Zetland (newspaper)

Zetland
Screenshot
Zetland's iOS app on 24 February 2026
Type of site
Online newspaper
Available inDanish
Founded2012
HeadquartersCopenhagen
Founders
  • Jakob Moll
  • Silke Bock
  • Hakon Mosbech
  • Lea Korsgaard
EditorLea Korsgaard
Employees56 (2024)[1]
URLwww.zetland.dk
RegistrationYes
Users50,000
Launched23 March 2012 (2012-03-23)
Current statusOnline

Zetland is a Danish online newspaper focusing on long-form stories and in-depth articles offered in both text and audio formats. It publishes between two and four stories per day, along with a morning news brief and the daily news overview "Helikopter".[2][3] Some stories are part of a series, while others are standalone.

A subscription-based service, Zetland had more than 50,000 subscribers as of September 2025.[4] The editor-in-chief is Lea Korsgaard, formerly of Berlingske and Politiken,[5] who co-founded Zetland along with Jakob Moll, Silke Bock, and Hakon Mosbech.[6]

The company name derives from a hybrid between a zebra and Shetland pony.[2]

History

Founded in Copenhagen in 2012, Zetland originally created single long-form stories, called e-singles, delivered monthly to subscribers. Journalists would also read their works at public events, similar to Pop-Up Magazine in the U.S.[2][7][6]

In 2015, Zetland initiated a relaunch with a crowd-funding campaign which raised over 530,000 kroner, and additional investments of 8 million kroner. The relaunch occurred in March 2016, with Zetland beginning to offer daily news articles.[6][8] In 2016, revenue was 6.2 million kroner.[2] In 2018 Zetland received funds from the Danish cultural board Slots- og Kulturstyrelsen for the first time, totaling 1.8 million kroner.[9]

Since the relaunch, notable pieces have included conversations with Justice Minister Søren Pind and British sociologist Anthony Giddens.[10] In 2017 Zetland won a trio of awards from the Society for News Design Scandinavias, including gold and "Best of Show" in the digital news category for its front page, and silver in the website category.[11][12]

Zetland achieved financial stability in 2020, with the help of a member-get-member campaign in 2019 that contributed to a 25 percent growth in the span of a month. The campaign was later awarded several awards, including Best Idea to Grow Digital Readership or Engagement from INMA Global Media Awards and Best Digital Marketing Campaign for a News Brand from WAN-IFRA European Digital Media Awards.[13][14]

In May 2020, former Head of Product Tav Klitgaard replaced co-founder Jakob Moll as CEO, with the latter pursuing academic studies abroad.[15]

In 2023 Zetland launched Good Tape, a speech-to-text transcription tool initially created for internal use that was later spun off as a separate entity.[16]

Content and membership model

The newspaper's editor-in-chief, Lea Korsgaard, has attributed the growth of Zetland to its focus on a membership model, with journalists giving subscribers ("members") a behind-the-scenes look at the journalistic process through their stories and routinely interacting with them in comments sections—and to its constrained number of stories, making the site "finish-able" each day.[17]

Zetland offers all its stories in both text and audio formats, with audio having rapidly become the most popular aspect of the site. In 2018, 60% of users consumed their content as audio.[18]

In 2021, Zetland switched from MP3 to the Opus format for its articles' audio files, attaining a 35 percent reduction in bandwidth and a reduced climate footprint.[19][20]

International expansion

Co-founder Jakob Moll returned to the company as Development Manager in 2022, before becoming its International Director in October 2023 and leading Zetland's plans for international expansion.

