Many news outlets today are not just creating content to be published as stories from the publisher, but also have native advertising teams creating stories on behalf of brands.

Just like media outlets, other companies are also eager to find effective and innovative ways to engage with audiences online – and many are harnessing the storytelling prowess of news outlets to do so.

This brand storytelling tends to be done outside the main newsroom – as is the case at Norwegian newspaper VG, where the Partnerstudio team creates the content, not VG’s journalists.

The demand from brands for Shorthand-style stories, rich in multimedia, interactivity and an immersive feel, has been high according to VG Partnerstudio’s CEO Jonas Ibsen Brynildsrud. Something he only expects to rise.

“Shorthand has saved us time and money compared to traditional alternatives. We can produce special featured stories without having to engage designers and developers”.

Jonas Ibsen Brynildsrud

“They appreciate the clean and modern look and feel we create with Shorthand, which clearly is a premium format,” he explained.

VG has created stories for clients including travel company VING – including this summer holiday destinations story packed with beautiful photos – and Nordisk Film, with this story asking “How Birkebeinerne changed us as Norwegians”.

The key for VG Partnerstudio has been about the time and money they are able to save compared to the “more expensive and time-consuming” task of coding from scratch – as was the required approach previously.

“Shorthand have offered us a good solution to this demand”, Jonas added, and the ability to “produce special featured stories without having to engage designers and developers”.

And while time and cost is reduced, Jonas added that all signs suggest their use of Shorthand delivers a “boost” to their measures of engagement, namely time on site and scroll length.