Live content is a crucial tool for publishers for attracting and retaining readers, especially younger audiences used to finding real-time information from social media. Publishers have an opportunity to add vital context and expertise compared to alternative sources.
This is the latest in our Media Briefs series of short, sharp sponsored episodes with senior executives from a vendor working with publishers to make their businesses better.
In this episode we hear from Norkon CEO Eirik Næsje and VP of Sales Birger Søiland. Norkon delivers innovative solutions to help publishers meet their growth objectives, with a vision to be the global standard in media to attract, engage and retain readers. Eirik and Birger talk to Peter about the increasing importance of live content in 2025’s media landscape, including as a tool to enable discovery and build habit.
Here are some highlights from the episode, lightly edited for clarity:
The importance of insight for live content
Eirik: What most newspapers saw was that they’re starting to lose readers to the alternative news sources that, especially the younger readers, were moving to social media channels and boards and so on to follow the stock market and get input. So for them it was a way to track the stock market in real-time… now we’re looking at how we can use newspapers’ own content with all the other data available to create all these new experiences for readers that are more aligned with their expectations.
Historically, the newspapers were printed and were delivered the next morning, and everything was written content. Then it’s about how you actually combine this traditional insight into what’s happening in the market with what’s actually happening, so you can get an understanding of what is happening and why it’s happening. That’s a way for many [publishers] to differentiate themselves.
How live information can build habit
Birger: We are now entering an era where short-form content is resonating well with the end users. How can publishers leverage that need that’s in the market to drive engagement across their audiences? We’re seeing it now with short-form content having a renaissance, where it’s becoming not just a nice to have, but a need to have, from a strategic point of view. And some of that is real-time information.
There’s breaking news happening where Donald Trump gets shot, or there’s a terrorist attack somewhere, or you want to follow your favourite team and what transfers they’re doing, or topical feeds that last over time – many newspapers and news outlets today have been following the Ukraine war since the very beginning. Many of them have had feeds that have not changed, in the sense that people can come back to the same feed day in day out, and build a habit of coming back
If you can build a habit with your end users, then you’re better suited to grow your audiences. That doesn’t mean that you’re not going to experience competition from social media and other influencer or retail media, but you’re definitely setting yourself up for success if you’re catering to the user needs that will bring you more engagement and retention on your site.
Live as a discovery tool
Birger: When something super breaking is happening, people’s need for information is at an all-time high. The past two days, we’ve had extreme weather here in Oslo, and people are seeking information. Here in Norway or in Scandinavia, people are not necessarily using Google all that much to find that information. Most of the traffic here is direct traffic.
But if you mvoe outside of the Nordics, all of a sudden, that game changes. You go to the UK, or Germany, or the US, or Canada, people are using Google a whole lot more, and having a strategic use of live to cater to SEO is a super important part of discovery. Being visible when something live and breaking is happening is critical.
That’s why many publishers have turned to live as that discovery phase, and bringing people into their ecosystem who may not necessarily have used them as a news source before.
This episode is sponsored by Norkon. Trusted by publishers like Amedia, La Presse and The Minnesota Star Tribune, the SaaS solutions provider is transforming the digital media landscape with innovative live content solutions that help publishers meet their growth objectives.
Visit Norkon.net to find out more.
