Ekstra Bladet

On February 12, 1904, Politiken issued the first “Politiken’s Ekstra Blad” with the latest telegrams about the war between Russia and Japan. There was a major demand, the war dragged on – and Ekstra Bladet had come to stay.

In the middle of 1904, the name was changed to Ekstra Bladet, and as of January 1, 1905 the newspaper was separated from Politiken and established with its own editorial staff. The tabloid format was introduced in 1961, content and form were modernised, and from 1963 circulation increased strongly. In the same period, the paper launched words like “bolighaj” (slum lord) and “skrankepave” (jack-in-office), and Ekstra Bladet manifested itself as a social critic and watchdog in relation to the establishment. In the same period, and as the first newspaper in Denmark, Ekstra Bladet carried photos of topless girls and created a scandal. Since 1987, Ekstra Bladet has also been published on Sundays.

Market position
Ekstra Bladet is Denmark’s largest popular daily, the leading tabloid and also has a position as Denmark’s “necessary” newspaper. It is known for being cheeky, outrageous and loud, but also trustworthy. Ekstra Bladet has an absolutely leading position on the Internet among all Danish dailies. Ekstra Bladet operates a number of sites including nationen!, flash!, Kup!, Ekstrabladet.tv with five independent channels in News, Sports, Entertainment, Cars and nationen.tv with the readers’ own contributions. In addition there are box and Side6. Furthermore, Ekstra Bladet is the strongest media company in Denmark on the mobile platform. Ekstra Bladet’s target group is defined as the traditional individual segment.

Number of employees
As of December 31, 2008, the number of full-time employees was calculated at 340 including 160 journalists. Ekstra Bladet’s distribution and printing operations have been spun off into independent companies. This means that the employees of these two companies are not included in the above figure, and similarly, freelance journalists, stringers, delivery people and the suchlike are not included either.

Revenue structure
Ekstra Bladet is predominantly a non-subscription paper. The vast majority – about 90% - of the newspaper’s circulation is sold at the newsstand. The rest is sold to subscribers. More than 70% of Ekstra Bladet’s revenue stems from the sale of the newspaper. The remaining 30% comes from the sale of ads in print and on the Internet.

Management
Editorial management is under Poul Madsen (CEO), Bent Falbert (editor-in-chief), Jan Jensen, Geir Terje Ruud (managing editor) and Editors Karen Bro and Morten V. Poulsen. Ekstra Bladet’s commercial management is under Jan Damgaard Ring.

Ownership structure
Since January 1, 2003, Ekstra Bladet has been published by JP/Politikens Hus which also publishes Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten and Politiken. On that same date the old company, Aktieselskabet Dagbladet Politiken, was converted into A/S Politiken Holding. JP/Politikens Hus is the result of a merger of Jyllands-Posten and Politikens Hus at the turn of 2002/2003. An essential precondition for the merger was that the three newspapers maintained their unconditional editorial independence and character.

Social commitment
Ekstra Bladet has strong sports coverage and supports sports in Denmark in various ways. In addition, the paper offers various educational activities such as "Særavisen" that was launched in the spring of 2006 as an educational resource aimed at state schools. The material includes writing exercises and themes and contributes to students’ understanding of how a newspaper is produced. There is major interest in the field – each year Ekstra Bladet sells 50,000 classroom sets.

In addition, Ekstra Bladet has developed and launched the prize-winning interactive educational tool "Redaktionen" in cooperation with the Danish School of Education. Students receive the teaching materials through ekstrabladet.dk/skole. They set their own priorities and produce the content of their newspaper. Ekstra Bladet assumes the task of printing 1,000 copies of the newspaper and delivering it to the school. Since its inception in November 2007, Ekstra Bladet has printed 200,000 newspapers as part of the “Redaktionen” concept.

The purpose of the educational tool is to give students an understanding of what it means to produce a newspaper, and given them an idea of the entire process behind the production of news and newspapers. “Redaktionen” has won several awards including the follow-up prize by the INMA Awards (International Newsmedia Marketing Association) and a World Young Reader Jury Commendation.

Awards
VICTORPRISEN. Named after Ekstra Bladet’s former editor Victor Andreasen. The prize is awarded annually to one or several people in the media world for an extraordinary performance. Among other winners, the Victor award has been presented to Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten in recognition of the paper’s defence of the freedom of speech in connection with the Mohammed cartoon issue. The prize includes DKK 10,000, a cobblestone and a weekend stay in Silkeborg, the birth town of Victor Andreasen.

MÜNSTERPRISEN. Awarded by the employees at Ekstra Bladet to a co-worker who has made a special effort either in the paper or as a good colleague. The prize is accompanied by DKK 4,000.