In January 2025, Zetland launched the new online news media Uusi Juttu in Finland following a successful crowdfunding campaign.[21]

In September 2025, the company announced that Bonnier News would buy a majority stake in Zetland and that the company would continue their international expansion under the new ownership.[22]

In February 2026, the proposed Norwegian offshoot Demo successfully passed 5,000 supporters in a similar campaign.[23] At the time, Zetland owned 92.5% of the Norwegian company, with its three Norwegian founders owning the remaining 7.5%.[24] The Norwegian news media is expected to launch in the summer of 2026.[25]

References

  1. ^ "Zetland Annual Report for 2022" (PDF). 11 February 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d Lichterman, Joseph (July 25, 2017). "Start your meetings with a folk song — and other ideas from the community-driven, crowdfunded Danish news site Zetland". Nieman Lab.
  3. ^ Ciobanu, Mădălina (13 April 2017). "How live journalism brings people together to build trust and excitement around stories". journalism.co.uk.
  4. ^ Goos, Sebastian (2025-09-22). "Nu skal Zetland holde sine løfter – og det kræver flere hænder". Journalisten (in Danish). Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  5. ^ Hansen, Kartin L. (31 August 2016). "Journalism startup Zetland will be at SNDS16". snds.org. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  6. ^ a b c Pontes, Angela (23 February 2017). "Danish startup Zetland spreading the love with its membership model". blog.wan-ifra.org. World News Publishing Focus by WAN-IFRA. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  7. ^ Sillesen, Lene Bech (March–April 2015). "The power of Pop-Up Magazine's live journalism". Columbia Journalism Review.
  8. ^ Cobben, Ingrid (23 August 2016). "Innovation in Denmark: building a community willing to pay for quality journalism". blog.wan-ifra.org. World News Publishing Focus by WAN-IFRA. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  9. ^ Andreassen, Andreas Marckmann (12 December 2017). "Tre nye medier får støtte – Zetland får 1,8 mio. kr". Journalisten.dk (in Danish). Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  10. ^ Holm, Adam (18 March 2016). "Anmeldelse: Turen går til Zetland". Politiken (in Danish).
  11. ^ Hedegaard, Anne-Laura (28 September 2017). "Zetland vandt guld for hjemmeside. Nu laver de en ny" [Zetland won gold for website. Now they are doing a new one]. Journalisten.dk (in Danish). Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  12. ^ Hansen, Kartin L. (27 September 2017). "Finnish and Danish media houses top Scandinavian news design". snds.org. Society for News Design Scandinavias. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  13. ^ "INMA unveils Global Media Awards winners, COVID campaigns get top nod".
  14. ^ "Strong Nordic performance as WAN-IFRA European Digital Media Awards announced". 23 April 2020.
  15. ^ Bruun-Hansen, Kerstin (2020-05-14). "Jakob Moll stopper på Zetland – ny direktør er fundet". Journalisten (in Danish). Retrieved 2025-09-30.
  16. ^ "Toolbox #3: Zetland". The Fix. 2024-02-22. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  17. ^ "Zetland: journalism as (profitable) community service". One Man & His Blog. 2017-04-24. Retrieved 2018-05-10.
  18. ^ "Zetland's members asked for an audio version — and now it's more popular than their written stories". Nieman Lab. Retrieved 2018-05-10.
  19. ^ "Audio formats and their climate footprint". Sustainable Web. 2 February 2022.
  20. ^ "How a tip from a member made our audio files 35 percent greener". Zetland (in Danish). 25 November 2021.
  21. ^ Kunova, Marcela (2025-03-07). "Jakob Moll, international director of Zetland, on expanding into Finland and beyond". Archived from the original on 2025-08-05. Retrieved 2025-09-30.
  22. ^ Bruun-Hansen, Kerstin (2025-09-30). "Zetland er blevet solgt". Journalisten (in Danish). Retrieved 2025-09-30.
  23. ^ Aarli-Grøndalen, Roger (2026-02-12). "Demo har passert 5000 medlemmer". www.journalisten.no (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  24. ^ Breivik, Espen Moe (2026-01-23). "Eier bare 7,5 prosent av Demo: – Ingen hemmelighet". www.journalisten.no (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  25. ^ Skandsen, Håkon Andreas (2026-02-22). "Tar et oppgjør med clickbait:– Det er et demokratisk problem". www.universitas.no (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2026-02-24.
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