Schibsted gives young audiences what they want: transparency on editorial decisions

Scandinavian media company Schibsted has put "ethics boxes" on news articles to show how editorial decisions are made, as young audiences say this would make them trust the news more.

Selected articles — primarily crime-related content — provide three bullet points that explain key editorial decisions, such as why a person's name or image was published (or not).

An ethics box on Aftonbladet, translated into English on Google Chrome

The idea came from Schibsted's Summer Sprint programme last year, which sought to co-develop and prototype news products that resonate with young people.

This idea was picked out of the many because this type of expandable boxes is common across the site for quick summaries or fact boxes.

"Questions about why we choose to name a suspect in one case but not in another are among the most common we receive, and there are many conspiracy theories surrounding these decisions," explains Martin Schori, deputy publisher and director of editorial AI and innovation, Aftonbladet, one of Schibsted's main Swedish titles.

A/B testing has so far shown a better understanding of editorial decisions, higher agreement with those choices, and increased perception of content credibility.

The feature directly addresses young people's desire for greater transparency and insight into editorial decision-making, helping them understand how news is produced rather than leaving them to speculate, which can lead to mistrust and misinformation.

Schibsted followed up the summer programme with a Trust Sprint, another programme co-developed with young audiences where yet more ideas emerged to experiment with: Daily Dose (a curated news product with interactive engagement rewards), News Mixer (a customised blend of professional and social media news) and FactBuoy (AI-powered fact-checking and content adaptation while browsing the internet).

Experiments for those products will be underway soon, says Schori.

Trust in Scandinavia

Trust is not much of an issue in Scandinavian regions compared to other parts of the world. Around half of the Swedish (50 per cent) and Norwegian (55 per cent) population trust the news — two of the highest-trust markets in the world, according to the Reuters Digital News Report 2024 (11th and 7th out of 47 markets). Schibsted has titles in these two regions.

And yet, Schibsted's IN/LAB, a joint innovation initiative with Tinius Trust, has found that the tide might be turning amongst some audiences.

It conducted a study in 2023 with Järvaveckan Research that revealed nearly half (48 per cent) of consumers in both disadvantaged areas and the general Swedish population admit to actively avoiding news at times.

Additionally, significant disparities exist between different communities: only a fifth (22 per cent) of residents in disadvantaged areas pay for news, compared to nearly half (47 per cent) of the general public.

Perhaps most telling is the finding that half of residents in disadvantaged areas believe news reporting worsens public perception of their neighborhoods, suggesting many feel the media works against rather than for them.

Last year, a follow-up piece of research titled Schibsted’s Trust study identified four key factors that drive news consumption, trust and willingness to pay across demographic groups: content credibility, process credibility, personal relevance, and content selectivity.

"We have observed that young audiences tend to be more sceptical of news and do not assume its credibility by default. This makes transparency in the journalistic process critical—it provides them with the information they need to assess its credibility. When they understand how news is produced and by whom, they feel more confident in its credibility," says Belenn Bekele, program manager, IN/LAB, Schibsted.

The scepticism runs deeper: 50 per cent of Swedes believe journalists have personal agendas, while over half suspect political motives. Around 70 per cent do not personally know anyone working in journalism, creating both a credibility and connection gap.

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