At the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark, Mediahuis CEO Gert Ysebaert said they call that goal 7-7-7 (going from 30/70 to 70/30 in 7 years).

The Belgian-headquartered media group now owns more than 30 newspapers in Belgium, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Luxembourg and Germany. About 30% of the company's revenue comes from digital. "This is what we need to do: get more people to pay more for more journalism," said Mr. Ysebaert.

Since its founding in 2014, Mediahuis’ revenue has more than quadrupled from €285 million to €1.2 billion. This has largely been through mergers and acquisitions, but Mr Ysebaert said the reason was “operational excellence”.

Operating profit has increased from 19 million euros to 153 million euros, an increase of more than eight times. Over the past 10 years, Mediahuis has grown from 1,000 employees to 4,500.

To reach more people, CEO Ysebaert said, it is necessary to restore the connection with younger readers. This is “probably the hardest part” of the mission. At Mediahuis, the average print subscriber is 70, while the average print-digital subscriber is 60 and the average digital-only subscriber is 50.

“Young readers live on social media and think our news is no longer relevant. It’s too negative, it doesn’t offer solutions, it doesn’t connect with their world,” Mr. Ysebaert said.

“So we need to restore that connection, first by bringing young people and others into our newsrooms… and experimenting with new paywall models to ensure that these people ultimately pay for journalism.”

To get people to pay more for journalism, Mediahuis is developing an “essential subscription package” with “notifications” at its core – reporting on what’s happening every day.

Second, it needs to direct readers to “the growing gold mine of content we’ve created over the years to inspire people, to help them live better, healthier lives… we have a lot of great journalism but we have to get it at the right time… to the right consumers.”

Third is to “enable” additional services such as podcasts, e-books, consumer protection, more health and fitness services, as well as hiking and cycling routes, navigation tools. Finally, journalism can return to its roots, its essence.

“That’s what we need to do in the next seven years,” Mr. Ysebaert said. “If we manage to get more people to pay more for more journalism, I’m sure we can sustain our mission.”

Ngoc Anh (according to Press Gazette, WAN-IFRA)