Sweden has robust public service broadcasters that operate alongside a well-established commercial news sector that has cultivated a strong subscriber base for digital content. While media ownership remains concentrated, government strategies prioritise diverse voices through financial support. Sweden is digitally advanced and thus online news consumption and social media use is widespread and artificial intelligence is gaining significance.

Sweden's news media landscape, though robust by international standards, is undergoing a profound transformation. The public service media (PSM) consists of Swedish Television (SVT), Swedish Radio (SR), and Utbildningsradion (UR). SVT and SR each produce and publish daily local and national online news on their own website. They also publish some news across social media platforms, although SVT has adopted an increasingly restrictive approach to what it publishes, in continued efforts to reduce their dependence on platforms (Olsen et al. 2024).

Sweden is also known for having a sustainable and healthy commercial news media sector, which is characterised by a mix of national and local newspapers. The government has long supported weaker publishers, a testament to the nation's commitment to media plurality. Swedish news publishers have continuously lost advertising revenues, once the cornerstone of their business model, largely because tech giants such as Alphabet and Meta have come to dominate digital advertising. Overall advertising revenue for Swedish news publishers decreased by the equivalent of €15.8m in 2024 compared to the previous year, totalling €217.7m. While most advertising revenue still comes from print (€137m in 2024), this declines every year and was 8% down in 2024. Newspaper revenues from online advertising increased slightly, reaching €79m in 2024 or 37% of all revenues (TU Mediefakta 2025).

Amid the downward spiral for advertising, publishers have been compelled to implement cost-cutting measures and seek alternative revenue streams, with reader subscriptions having emerged as the primary focus. Newspapers continue to make most of their money from print subscriptions, for which they charge high prices which include home delivery, but 31% of our survey respondents pay for news online, placing Sweden second after Norway among our countries surveyed. There is less loyalty among online subscribers, however, compared to print, with some users signing up for short-term special subscription offers. Newspapers’ overall reader revenue remained stable between 2023 and 2024, but its share of the total revenues has increased slightly due to the continued decline in print advertising.

Major national publishers, such as those within the Schibsted and Bonnier groups, are among the most successful with the digital subscription models, with Bonnier News+ recognised for its comprehensive content offering. In 2024 Bonnier News Local (BNL) signed a deal with local media company NWT in which they purchased shares in each other’s companies. Publishers generally offer free content for basic news and paywalled access to premium services, including specialised content and lifestyle offerings. The larger news publishers have expanded into audio formats, including podcasts and TV, and their audio-visual content can be cross-promoted on their proprietary platforms as well as on social media platforms in attempts to stimulate engagement among (younger) target groups. Publishers are also exercising caution regarding platform dependency, aiming to maintain control over their distribution and content. Swedish PSM are required to own and control their distribution infrastructure, minimising reliance on external platform companies, and SVT has worked hard to reduce its dependency.

The Swedish News Media Association’s innovation of the year award went to the integration-oriented news podcast Daily Arabic, developed by Aftonbladet and Alkompis, targeted at the Arabic-speaking community in Sweden. Aftonbladet selects content from its podcasts and uses AI for translation to Arabic, which is then checked by Alkompis staff. In addition, Svenska Dagbladet have developed a format for quick and concise news reading called SvD Kompakt, designed to appeal to ‘the young and curious’.

Swedish publishers have moved ahead with AI. Swedish Radio have long used it for audio transcriptions, and in Q1 2025 launched their proprietary AI chatbot for news. Norwegian Schibsted-owned Aftonbladet started an AI hub in 2023 which is now integrated into the newsroom that produces article summaries, converts sound to text, and creates subtitles. AI has also been used to systematically analyse their news output for patterns and biases. In early 2025 Schibsted signed a two-year contract with OpenAI. The full details are confidential, but Schibsted has announced that journalists producing news used by OpenAI, which makes explicit reference to Schibsted titles, will be given an annual bonus of roughly €500.

Oscar Westlund
Oslo Metropolitan University and University of Gothenburg

Changing media

Swedes mainly access news online, with print’s role halving in the past decade, but TV remains a very important source of news, mostly via public broadcaster SVT but also TV4.

Trust in news overall has increased to 53%, and is higher for news media that people use themselves. Swedes generally trust the two PSM organisations and local newspapers the most, whereas the trust for alternative news media is lower, and fell further in the last year.