Category: The Paperini Team

You are Paperini’s social media manager, copywriter and UX Writer. Isn’t that a whole lot of writing?
Yes, it is. Full disclosure: I even wrote these questions for myself.
I do most of Paperini’s Twitter, Facebook, newsletters in three languages, and this blog. On twitter, I mostly share journalism-related news about digitalisation, about freedom of speech, about journalistic achievements, and odd, even loosely journalism-related entertainment news from across the globe. On the blog, I gather och write longer pieces about journalism, I give updates about our job, and make these tiny peeks into the minds of the people working on Paperini, of course.
I’m also looking forward to start analysing our Google data when the Paperini service starts to get proper traffic flow.
Most of the texts (buttons, menus, directions, pop-ups) in the Paperini app in Swedish and Finnish are mine, too, hopefully giving a good user experience.

How are you going to use the Paperini app when i’s launched?
I’m going to take time from Twitter (and Facebook, though I’m rarely there privately any more). For private use I’m going to follow categories like design, culture, arts, and literature. Also: local news. I love local news.

You grew up in Sweden. Does that affect your office life?
Glad I asked! It does. Apart from knowing mainland Swedish, and travelling to Stockholm now and then for education, I’ve introduced Swedish Fika at the office almost every Wednesday (although if we’re honest, it’s been a while, since everyone is working too hard). Every time someone in the team has visited their home country we get to have a new delicious treat for our Wednesday coffee time at the office. Ali was the last one and brought freshly made pişmaniye, Turkish cotton candy with lovely vanilla flavour and unexpected but nice texture that reminded me of thin, uncooked rice noodles.

Everyone else gets a final question with the word newspaper more or less smoothly forced into it. Why?
I really just wanted to remind ourselves of what Paperini’s core is made of. It’s made of newspaper. This is all about the newspaper!

The Paperini Team is a blog category introducing the people working for the Paperini news reading app. First up is Joanna.

You have been curating for Paperini for some time, for the Swedish speaking market in Finland. What kind of a mix are you looking for when you choose featured stories?
‘Something serious and something light’ is a good motto. I also like to make sure that articles of a more general nature get mixed with human interest stories, whatever the topic.  

Who is Paperini for?
Anyone interested in concentrating their news intake – it’s efficient and hassle-free compared to looking up sites and newspapers separately. The diversity of the service is also a great plus. I almost always stumble across something interesting I wouldn’t have known to look for on my own. 

You’ve been advocating for cutting down on social media. What are the three biggest problems with social media, in your opinion?
 1. People act as though consuming a steady flow of text, images and opinions throughout the day doesn’t really affect us, when the truth is that it has a massive impact on our moods and thoughts. I’d rather not give that power away very much at all
2. Creativity requires that we clear some space for it. If we reach for our phones every time there is a dull moment, there won’t be any space to fill.
3. Our thought processes and concentration suffer as a result of constant connectedness. Taking in social media in controlled doses, perhaps just a few times per day, sets the balance right and turns it back from a drug into a spice. 

Speaking of news. You seem familiar. Have you been in the newspaper recently? That seems like a pointed question… Yes, last year my book Sisu – The Finnish Art of Courage came out in the UK and received quite a bit of coverage both there and elsewhere. As a sometime journalist myself, it’s been very educational to see how the big news outlets conduct interviews, for instance. Have picked up a few pointers for sure!

This is an update for anyone who’s curious on how we’re doing at Paperini right now.

The Paperini app is almost ready. Our team has been working long hours to make it happen, and Ben made a final (?) list of to-dos. There are eighteen features on that list, including a more prominent language choice option than the one in the current prototype.

– Some of the features on the list are going to be easier to build than others, and it is difficult to tell how much more time we’ll need, Ben says, adding:
– We’re hoping to be able to submit the Paperini app on App store for approval this spring.