(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The article is from 2016 and outdated. Read about MODERN TIMES as a quarterly magazine.
Dear reader.
Thorhild Widvey's Ministry of Culture advocated for market-oriented copy support in the latest public consultation draft on support for national weekly newspapers. This makes it almost impossible to rebuild Ny Tid, as we planned our budget based on normal support from the Cultural Council over a three-year period. Consultation bodies such as Mediebedriftenes landsforening (MBL) "do not want to have quality as a stated goal for the scheme" or "keep alive something that the market does not want". This threatens both diversity and our "smaller" voices in the Norwegian public. The Norwegian Journalists 'Association and the Norwegian Editors' Association also believe "in principle that it is very worrying that support for newspapers should be based on a subjective assessment of editorial activity and editorial quality". The Danish press support, which in fact rewards editorial efforts rather than market achievement, could in our opinion have been an alternative, but this was rejected by most of the bodies that commented. Another proposal that was rejected was a circulation difference of 4000 for different copy support for the small and large. The proposal for a circulation ceiling for the support – so that large newspapers such as Morgenbladet would not receive a disproportionate amount – was also rejected. No, the market must be almost exclusive, the few must be raw. Even if the scheme suggests a small basic support or transitional scheme next year, in such a market climate there will be too little food to ensure Ny Tids growth.
We therefore made the decision this summer. We don't give up. The board and management chose to change to a fuller monthly newspaper. We are determined to keep up the critical international newspaper tradition that began in 1953 with the newspaper Orientering. Contradicts such as cultural radicals Ny Tid and other publications like us, defend minorities – or create space for internationally committed people, small groups of intellectuals, humanists and peace activists. We promote an internationally oriented solidarity. Between the market-heavy, popular, self-oriented and talkative environments, there must also be room for classic international considerations. Democracy needs the argumentative and problematizing writing culture – the reflected newspaper tradition that is today ignored by a tabloid press where big bold titles almost scream to readers for attention.
When we started in March – after the owner Dag Herbjørnsrud let new powers take over – I asked the readers for patience for the gradual steps we would take. There is now a jump on the way to a future where a thicker monthly newspaper should also be good enough – we hope you can get the best of what we can on a monthly basis. Our resources are small: We actually managed to produce weekly newspapers with 10 percent of the 56 million weekly newspapers Morgenbladet used last year. But in today's market liberal tradition for which our blue-blue government is breaking ground, my old newspaper Morgenbladet – now owned by Dagens business and with a few million in profits – will receive most of the weekly newspaper support next year. The word "support" has thus been given a new meaning. You support the rich and pray for the poor.
When, after ten years as owner, I sold Morgenbladet in 2003, the heirs also received around NOK 20 million from Fritt Ord for over a period of five years to build up the newspaper as an important weekly newspaper. With this effort in the back, the circulation tripled. Ny Tid has not had such sums. But I promise that this will now work – with my experience from ten years of establishing the monthly newspaper Le Monde diplomatique in Norway. Like it, Ny Tid – in addition to going out to our own subscribers and via single sale – will be attached to Klassekampen from August. Another jump for the newspaper as the number of readers doubles!
We maintain the line from when we started in March with the three K's: Conflict (active peace work and coverage of conflicts), control (surveillance, intelligence, finance and other control regimes), as well as climate (environmental issues and quality of life). In addition, we continue our cinematic efforts with criticism of documentary films, fiction, short films and TV series. We continue to buy a few documentaries for our subscribers every month, we also write about.
What is new in the monthly newspaper Ny Tid will be a comprehensive investment in international and Norwegian non-fiction. The combination of documentary and non-fiction will inform readers about a number of contemporary issues. With the visual format's visual possibilities, we have also engaged a regular art critic (Simen Joachim Helsvig). And we now have a regular literary critic of poetry (Mette Karlsvik).
In addition to the monthly newspaper of between 24 and 32 pages, we will also be visible and active on the website. We have ambitions to be an online channel for a lot of new short films, including self-produced video journalism. Ny Tid's new website also already has 7000 articles in the archive, and we will in the future work to add almost 50 years of scanned articles from Orientering and New Age history. Some articles will also be published online first, if the need arises. Paper will continue to be the main basis for the newspaper, but the online possibilities are the future.
Dear reader, since we started we have met a lot of positive feedback that has warmed up. Now we give you more respite, while we journalistically spend the time digging more into some contexts. With a thicker newspaper every month, we welcome you to a new era for New Time!
truls lie
