(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
- Ny Tids Chairman Åge Rosnes stated on Dagsnytt Atten on Tuesday this week that you as owners have outlined a focus on staff, financial resources, distribution and layout. Can you promise us all this?
- I think that people who know me will agree that when I bet, I bet. Avisa needs renewed investment in all the areas you mention. These are perspectives that are exciting measured against the current situation for the newspaper, says CEO. Tom Harald Jenssen in Damm til Ny Tid.
- Will a double staff be a possible goal in the relatively short term?
- A larger staff is a prerequisite for the newspaper to be able to be further developed. New Time needs more journalists and people at the desk. Administratively and financially, we can draw on resources in the publishing house, but there can also be talk of administrative employees in the newspaper to free up additional time for creative journalism. That's what we'll live on.
- It is said that there is no free lunch. What do Damm owners expect back for the millions this will cost?
- Through the acquisition of the shares in Ny Tid, Damm wants to help develop a newspaper with significant opportunities, at the same time as we want to connect more closely with the national and international writers and writers' communities where interesting documentary and debate books are created.
- And increased cultural capital for the publisher?
- Yes, you can say that. On the other hand, I believe that it is not possible to separate capital into two booths. The publishing industry has a tradition of stock exchange and cathedral as a unit.
- Ny Tid is today practically bankrupt. How much money are you really willing to invest to get the newspaper up and running?
- We are willing to use what is needed to bring the newspaper offensively on foot. Avisa needs an immediate supply of resources, both financially, administratively and in relation to the staff.
The editors have prepared an exciting strategy for the newspaper. We put 100 percent behind this.
- And for how long will you be willing to let the newspaper be the money swallow it actually will be?
- In Damm, we work continuously with the development of our rights base. We have a tradition of thinking long-term and purposefully. In the last 10 years, Damm has developed from being a publisher with more niche publications in fact books and children's books to appearing as a broad publisher. Throughout this period, the publisher has focused on strengthening the rights base. This thinking is also the basis for last year's establishment of the literary magazine '‹Kraftsentrum' 'and Damm's takeover of' 'Vagant' '.
- The most important thing for the editorial staff is full editorial freedom and a continuation of the editorial and political profile that Orientering and Ny Tid stands in. Can you guarantee that Damm also wants this?
- Ny Tid is in a unique press tradition from Finn Gustavsens and Sigurd Evensmos Orientering to today's newspaper. Damm wants to contribute in terms of resources and strategy to the continuation of this tradition. We have great faith in the development opportunities for Ukeavisa Ny Tid as an independent and modern news and commentary. Press history shows that independence is an essential criterion for success. Of course, the editors have full freedom.
- But if the newspaper is doing poorly financially and you think that the editor is doing a bad job. Can we risk that you put in an editor without a radical profile who wants to make New Time something completely different than it is and has been?
- No, it would be pointless to use as many resources as we now have plans for just to 'scrap it all' after a short time. We believe – and then I refer again to our thinking about the stock exchange and the cathedral as one unit – that the newspaper's opportunities – also financially – lie in fully realizing the tradition from Orientering and up to today.
- The criticism of Damm and their owners Egmont is first and foremost that you are commercial and capitalist companies. How can a radical and countercultural tradition be maintained within this framework?
- Precisely by being radical and countercultural. New Time in the clothes of See & Hear will not generate any value. New Time will be more New Time.
- You have gained insight into the editor's and the editors' wishes and thoughts about the profile and development of the newspaper. What is your vision for New Time?
- As said; New Time must become more New Time. In 2 years, I want to see the newspaper as an even more important supplier of premises for the public debate, as a great newspaper product and with a wide distribution. A newspaper that is talked about and read.
