Paper

Im Now Majority in Nyhedsavisen

Posted on January 17, 2008.

Wow I feel lucky – I took over controle of the paper with the management and some of my most admired Danish online entrepanuers (www.freeway.dk – lots of people dont know them – but when you say Dating.dk, Arto.dk, Trendsales.dk, DKBN.dk – everyone knows – they are by far the biggest danish online media company – AND MOST PROFITABLE).

So my trip to Iceland in the weekend was very good – I admire those Baugur guys SO MUCH (had NOTHING 17years ago – and now own 10.000 reatails stores around the world – and take risk!!). They have the BIG balls (sorry Thordis) and they are no bullshit – unlike many of the old money I meet. I have talked to 10-15 old money investors who had given me a note during the last year that they wanted in – but they all had this – “uhh its dangerous…” – Well thats TRUE!!

RISK = RETURN.
(and luck and timing is everything)

As 14y old – I had a paperround with Anders Laursen and saved money for new handball shoes – got up at 5am – and had amasing summermornings singing/screaming silly lovesongs over the fields – and insanely shitty cold depressing winther mornings – so its weird now to be kind of head of 800 paperround guys (and YES its was insanely dificult to make the distribution work – and we have had 2500 people trough the machinery the last 15months – imagine just the sallery paperwork…). But our paperrond guys are KEY to this investment – going to +300.000 homes every morning in selected districts – its a killer (let me know if you want us to bring a leaflet or something interesting with the paper – parfume sample, bio chessnuts or whatver.. – We are in business to make PROFIT – just to let you know…

We are bringing out a REAL PAPER – (not just a writeoff from the Reuters newsfeed) – done by real top dog journalists – and again backed up by a hardcore sales team. and Yes – its a business doing more revenue then I would ever have expected to see pr day – AND USING LOTS OF CASH – but then again – here in Denmark we dont buy our houses in cash – its normally 20-30year loans – and if you do that same math you probobly see where Im going… 15month to become the second most read paper – even most read in the 3 largest cities – and not only traveling youth (like Metro) also THE KEY DESICION MAKERS OF THIS WORLD: Female, Mothers and Housewifes – where we have the BY FAR best reader numbers. I could go on – Im fired up ;)…

But the fact is that this business is booming and with BIG FOCUS ON DELIVERING A PERFECT – STATE OF THE ART – SECOND TO NONE PRODUCT TO ADVERTISERS – we will make a good business. NOTE: If you know a guy in a MEDIA AGENCY – please tell him my number – they are the key (and our board will reflect that) – and they have already started booking campains in the paper (but not enough) – and we will do a lot to prove that we are not JUST A FREE TRAFIC PAPER (Metro style) – but a QUALITY PAPER and DISTIBUTION SERVICE (not just a old folks subscrition journal, 250y old – Why ?

Outdoor and Free Papers is the last massmedia

(in my humble opinion – TV and Subscribtion papers are getting even more unpopulair then even Gorge Bush).

Dear Valued reader – sorry to write such a long post – but today is a bit special – and Im got darn nervous about all the media attention (not the business – since Svenn and Morten (and the new board) are pure, smart, humble hardworkers – with sports mentatlity (and all so fucking slim – makes me look even more choppy (narcicist I am) – and they will be figthing this no matter what will hit us – and I just provide a bit of cash, a little netwok and a couple of IDEAS. Cant wait…

My Danish Press Release

København 17.01.2008

Morten Lund overtager aktiemajoriteten i Nyhedsavisen

”Jeg føler mig meget heldig over at have fået chancen for at stå i spidsen for Nyhedsavisen. Jeg har hele tiden troet på ideen bag Nyhedsavisen, og har på nærmeste hold fulgt avisens udvikling. Den blev dømt ude og færdig allerede inden den var på gaden, men i dag er Nyhedsavisen et trin fra at blive Danmarks mest læste avis. Men det er ikke kun læserne, der har taget godt imod avisen, måned for måned er annonceindtægterne steget og de stiger nu markant, og distributionen af avisen fungerer upåklageligt.

Så Nyhedsavisen er kommet for at blive. Nu gælder det om at bringe avisen det afgørende skridt videre, og det vil jeg gøre i samarbejde med de nuværende investorer – som jeg beundrer for deres vilje og evne til at tænke nyt – og en række nye partnere – Freeway og ledelsesgruppen på Nyhedsavisen som selv har puttet penge i. Næste skridt bliver præsentationen af en strategiplan for udviklingen af Nyhedsavisen i de kommende år.

Jeg er vild med at flere igen læser aviser, og den udvikling tror jeg vil fortsætte. Men hvorfor skal det koste penge at læse en avis? Jeg har været med til at ændre tankegangen i en række andre brancher og glæder mig nu til for alvor at være med i udviklingen af Nyhedsavisen.”

Freeway er Danmarks førende virksomhed indenfor online medier og ejer og driver blandt andet dating.dk, arto.dk og denmarkbynight.dk.

Ledelsesgruppen på Nyhedsavisen består af administrerende direktør Svenn Dam, chefredaktør David Trads, salgsdirektør Morten Nissen og CFO Lars Lindstrøm

Morten Lund er dansk iværksætter. Han har i dag investeringer i mere end 85 selskaber verden over. Blandt andre den kinesiske browser Maxthon med 100 millioner downloads, Orolix, der er Brasiliens hurtigst voksende online-virksomhed og Zecco.com, der er en amerikansk gebyrfri online børshandel.

Morten Lund er tillige medlem af tidligere præsident Bill Clintons Global Initiative, CGI.

Yderligere information:
Fay Helene Mogensen
+4522118596

Press release from Baugur

(the majority owner until yesterday)

Morten Lund buys 51 per centstake in Dagsbrun

Morten Lund is pleased to announce he has acquired a 51 per cent stake in Dagsbrun Media, which owns the Danish newspaper Nyhedsavisen, from Baugur Group, the Icelandic investment firm.
Under the deal, Mr Lund is upping is stake and injecting working capital.
The move comes 15 months after Baugur controlled Dagsbrun launched Nyhedsavisen and comes after the free news paper has made impressive progress in terms of distribution, readership and advertising revenues. Within 12 months of its launch in October 2006, it over took the established paid-for titles and rival free sheets to become the most read daily newspaper in Denmark. It is on course to break even in November this year.
Since launch, sales growth and advertising revenues have risen in line with targets month on month and in the past quarter targets have been broken, enabling the team to make up some of the ground lost to delays before publication began.
Mr Lund said: “This is an exciting opportunity. Media across the world is undergoing a revolution and Nyhedsavisen is part of that. People said a free sheet in Denmark wouldn’t work, and ours has. Now we have proved that we will take it on to the next phase.”
Thordis Sigurdardottir, Baugur managing director of media, said: “It was always our intention to bring in new investors and now is the right time. Morten has been in from the start and although we had approaches from a number of potential investors we believe he is the best person to take control. We look forward to working with him to take Nyhedsavisen to the next level..”
She added that Baugur would remain a substantial shareholder and continue to be represented on the Dagsbrun board.