Amy Watson
Research expert covering news and publishing
Newspapers in Sweden - statistics & facts
The largest newspaper publishing company in Sweden is Bonnier, which generated revenue of over 4.2 billion Swedish kronor in 2021 with its daily newspapers Expressen, Dagens Nyheter, and Sydsvenskan. Norwegian publisher Schibsted, the owner of Aftonbladet and Svenska Dagbladet, came second with revenue of close to 2.5 billion Swedish kronor that year. Bonnier’s Dagens Nyheter ranked was the leading daily city newspaper in Sweden in 2021 with over one million print and digital readers, followed by Schibsted’s Svenska Dagbladet with 691 thousand.
Daily newspaper subscriptions in Sweden also grew slightly in 2021 among adults aged 45 or above. Data showed that over 40 percent of readers aged nine to 14 years old also subscribed to a daily newspaper, despite print media generally being less popular among younger generations.
The inclination among Swedes to pay for news, whether this be print or digital, is positive for companies seeking to gain their subscriber base. However, whilst Swedish audiences may be more likely than some of their European counterparts to invest in news, Sweden’s newspaper industry has mostly been losing revenue each year since 2014, with the exception of 2021 where the figure grew very slightly year over year. The newspaper market in Sweden is not dissimilar from others around the world in this regard, and readers paying for news content will not be enough to stop the downward revenue trends.
Daily newspapers in Sweden
In both 2020 and 2021, daily newspaper readership in Sweden was at its highest since 2012. In both years, 68 percent of Swedes responding to an annual survey read daily papers on an average day. Whilst the hike in 2020 could be partially due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the share of individuals engaging with daily newspapers on a typical day remained above the 60 percent mark in almost every year over the last decade, which is a good sign for publishers.Daily newspaper subscriptions in Sweden also grew slightly in 2021 among adults aged 45 or above. Data showed that over 40 percent of readers aged nine to 14 years old also subscribed to a daily newspaper, despite print media generally being less popular among younger generations.
Free vs. paid news consumption
A study held in 2022 found that over 30 percent of internet users in Sweden paid for online news that year, more than ten percent higher than the share recorded in 2016. The same report revealed that Swedish news audiences were among the most likely to have paid for online news worldwide, with almost double the share of Swedes having done so in the last year compared to the percentage of respondents from neighboring Denmark.The inclination among Swedes to pay for news, whether this be print or digital, is positive for companies seeking to gain their subscriber base. However, whilst Swedish audiences may be more likely than some of their European counterparts to invest in news, Sweden’s newspaper industry has mostly been losing revenue each year since 2014, with the exception of 2021 where the figure grew very slightly year over year. The newspaper market in Sweden is not dissimilar from others around the world in this regard, and readers paying for news content will not be enough to stop the downward revenue trends.
