What the media can learn from Estonia's digital innovation

Estonia is a country with a population of only 1.3 million, but with the most startups per capita in Europe.

With free wifi access everywhere and an enviable e-government system, digital innovation is thriving in the country.

"Estonia is so tiny that actually if you do something, if you think of a new idea, you have to think on a larger scale than the Estonian market," said Andrus Raudsalu, chief technology officer of Postimees, the largest daily newspaper in Estonia.

Speaking at Digital Media Europe yesterday, he explained the way startup founders in Estonia have to think to make a business work, and how this mindset filters through to the media industry in the country.

"If you're a startup in Germany, you are completely satisfied by servicing the German market. In Estonia there is no market actually to grow," he said referring to the country's tiny population.

This makes startup founders think globally right from the start, and compare themselves to the international players.

"You don't try to mimic eBay in Estonia, you have to think something new."

But this is, of course, a problem for media entrepreneurs in the country, who are locked by language constraints and have to stay within those boundaries.

Raudslau joined Postimees after working in the startup world, and explained that he sees the 200-year history of the legacy media outlet holding some of the digital innovation processes back.

The "IT department" is one of the most forward thinking ones, he said, "because they kind of feel tied to the startup economy, to all these other technology guys in Estonia".

"I think slowly but surely this type of thinking starts to spread throughout the company".

He said media outlets should look to startups for a "lean model" and try to operate the same way.

Raudslau, a co-founder of Baltic new media outlet Delfi, explained how the Delfi team "did a lot of stupid things in the beginning, but we were not afraid to fail".

This mindset was enabled by the investors' backing, but Raudslau said media companies who can afford it have to "try a lot of stupid things and fail".

Another key tip for innovation from Raudslau is trusting your gut feeling and not relying entirely on metrics and measurements to guide your projects.

He said following these measurements leads to "statistical improvements" but an average product.

"It's not going to be something that is a breakthrough project, it's not going to surprise anybody," he said.

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