The truth interests me

Zetland’s group strategy for 2027–2030 is called The Truth Interests Me. The name is an homage to our first non-Danish publication, Uusi Juttu in Finland. Teppo, a member of Uusi Juttu, gave “Totuus kiinnostaa” – “the truth interests me” – as his reason for being a member. We thought it was so great that we put it on caps, and now on the cover of our four-year outlook.

This is the first time we have written a strategy that covers several publications in several countries. It does not prescribe which stories to write, which features to build or which campaigns to run. It describes the why and the where, and lays out the focus areas. The how is for our teams to discover, adapt and reinvent as the world changes around us.

Our aspiration for the coming four years is to make Zetland’s publications among the biggest and most important digital subscription news services in all our existing markets – Denmark, Finland and Norway – and to test the model in our first major market, Germany.

This is not a turnaround. We spent a decade proving that Zetland’s model works. Now we are taking it further: across borders, across languages, and into a future where journalism needs this model more than ever.

Vision 2030

200,000 members. DKK 200 million in revenue. Four or more profitable countries.

Zetland is a thriving news provider across Denmark, Finland, Norway and Germany, and we are actively pursuing the next opportunities. Our journalism, distribution and communication are state of the art, and we make a positive difference to the public discourse in every market. More than 200,000 curious citizens have chosen to pay for it.

Getting there means more than 2.5 times as many members and 2.4 times the revenue in four years, with every country profitable. That is admittedly ambitious. The member number is our measure of impact; the revenue growth shows that what we make has real value.

What we do

We help people better understand the world, so that they feel the courage and desire to take responsibility for it. We publish a modern, digital news service plus adjacent products, built on personality-driven storytelling, community and human technology – for curious, agency-driven citizens of all ages across Northern Europe.

Our promise: we will never compromise on our journalism, and we will never stop using curiosity, personality and honesty to make sense of a complicated world.

What we promise our members

• #1

  Deep knowledge and overview

  We combine a deep understanding of important topics with the feeling of overview.

• #2

  Relief from information overwhelm

  A finishable product that values your attention. Endless information leaves people fatigued and apathetic – we offer a place where attention is respected.

• #3

  Personable service

  We are here to help, like a friend. You shouldn’t need a degree in current affairs to feel welcome. When it’s easy to follow, it’s easy to keep coming back.

• #4

  A strong public discourse

  Paying for media that builds community, guides important societal discussions and holds power to account has a value of its own.

• #5

  Hope and agency

  Even when the world seems bleak, there is almost always hope. We help our members understand how they can take part.

• #6

  A sense of belonging

  Every Zetland experience has a human at its centre: named journalists with a voice our members recognise, and a relationship built over time.

Why now: the ground is shifting

AI mediates the flow. Search engines answer without sending readers anywhere, chatbots summarise the news, and feeds are increasingly curated by machines rather than chosen by people.

Attention migrates. Distribution is no longer a differentiator. Total attention spent on digital services is exploding, but creators are taking over attention that used to go to news brands.

Make it personable. We see a counter-reaction that will only grow: a deep human need to be in control of our own attention. When we decide who to trust, we look for personal relations.

Our unfair advantage isn’t content; it’s connection – the resonance between one thinking person and another.

The strategy house

The foundation of everything we do: we inform people so they want to take responsibility. We have only crossed the finish line when our journalism gives people the desire to take part in the life of society. If it leaves them apathetic, indifferent or drained of courage, we have not succeeded. Our goal is to help create citizens who are awake, brave and thinking.

“First enliven, then enlighten.” – Christen Kold, founder of Denmark’s first friskole

Our core audience is young, curious citizens – with particular emphasis on people in their 20s and 30s, who are chronically underserved by media built for an older audience. On that foundation stand five focus areas.

Five focus areas

• #1

  Belonging and participation

  Members don’t join us for charity or to use a service; they say yes to an invitation into a shared mission. We build participation into the journalism, beyond it, and into how we work together – community, not consensus.

• #2

  Content: make sense

  Depth and clarity, delivered by real people with personality and conviction. Re-enchanted storytelling, published as audio, text and video in whatever way best fits our members’ lives.

• #3

  Business: make it pay

  More revenue streams, one mission. Membership stays the core, and books, events and print complement it – only when they strengthen the main brand.

• #4

  Technology: make space

  Technology that invites people in, and AI that buys us time for what only humans can do: original reporting, judgement, voice and relationships.

• #5

  Cross-pollination across borders

  Our markets are not silos. We share knowledge, stories, tools and our most epic failures – as openly as possible – with a headquarters in Copenhagen that orchestrates it all.

Four markets and counting

Zetland, Copenhagen. A mature service. More deep knowledge in subjects such as technology, politics and economics, more member involvement, events, a print experiment, and book publishing as a stable, profitable part of the business.

Uusi Juttu, Helsinki. Deliver, then invest. First the product delivers on its promises and becomes sustainable; then we publish more and invest in quality.

Demo, Oslo. Find our feet, then grow fast. We prove the growth trajectory and adapt as we learn the market.

tbd, Berlin. Test, then commit and grow. We run a market test in 2027, and if the German public supports the idea, we invest in a full newsroom.

Each market decides how to reach the goals. When we enter a new country, we don’t copy the playbook blindly; we start over and ask what that market actually needs.

The board, management teams, employees and members all gave input to this strategy during 2026. Copenhagen, September 2026.