Denmark is the world’s second happiest nation according to the World Population Review citing data on wealth, social support, health, freedom, generosity and politics.
It’s famously flat (just 170.86 metres), just introduced military service for women, has 407 islands, and your phone’s Bluetooth is named after its Viking King Harald.
It’s also given us Lego, the obesity wonder drug Ozempic, and now it’s innovating again with a collective licensing body to give publishers a say in the AI era.
It’s rounded up 99 per cent of the nation’s publishers and broadcasters into a coalition to negotiate with Big Tech - and in true Viking style, it’s proving a bit of a bloodbath.
At the epicentre is Karen Rønde - a judge, former member of Parliament, and journalist who once anchored Denmark’s current affairs show Deadline.
She’s also worked on the other side running policy for Netflix across the Nordics.
Today, she runs the DPCMO – Danske Pressepublikationers Kollektive - the collective leading Denmark’s - and maybe Europe’s - vision for the future of media.
And there’s a lot going on.
Google has signed on to pay publishers but is dithering on the price.
The police have been called in after Apple News shutdown in a huff.
Meta and TikTok are facing fines that are the scale of Bahrain’s GDP, and
OpenAI and Linkedin face are being dragged into court in the New Year.
Meta’s even refusing to provide Denmark with a legal contact while ignoring its emails, but as Karen tells Chris Duncan and I, it’s all part of the plan.
