Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

Mölnlycke: does what it says on the tin. Sort of.

Business, Miscellaneous: January 26th, 2007 by PR

Swedish investment firm Investor has bought a Gothenburg-based healthcare company called Mölnlycke. If you’re wondering what the company does, the description on their web site couldn’t be clearer:

Mölnlycke Health Care is one of the world’s leading providers of single-use surgical and wound care solutions to the healthcare sector.

Single-use surgical and wound care solutions? Otherwise known as ‘plasters’.

Haparanda Ikea “bigger news than Russian revolution”

Business, National: January 8th, 2007 by PO

One of Ingvar Kamprad‘s more interesting ideas in recent times was to open up an Ikea store in Haparanda, a town perched right up by the Finnish border.

It is now seven weeks since the grand opening and so far the flat-pack concept has managed to pull in hundreds of thousands of punters from Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia.

On Sunday The Observer published an article detailing the effects that the most northerly Ikea in the world is having on the local economy. Among other things the article claims that since Ikea came to town unemployment in Haparanda has dropped from 10 to 3.8 percent!

Misha Maksimovic drove more than 500 miles from Russia to northern Sweden just to be like the rest of us. Yesterday in a blizzard he drove back again with his Ikea flatpacks, full of excitement that soon a Billy bookcase would be in his hall, a Sultan mattress would grace his bed and his kitchen would carry the Rationell name.

‘Ikea’s arrival in Haparanda is bigger news than the Russian revolution,’ said Maksimovic, a 45-year-old teacher, as he loaded £540 worth of shopping into a trailer hitched to his Lada. ‘The journey is nothing to us northerners.’

Read the whole thing.

The Local – more readers than…

Business, Media: November 22nd, 2006 by PR

Part of the cut and thrust of publishing involves seizing every opportunity to boast that you have more readers than your competitors. For example, Swedish media mag Dagens Media is singing its own praises: for the first time last week, it had more visitors to its web site than arch-rival Resumé.

According to the KIA Index, Dagens Media had 44,297 visitors to its web site, compared to Resumé’s 38,665.

By comparison, The Local had 69,464 unique visitors last week. We’re not ranked by KIA, but that would have put us in a perfectly respectable 90th position on the index, just above Affärsvärlden (67,693), Ny Teknik (67,050) and Stureplan (54,048). Just thought we’d mention it.

King of Sweden’s web sites is still Aftonbladet. The tabloid’s site recorded 3,826,298 unique visitors in week 46 (November 13th-19th).

Copy and paste – the journalist’s top tools?

Business, Media, Miscellaneous: November 16th, 2006 by JS

Isn’t Google News great? Here at Local Towers one of our guilty pleasures is surfing Google to see who’s quoting us as their source – it’s always a good ego trip.

What’s slightly less fun is to find that people are copying and pasting your stuff without crediting you. When the culprit is Xinhua, the state news agency in China (run by the Propaganda Ministry), I rather doubt a phone call pointing out the finer points of press ethics will cut much ice. Compare this article we published yesterday…

Professional boxing has been illegal in Sweden since 1970, but it could be time to start booking ringside seats after the new Martial Arts Delegation has its first meeting in Örebro today, Dagens Nyheter reports.

…with this from Xinhua this morning:

Professional boxing has been illegal in Sweden since 1970, but it could be time to start booking ringside seats after the new Martial Arts Delegation has its first meeting in Orebro, local media reported on Wednesday.

Xinhua continues…

The new law came into being in order to protect those who participate in violent sports from brain injury. As a result it is possible that professional boxing will soon be welcomed back into the Swedish sporting community, if it is seen to take the necessary precautions, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported.

“I don’t like professional boxing the way it is now, but I hope it is allowed because it would be good for the boxers,” ringside doctor Sanna Neselius told the newspaper.

The only word in that excerpt changed by Xinhua was ‘newspaper’. In the original story Sanna Neselius was quoted as talking to The Local. Because that’s what she did.

Xinhua have also plagiarised us in this article about Saddam Hussein, (The Local’s article), a piece about the elections (The Local’s piece), and in this piece about whaling (The Local’s piece).

