Skessuhorn: a quick look at community involvement
When Icelanders hear the word “Skessuhorn,” it can be assumed their mind goes to the beautiful and impressive peak located in Borgarfjörður, Iceland. A peak that takes up to six hours to hike and is usually only taken on by experienced climbers. But more recently, the word took on another meaning with a completely different representation.
Skessuhorn is a West Iceland newsgroup, founded early in the year of 1998. Since the current publishing company took over the organization in 2003, their emphasis has remained on writing and publishing news for their residents. With a motto to “write what residents want and need to know,” this newspaper prides itself on its strong connection with the community and its people. Operating as a free and independent media, this groups writes first and foremost for the people of West Iceland.
With their once-weekly print newspaper as a top competitor in the region, being “one of the most widely used regional newspapers in the country,” as stated on their website, this newspaper has been cited nearly everywhere, at both a national and public level outside of Iceland. After having such wide success in the past 20 years, this newsgroup decided to jump on the bandwagon and create an online newspaper as well.
Their website continues to follow their motto, making sure that they are writing for the people, but has expanded its definition of people. Unlike their print newspaper, along with publishing Icelandic news, their website publishes stories about world news, too. Because of this, they are able to reach a wider range of people and catch the attention of countries all around the world.
When visiting their site, one may notice the large amounts of photos used when scrolling through the published stories. Hrafnhildur Hardadóttir, Skessuhorn’s marketing and sales department coordinator stated in an email interview that this tactic used to pull the readers in, with the hopes of them clicking on the story, is aimed to help boost website traffic. What is really interesting about these photos is that they are taken by freelance photographers in their community. Many news outlets hire professionals to take the pictures they use for their stories, but Skessuhorn continues the trend of writing for its residents by involving them in the publishing process and using their website as a platform to display their talents.
In recent years, the newsgroup has opened its website up to members of their community, allowing them to submit their own articles to the site for publishing. While this idea may seem crazy to big news organizations here in the United States, say the New York Times for example, as they pay large amounts of money to their journalists, this regionwide Icelandic newsgroup thinks otherwise. Pushing the limits of what defines a newspaper is what Skessuhorn seems to be all about. Involving their community members in more and more aspects of their newspapers every day is inspiring. It also shows how dedicated this group is to its community residents and how they continue to follow their company motto. And because the paper copy is published weekly, and their website is updated each day, there is an abundance of opportunities for the community members to use this newsgroup as a platform to share their ideas and get their voice heard.
Along with certain stories being written by the residents, it is also evident that the writers are writing for the people in their community, and not media professionals, as they use a laid-back language and keep the articles very casual, making it easier for the readers to understand each story. This casual language is also noticeable in the titles of the published articles. Each story sounds interesting, no matter what the story is actually written about. For example, the home page displays an article titled “Introduce the proposed change of the master plan.” Due to the writer’s creative word choice, this story sounds really interesting. Due to the intriguing nature of the title, it makes it harder for readers to pass by it without clicking on it, when they will then find out that it is just about a plan to create shooting field in the Hamar country. Although that may be an interesting read for some, it isn’t for most. Yet the writer still got readers to think it is interesting by using casual and fun language.
As Skessuhorn continues to grow and reach more people around the world, they will always fall back on their original values. Making sure that they follow their motto to “write what residents want and need to know,” keeping the emphasis on their community connection.
