to these varying challenges is what he calls ‘Constructive Journalism’.
The idea is straightforward—that journalism should seek to engender greater harmony and cordiality in society through more ‘constructive’ reporting that offers solutions rather than simply presenting problems.
However, the practice of constructive journalism is more complex and, in Haagerup’s mind, requires a realignment of traditional news culture. That will be hard and arguably contradicts human nature. But there are very willing audiences out there.
The Constructive Institute runs an Asia-Pacific Fellowship program from Melbourne’s Monash University.
“Change has been a constant in the newsroom through the last 15 years. New logos, new funds, new distribution channels, new tools, new formats, new technology, new deadlines, new workflows, new organisational models. Several times we have changed everything but our mindset. The purpose of journalism, the meaning we try to create, the value we offer,” said Haagerup.
“The problem is that the old newsroom saying of ‘If it bleeds it leads’ does not work any more.”
This approach, which had largely governed the popular news media since its inception in Victorian Britain, proved no match for the internet and social media. Journalists, including himself Haagerup said, became part of the problem of polarisation and mistrust. They needed to become part of the solution.
“I never told lies. I don’t know any journalist who has ever done that. But in order to hit the front page, I sometimes angled my story so sharply that I knew if I had told the whole story, with all the nuances, it would hardly make the front page. The numbers were not wrong, but the picture they created in people’s minds was not always completely right. At some point, I had to ask myself, ‘Did I still work as a journalist, editor-in-chief and news director for the biggest news organisation in my country in order to do good for society or had the ambition in reality slowed changed into pleasing the news culture?’ A good story had to be a bad story,” he said.
Haagerup went public with his criticisms of himself, his organisation and news culture in 2008.
“The former CEO demanded my resignation. Most reporters thought I had lost my mind. The powerful commissioning editors in my company banned the idea as they insisted the purpose of journalism was to be critical. I insisted the purpose was to enlighten people and to do so we needed to be critical but as a tool, not the goal itself,” he said.
He would fight to keep his job and resign in 2017 to found the Constructive Institute.
Follow The Money
Watch any Hollywood movie depicting journalism and you’ll see actors play hacks earnestly say things like ‘I need more time’ or ‘Give me one chance’ or ‘Follow the money’. In truth, much of the news media industry has been following the money—only onto social media platforms.
“We angle our news stories on conflict and drama to get the clicks, the likes and the views so we can sell it to advertisers, raise our shares and meet our KPIs. ‘Flood the zone with shit’ as Trump’s first media advisor, Steve Bannon, bluntly explained the strategy to get into the algorithms,” said Haagerup.
This way of working was fundamentally opposed to the practice of responsible, constructive journalism, Haagerup explained.
But there are alternatives. And while some might sound decidedly old-hat, Haagerup pointed to real world examples of organisations that had centred around constructive journalism principles and reaped the benefits.
“Norwegian public broadcaster NRK has made a broad decision to implement constructive journalism across all content areas… it finds that people read constructive stories much more than traditional stories on suicide bombers in Yemen. People spend significantly more time on these stories and they are more satisfied with their news provider after reading constructive stories,” he said.
“One of the most successful online startups in Northern Europe, Danish newspaper Zetland [not to be confused with the eastern Sydney suburb] bases its content solely on constructive journalism. They constantly experiment to rethink their news publishing. They call their subscribers members. They serve them not with more stories but better stories. Often only two major pieces a day. They read their written stories aloud so people listen to them. They have no advertising, no data collection. Now they have 70 news people and reach twice as many digital subscribers than the biggest traditional news providers in Denmark with an average reader age of 42 where the traditional news organisational their average age on print is 75 and digital is 63.
“Most newsrooms have been financed by advertising. But advertising is now going away. In order to get to the advertisers selling the eyeballs, we have tried to gain attention through clickbait. That time is almost over. Now every newsroom has to look at their audience and ask ‘How can we create something that is valuable?'” Haagerup added.
“At a time of misinformation, AI-generated content and algorithmic amplification, reinforcing trust in news and journalism has never been more important,” Vanessa Lyons, CEO of ThinkNewsBrands, told B&T after Haagerup’s talk.
“We’re excited to see the Constructive Institute expand in our region through the Asia-Pacific Hub and the Constructive Journalism Fellowship.”
“There are several models,” Haagerup told B&T after the proceedings.
“The biggest one, of course, is that people directly pay for journalism they like and find valuable. But there are also sponsorships, where it isn’t ‘I want to sell three litres of milk’ but ‘I would like to say I support this outlet’. That’s another way of advertising. You’ll also see foundations supporting through philanthropy, or government support when everyone’s forced to pay a little so everybody can get a lot,” Haagerup said.
“I’m not saying advertising, banner ads and the paper is dead. As the primary focus for the news market that you try to serve advertisers by serving numbers to them, that model is gone.”
In order to attract readers with more constructive journalism, publishers must focus more on video, podcasts, reading stories aloud, according to Haagerup. But mainly on the content of the stories themselves.
B&T was a guest of ThinkNewsBrands at the National Press Club.
