In this episode, it’s Mette Østergaard who sets the new standard. Day to day, she is editor-in-chief of Berlingske.
Mette has many years behind her as a newsroom leader, including as editor-in-chief of TV 2 News and political editor at Politiken.
We talk about Mette’s first steps into journalism and the mistakes that follow when you confuse authority with good leadership and legitimacy.
Mette reflects on what she has learned as a leader, and what her mistakes have meant for the kind of editor-in-chief she is today. Does a good leader have every skill in their back pocket from day one? Or are drive and authenticity enough to seize the chance and step out of your comfort zone, even when there are challenges ahead? We talk it through.
That leads us to the term “career woman”, which has followed Mette ever since she took on a leading role at one of the country’s biggest news outlets. We also talk about the relationship between her job title and her personal brand.
We get into Berlingske’s big shift from a printed newspaper to a digital news outlet. As a newsroom leader, Mette had to get her journalists aiming for the top of the website instead of the front page of the paper.
Against the backdrop of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine, we hear Mette’s take on the media landscape in 2022 and the crucial role she believes Berlingske plays as “[…] a decent news outlet that holds power to account”.
Setting a new standard has its darker side too, and throughout the conversation Mette reflects on the polished surface that dominates leadership culture. On crying in the toilets, facing doubt and owning up when you get things wrong as a leader.
For the past five years, Mette Østergaard has been editor-in-chief of Berlingske. There she has tried to break with the culture of perfection that surrounds leadership, through legitimate and honest values-based leadership, where trust, creativity and freedom with responsibility are now at the heart of Berlingske’s values.