Jens Pettersson, Head of Editorial Development (top) and Andreas Nordenhed, Head of Social and Editorial Newsletters

Actionable ideas in short

Actionable ideas from NTM’s newsletter strategy in short:

• Focus on retention, not just acquisition: New sales are strong, but churn is the real challenge. Newsletters should be designed primarily to keep subscribers engaged and reduce “holes in the bucket.”

• Prioritize topics with proven engagement: Use audience analysis to identify the content areas that drive loyalty (breaking news, crime, city life, commuting, jobs, health, family life) and build newsletters around them.

• Hyperlocal beats broad for loyalty: Broad “most read” newsletters maximize reach, but opt-in hyperlocal newsletters deliver higher open rates and deeper engagement — ideal for strengthening relationships.

• Scale with automation, maintain quality with “human-in-the-loop”: Automated rules (tags, timing, images) allow rapid rollout of new newsletters. But editorial review before sending is essential to avoid tagging errors and to ensure relevance.

• Use dynamic subject lines: Replacing static newsletter subject lines with the actual top article headline significantly increases open rates.

• Experiment with manual, editor-curated editions: While metrics may be weaker, a personal voice from an editor builds trust and strengthens brand connection — a valuable complement to automated formats.

• Promote newsletters contextually: Place sign-up widgets inside related articles (e.g., crime story → crime newsletter) and use a central landing page that encourages cross-discovery of multiple newsletters.

• Expand iteratively with low marginal cost: Once the system is in place, new newsletters can be launched quickly at low cost — allowing publishers to respond to emerging reader interests or local community needs.

NTM Group

NTM Group operating 17 local newsrooms in the north and east of Sweden. The group employs some 320 journalists, with the bigger newsrooms having as many as 40–50 reporters, and the smallest ones 4–5. The group has a total of 260,000 subscribers,  113,000 of whom are digital only. NTM titles reach 70% of people in their local geographies. The group has an annual turnover of €180 million.

About the Speakers

Andreas Nordenhed is Head of Social Media and Editorial Newsletters at NTM. He is responsible for making sure NTM’s titles reach the right audiences via social platforms and for overseeing the publisher’s growing portfolio of editorial newsletters. His focus is on maximizing performance, driving subscriber engagement, and strengthening reader relationships. With a background in digital marketing and growth across multiple channels — including agency work in Stockholm within digital and content marketing — Andreas brings extensive experience in strategy and execution. Outside of media, he has a passion for renovation and building projects, having bought, sold, and renovated several homes in recent years.
 

Jens Pettersson is Head of Editorial Development at NTM. With more than 20 years of newsroom experience, mostly at Sweden’s regional daily Upsala Nya Tidning where he served as Managing Editor, Jens has been deeply involved in leading digital transition. Since 2020 he has steered NTM’s subscription strategy, launching the successful “Let’s get ready to double” initiative that achieved its goal of doubling digital subscribers within three years. Today, he is driving the next phase: reaching 250,000 digital subscribers by 2028. Outside the newsroom, Jens is a lifelong Star Wars fan, a former DJ from the 1990s–2000s, and an avid cook who enjoys spending time in the kitchen and around the dinner table with family.

The presentation in bullets

Before Jens and Andreas started their presentation, we had a quick real time poll among the online participants with the following results:

- All participants offer newsletters today

- About half of the group create newsletters both manually and automatically, 40% only manually and 10% only automatically. 

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NTM’s Subscription Challenge

• 120,000 new digital subscriptions sold last year

• Lost 104,439 subscriptions (massive churn problem)

• “Holes in the bottom of the bucket”

• Bad business model: attract customers then let them slip away

• Main focus: retention strategy through better journalism, products, and sticky habits

Editorial Strategy Foundation

• Target audience: 30-39 years old

• User needs model (4 pillars):

  • Update me

  • Touch/move me

  • Guide me

  • Explain to me

• Data-driven topic prioritization from 85,000 article analysis

  • 7 high-engagement topic areas identified

  • Breaking news, crime, local happenings (restaurants, cafes, traffic)

  • Traditional local journalism, health, jobs, family life

Newsletter Evolution

• Started 2020: 2 weekly “Most Read” newsletters (automated, broad audience)

  • Wednesday/Saturday delivery

  • Based on metadata: news value, engagement, timing

• Developed hyperlocal newsletters for stronger audience connection

• Current scale: 78 weekly newsletters, 186,000 subscribers

Newsletter Performance Comparison

• Most Read (broad reach):

  • Auto-enrolled with subscriptions

  • Lower engagement but higher volume

• Hyperlocal (narrow focus):

  • 55% open rate, 12% click-through rate

  • Voluntary sign-up creates super-engaged audience

  • Fewer subscribers but stronger connection

Newsletter Themes & Results

• Sports: highest open rates, lowest click-through

  • Theory: superfans already read articles before newsletter arrives

• Local: stories from smaller towns outside main city

• “What’s happening in city”: restaurants, cafes, everyday life

  • Extremely high engagement (“hilariously high numbers”)

  • People obsessed with local business openings/closings

• Crime: court cases, accidents, major incidents

Technical Implementation

• Semi-automated system for scalability

• Built on CMS 360 with metadata tagging

• Connected to Rule (ESP - Email Service Provider)

• Human approval step prevents tagging errors

• Quick setup for new newsletter topics without major investment

Key Learnings & Future Plans

• Automation enables scale without heavy resource investment

• Human-in-loop essential for quality control

• Dynamic subject lines (using article headlines) outperform static ones

• Growth strategies:

  • Widget promotion within relevant articles

  • Common landing page increases overall newsletter subscriptions

• Focus remains on retention, not conversion

• No current advertising integration (future consideration)