Dagens Nyheter Releases New Apps

Photo: Paul Hansen

When and how did you come up with the idea for the two new Dagens Nyheter apps and how did you develop them?

When I started at DN.se in November 2009, I checked out what databases would be appropriate for packaging in an app format, since databases quickly and relatively inexpensively can form the basis of apps. Etiquette expert Madeleine Ribbing's question and answer archive and Bengt-Göran Kronstam's wine database were two good examples. Plus both of them are extremely popular columnists among our readers and provide expertise that's fun and practical to have at your fingertips. It just took awhile before we finished with the apps since we have had so many other big projects under development at DN.se the past year.

One of the apps is free, the other is available for a fee - what is the business thinking behind the two apps?

There is a more obvious ad market for a wine app than for an etiquette app, that's the main reason. Then if you are going to charge people for an app, you need to provide the purchaser with something you're not going to find somewhere else. For the etiquette app, which we charge for, we've added something called the "etiquette emergency room," a great handbook with quick answers for all imagineable situations. The business idea is to do what's best for each individual app rather than have a common formula for all apps.

What has the response been so far?

It's been only positive so far. Of course we have two beloved columnists and DN readers and others seem to be happy to be able to find them in another media channel. And I noticed just this morning that the Madeleine Ribbing app is at the top of the sales list in the Lifestyle category.

Are there plans for more DN apps in the future?

DN.se is working on news apps that will be out soon.