The market
A straightforward news item in the morning paper. A dramatic still picture in the evening paper. An entertaining video clip on the website. Or an easy to read TV guide on the iPhone.
Every day millions of Swedes meet TT-Gruppen’s journalism somewhere in the media landscape. Being Sweden’s largest supplier of media content in all shapes – text, photo, audio, video, graphics – TT-Gruppen has all the important media and the largest companies and organisations on the list of clients.
Besides journalism and other media content, TT-Gruppen offers media-related services such as editorial outsourcing, media monitoring coverage and media analysis. Within the group there are companies like the news agency TT, the photo agency Scanpix, the service agency TT Spektra, the news graphics agency Svenska Grafikbyrån, the media communications agency and editorial outsourcings supplier Uppdragsmedia and the media monitoring agencies Retriever and TT Monitor. TT-Gruppen is active on the Swedish market but also on the Norwegian and Baltic markets through Retreiver and Scanpix.
Achievements
TT-Gruppen has expanded considerably over the last five years and has acquired several agencies within areas such as photography, graphics, media monitoring and business intelligence. The turnover has more than doubled and is expected to reach more than 500 million SEK in 2011.
TT-Gruppen has today 330 employees of which the majority are journalists.
The company is continuously working with streamlining the operations and the profitability has steadily improved.
TT-Gruppen is today one of Europe’s most profitable news agencies and has over the past years given its owners, the biggest media houses in Sweden, a very good dividend. The group is debt free and well equipped for a continued expansion in the media and information market.
History
The heart of TT-Gruppen is the parent company Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (TT), the classical Swedish news hub serving the country’s news industry since 1921. The news agency’s mission has always been to convey fast, impartial and correct news. Innumerable is the world news that has been conveyed by the news agency’s journalists throughout the decades and published in newspapers, websites, radio and TV.
During the 2000’s the news agency has broadened its services to become a full service supplier of multimedia content and services to the media market. In the summer of 2009 a big leap was taken outside the traditional media market when TT-Gruppen, in partnership with the Norwegian news agency NTB, acquired Retriever which offer companies and organisations with media monitoring services, archives, media analysis and business intelligence.
The product
TT-Gruppen is a full service provider in the B2B marketplace for content and services to the media industry. The core business is to convey fast, comprehensive, correct, reliable and relevant journalism around the clock. The strategy under the 2000’s is to grow both through product expansion and through expanding the customer base. Today the group offers a range of 40 product categories of which the majority are offered in the form of subscriptions. A wide range of peripheral services have been added, for instance feature packages, TV guides, news graphics, web TV clips, photos, complete supplements, venue calendars, crosswords, web pages, design services and more. In 2009 about 70 percent of the revenue was derived from proceeds from new products or new customers outside the traditional media business.
Recent developments
Structural changes and economic downturn have put the media market under pressure the last couple of years, but TT-Gruppen has nevertheless managed well. The demand for content and services has increased due to the expansion of media companies in new channels such as the Internet, the mobile phone and the e-reader. TT-Gruppen’s focus on cost efficient content and solutions within editorial outsourcing is also appreciated by many media companies that strive to cut their production costs. Within the next years the influence of internationalisation will probably increase. The national news agencies in Europe are closing in on each other. TT and the Norwegian news agency NTB are for instance running a joint operation within media monitoring and business intelligence services.
Marketing
The brand TT is every day visible in all of Sweden’s daily newspapers and news sites and is ongoing referred to in news broadcasts in all major broadcast media. Most Swedes are familiar with TT as a news agency but as a B2B company it is mainly the long and really deep relation to the decision-makers in the industry that is central from a marketing point of view. The communication with these actors is channelled, on a daily basis, through direct business relations, professional networks, business fairs, conventions and lately, through social media.
Core values
Professionalism, quality and business benefits are important values for TT-Gruppen in relation to its customers. Another foundation is credibility and the editorial independence. The journalism of the group is based on the same values as other Swedish media and the company applies the mutual ethical game rules present in the business.
Things you might not know about TT
• TT has produced web TV for over a decade.
• The bestseller author Stieg Larsson was a staff member for 20 years in the TT newsroom before he wrote his world famous Millennium Trilogy.
• Every week TT-Gruppen publish approximately 2000 news items, 75 000 photos, roughly 700 video clips and 2000 customised tv-guide pages.
• Retriever, subsidiary in TT-Gruppen, monitor 65 000 media sources for companies and organizations that needs to keep up with the latest news in their business areas.
• TT-Gruppen’s picture agency Scanpix has the largest picture archive in Northern Europe with approximately 25 million photos.
Keys to success
• Invest in quality. On the web there are infinite amounts of information for free. To be able to compete, TT-Gruppen has to offer world class editorial quality.
• Provide a clear business use. TT-Gruppen’s services shall always aim to support customers effort to streamline their operations and improve their economy.
• Be innovative. Old media is challenged by new media. A successful subcontractor must be on the edge of development to achieve customer satisfaction in the long run.
