With few exceptions, Danish news media do not solely rely on advertising revenues. Newspapers in Denmark are financed by public media subsidies, sales, and advertising. The national channels of TV 2 are financed by advertising and sponsorship, while the eight regional channels are financed via the same licence fee that is also the main finance for DR’s radio and television channels, along with some sponsorship for specific types of programmes.
Protection from external influence in newsroom and editorial staff is a fundamental value of Danish news media and reporters and is mentioned explicitly in many guidelines (Willig et al., 2015; Blach-Ørsten et al., 2015). In DR’s guidelines (Danmarks Radio, 2019a), it is highlighted that DR is independent and has full editorial rights to all its programmes. Likewise, the editorial guidelines of Politiken state that the newspaper is independent of political parties, organisations, financial interests, groups, and individuals (Willig et al., 2015). Editors and journalists all acknowledged that there are, and always have been, actors who try to influence the news, but that newsrooms are built to withstand that pressure. Our interviewees also did not report incidents of advertising clients attempting to influence editorial content.
In recent years, there has been a general increase in the use of so-called native advertising in Denmark, in other words, sponsored content that takes on a journalistic form. Today, much of professional media has internal guidelines for both production and dissemination of native advertising, and the largest media houses have designated staff who specialise in native advertising. Although in accordance with the Danish Marketing Practices Act and the Press Ethical Guidelines, as long as such content is clearly marked as paid-for content, studies have shown that actual marking practices are not always ideal, with users facing difficulties in identifying such content as advertising.
