The article focuses on innovation and social media strategies in newspaper companies in the US and three Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway and Denmark). Many previous studies have focused on the state of journalism and media industry in single countries, although media have distinct features in different countries. Through the comparative setting, it is possible to examine the differences in media innovation strategies and study what factors affect innovation in media production, business models, sources of funding, and social media strategies. The qualitative part of the paper consists of semi-structured in-depth interviews (N ¼ 65) with media managers and experts, which were carried out in Scandinavia in 2016 and in the US in 2017. The quantitative market data covers the years 2006-2016; this timespan corresponds well with the accelerating digital transition in the newspaper business. According to the results, new business models are mostly new combinations of existing revenue streams, while adaptation of new technology is slow, with few exceptions.

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Academic debates tend focus on attempts to codify and promote communication rights at the global level. This article provides a model to analyse communication rights at a national level by operationalising four rights: access, availability, dialogical rights, and privacy. It highlights specific cases of digitalisation in Finland, a country with an impressive record as a promoter of internet access and digitalised public services. The article shows how national policy decisions may support economic goals rather than communication rights, and how measures to realise rights by digital means may not always translate into desired outcomes, such as inclusive participation in decision-making.

In the Nordic countries, local and regional newspapers have functioned as keystone media. This article examines the emergence of hyperlocal initiatives as part of evolving local media ecosystems in Finland, analysing the extent and characteristics of hyperlocal media, and how they relate to wider changes in the Finnish media ecosystem. The data gathered on hyperlocal initiatives include a semi-structured survey by phone and online. The research conducted shows that the field is diverse. Rather than considering hyperlocal media in the context of typical publication forms, these newcomers can be best described according to a set of dimensions. Furthermore, the results indicate rather a strong desire to engage people in community building. The emergence of hyperlocal publications means adding a new layer to the Finnish media ecosystem. This development also provides the grounds for further study of the possible emergence of a new media era in Finland.

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The notion of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) is operationalized here to explore the influence of press freedom (PF) on the performance of news media firms. We find that growth in reader revenues (RR)—digital and print—is statistically significantly correlated to both EO and PF, suggesting that subscriptions to independently produced news are likely to be better in countries with high degrees of PF, and in instances where the firm’s leaders are entrepreneurial.