Nyhedsavisen's "masters of risk"
What do Baugur, Morten Lund and Draper Fisher Jurvetson's Tim Draper have in common? Well, they're hardly risk averse, which is why Nyhedsavisen's new investor seems to be the perfect fit for the freesheet a great number of Danish media insiders think is ambitious to the point of folly.
The very idea of starting an advertisement funded newspaper, a freesheet nonetheless, in a time when experts are overbidding each other to predict the death of newspapers and the demise of advertisement-funded business models - such as Dagsbrun did, backed by Baugur and with Lund as an early collaborator, in 2006 - reeks of hubris.
From the beginning and to this very day, when Nyhedsavisen is the most read newspaper in the country, Danish media has been waiting for the construction to fall apart like a house of cards. Enter American venture capitalist Tim Draper and his self-composed tune, The Riskmaster (via Berlingske Tidende), with this enticing refrain:
"He is the Riskmaster, Lives fast drives faster, Skates on the edge of disaster, He is the Riskmaster"
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WBw2f6BflQ&w=425&h=349]
On the other hand, it is very refreshing to see what these visionaries, so far removed from the mindset of the traditional media industry, will do both with the paper that is their playground, and the Danish newspaper industry at large - provided they can keep the business afloat long enough to break even.
