New alternative media are launched to the right and left

It may be due to random leaks. It can also be the result of a well thought out communication strategy. Regardless, the Bulletin media project has been preceded by an uproar. Numerous articles have been written about so-called star recruiters, well-known bourgeois opinion leaders who have joined the project. Some of them are:

Alice Teodorescu Måwe, a former political editor at Göteborgs-Posten and later employed by the moderates to write the party’s new ideas program.

Per Gudmundsson, a press director for the Christian Democrats who also has a past in the editorial office of SvD.

And then Paulina Neuding, founder and editor-in-chief. He previously held the same title in the bourgeois magazine Neo and in the online magazine Kvartal.

Bulletin is an online magazine with podcasts and web TV. The formation of opinions with a liberal conservative profile is combined with news information, especially foreign coverage. Funding comes from several individual investors, but the idea is for the Bulletin to be developed with the help of subscribers.

Although several of the recruited writers are known as controversial sharps, editor-in-chief Paulina Neuding describes the Bulletin as a counterpoint to polarization and a home for constructive conversations. Quality press in the UK, Germany and the US are role models.

– We believe that our main audience will be mainly well-informed readers among the more than 40 percent of the Swedish electorate who identify themselves on the right. The purpose is to have a Swedish intellectual newspaper, the kind that we like to read in other countries, says Paulina Neuding.

The counterattack of the Social Democrats is to allow Daniel Färm to take over as executive director and political editor of Aktuellt i politiken, with the stated task of spreading an S perspective to more groups than today.

– We see that the right is mobilizing. The investments in media that we see now are intended to pave the way for a right-wing government in 2022. So the Social Democrats and the left must show the alternatives. It is absolutely crucial that we media players on the left manage to deliver interesting and relevant formats during this period. It is important both internally in the movement and in relation to the voters, says Daniel Färm.

Daniel Färm, who is closest to the S-labeled Tiden think tank, shows on bleak editorial premises at the Social Democratic party headquarters in Sveavägen 68. From here, he and the editorial team of Aktuellt i politiken, owned by S, will go to counterattack against what they perceive as an offensive from the right. .

– The right wing has been taking a few steps forward for a few years, he says.

He doesn’t hide the fact that the mission is so much about making an impression on the public debate through tougher exposure, especially on social media.

The site newsletter has recruited several reputable writers with a good documented ability to influence the debate. Daniel Färm’s opinion leaders are not unknown to those who follow politics, but neither are they obvious audience magnets. In addition to him, there are municipal politicians like Lars Stjernkvist and Elvy Söderström, former MP Veronica Palm, and former Stefan Löfven press secretary Erik Nises.

Daniel Färm believes that the task in the coming years will be to show the contrast with the alternatives on the right and have a discussion about the choice of the path.

– If the law is allowed to dominate, it will be your choice of questions, interpretations and perspectives that will focus. We need to show the ideas and perspectives of the Social Democrats in a completely different way. We need to reach larger groups and find new forms of expression.

The Färm counteroffensive will take place entirely within the framework of Aktuellt i politiken. The financing consists of advertising and subscription revenue, as well as press support. According to Daniel Färm, the owners will not contribute additional funds other than possibly smaller amounts of project money of a non-recurring nature.

Paulina Neuding wants I would like to point out the difference between a party political initiative like Daniel Färms, and the Bulletin, which according to her should be free of such interests.

A starting point for Neuding’s project is the ideological change that has occurred in the debate in recent years, where new scales of values ​​and new issues such as migration and crime are occupying more space.

– This ideological shift has created an intellectual space for a passionate debate. Sweden has an intense discussion on these issues because migration and crime have affected society, while many journalists have long remained within a corridor of opinion that has now been relocated, says Paulina Neuding.

One of those who has steered the immigration debate in a more critical direction is Ivar Arpi. He will be especially responsible for podcasts and web TV in Bulletin after having previously had the editorial staff of Svenska Dagbladet as a platform. He hopes he can provide space for long, unhurried conversations, in contrast to what he calls “wrestling” on other talk shows. Not infrequently with Ivar Arpi himself in the ring as a kind of “Hulk Hogan”, the Bulletin employee sincerely states.

He believes that the Bulletin can become a new liberal-conservative voice at a time when the bourgeoisie is divided.

-There is a space today for a bourgeois opinion maker who wants to get involved and shape a new way of being bourgeois that is not the golden age of the alliance, says Ivar Arpi.

– The Swedish bourgeoisie tends to get caught up in phrases, such as that it is good with low taxes, it is good with freedom of choice. I think you have to be in the lived reality, be it crime or school. There is a lack of curiosity within the bourgeoisie.

Although with a different approach The Left Party is also building the same goal, creating new channels to spread its message. Anna Herdy has been hired from Flamman to maintain the initiative.

– When the news feed becomes more and more click-controlled, the questions disappear. At present, it is left-wing issues that are disappearing, such as pensions and secure employment. These are problems that affect a large number of people and generate a lot of anxiety in the lives of many people. We want to put more issues on the agenda than there are today, says Anna Herdy.

The ambition is to make their own studio productions and spread messages on social networks. She sees it as an advantage to be able to work without intermediaries.

– You have to shape your own message. It is not filtered in the same way. A clear sender can also be a good thing – it doesn’t get as clear when secret financials are in the background.

Latest media projects It has been preceded by the fact that in recent years a flora of places has emerged with a more or less positive attitude towards the Swedish Democrats. An example is Chang Frick’s News Today. Another is Samtiden, owned by SD, where Dick Erixon is editor-in-chief. He sees the fact that multiple new media launches are taking place as a sign of dissatisfaction with what mainstream media is accomplishing. He also sees a clear connection between the rise of alternative media and the successes of the Swedish Democrats.

– When others do not report on the reality you see, you have to do it yourself. Sweden’s Democrats have been good at it, says Dick Erixon.

He thinks that the traditional media have abandoned their role as objective reporters and have become political actors. It opens up for others to take its place from new angles.

– Conservatives have disappeared from the debate and the media has been terribly bad at covering the opinions, feelings and worldview that conservatives have defended. When the mainstream media can’t cover it, they create their own clusters and lead the debate there.

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