They’ve also done it here (TL’s piece), here (TL’s article), and here (TL’s article). Oh, and here (TL).

Not sure whether to be flattered or indignant. Getting your facts from other publications is standard journalistic practice (although it’s a good idea to check them first), but it’s generally considered good form to at least rephrase the information and credit your source.

As another journalist points out…

“Within the traditional media, certain media reporters have abandoned truth in news and ignored professional ethnics to use easy and convenient Internet tools to plagiarize news. This type of behavior is becoming more frequent, and has become a huge public evil for journalism.”

That was written by Yuan Bixia, a journalist working at… you guessed it… Xinhua.

Expressen’s legal gamble: high stakes or high ground?

Business, Media, Society: November 13th, 2006 by PR

Clicking through the sports section on Expressen, what’s notable is the deluge of ads for foreign-run gambling sites.

The law, upheld (in theory) by the Swedish Gaming Board, is perfectly clear:

Prohibition of promoting participation
In order to uphold the Swedish gambling regime the Lotteries Act contains a prohibition of promoting participation in lotteries arranged outside Sweden and unlawful lotteries. The prohibition of participation in foreign or unlawful lotteries covers such activities as selling lottery tickets, receiving stakes or passing on prizes and advertising.

Right now, by carrying their advertising, Expressen is promoting participation in games run by Nordic Bet, Parbet, Spelbolaget, Sportingbet, Fulltiltpoker, 24hPoker, Betway and bet365. Expressen argues that the Swedish law breaches EU regulations and has gone to the EU court to fight its case. In the meantime, the revenue from the advertising will probably fund the legal battle.

What’s with ignoring laws you don’t agree with? Expressen wasn’t exactly sympathetic when certain ministers said they didn’t pay for their TV licences because they disagreed with the system.

Aftonbladet takes the same position as Expressen, but Svenska Dagbladet and Dagens Nyheter do not carry gambling ads. Where is the criticism of the tabloids’ stance? Where are the calls for the editors (who have already been fined by a Stockholm court) to resign?

Maybe it’s considered OK, even bravely defiant, to break a law that we all think is ridiculous. But newspapers, like government ministers, also need to maintain the moral high ground. If they don’t, why should we listen to what they have to say about other law-breakers?

Want a Stockholm apartment for 1 krona?

Business, Media: November 11th, 2006 by PR

Online auction company Bidster is running an eye-catching ad campaign at the moment. The web site turns the usual bidding system on its head: here it’s the lowest bid that wins the auction.

And amongst the flat screen TVs and holidays there’s a real bargain to be had: a 1 room, 27 sqm apartment near Karlaplan, newly renovated and fully equipped. It could be yours for 1 krona. And the company has set the maximum price at 50,000 kronor. Someone’s going to get the bargain of a lifetime.

The only catch is that your bid, submitted by SMS, doesn’t just have to be the lowest – it must also be unique. (In other words, someone has probably already bid 1 krona.)

But it’s an ingenious idea. The flat is worth about 1 million kronor. The SMS bids cost 20 kronor each. Just 50,000 bids and the company is happy.

So the question is, what’s the least likely number between 1 and 50,000 that anyone will submit? Maybe 1 krona is so obvious that nobody would bother. Maybe it’s worth a sneaky bid…

Mutiny on the Baltic

Business, National: November 9th, 2006 by PR

Viking Line, which plies the ferry routes between Stockholm and Finland and Åland, has spent millions on amusing advertising persuading Swedes that it is the cruise line of choice for discerning party lovers.

But it was all in vain. It appears that Tallink is where the real action is.

The company has just bought Silja Line, and to celebrate the acquisition the board and financiers enjoyed an epic drinking binge onboard the Silja Symphony. Things got a little out of hand, reported Expressen:

A bartender was knocked down when a director forced his way behind the bar to serve himself booze, a fire broke out when someone put a fish in a toaster and female enmployees are said to have been exposed to sexual harassment.

According to union man Janne Rudén, the company’s managing director said that the staff were now “Tallink’s maids”. That’s about the most offensive thing you can say to a Swede. Rudén added that the staff of Silja Line are “shit-scared” of their new owners.

Mutiny?