Verdens Gang

Verdens Gang

Front page from 8 October 2006. Featured in the cover story is Austrian kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch.
Type Daily newspaper
Format Tabloid
Owner(s) Schibsted ASA
Editor Torry Pedersen
Founded 1945
Political alignment None
Headquarters Akersgata 55, Oslo, Norway
Website www.vg.no

Verdens Gang (lit. "The passage of the world", in the sense "The tide of the world" or "The course of the world"), generally known under the abbreviation VG, is a Norwegian tabloid newspaper owned by Schibsted. In 2013, circulation numbers stood at 164,430, having declined from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002.

History and profile

VG was established by members of the resistance movement shortly after the country was liberated from German occupation in 1945.[1] The first issue of the paper was published on 23 June 1945.[2] Christian A. R. Christensen was the first editor-in-chief of VG from its start in 1945 to 1967 when he died.[3]

VG is based in Oslo.[4] The paper is published in tabloid format.[5] The owner is the media conglomerate Schibsted,[3] which also owns Norway’s largest newspaper, Aftenposten,[6] as well as newspapers in Sweden and Estonia and shares in some of Norway’s larger regional newspapers. Schibsted took over the paper following the death of Christensen in 1967.[3] Just before the change in the ownership VG was mostly sold in the Oslo area and had a circulation of 34,000 copies.[7]

The editor-in-chief is Torry Pedersen.[8] VG is one of the most award-winning newspapers in Norway for its journalism.[9] In 2010 the newspaper had 10 different revealing news-stories [10] competing for the prestigious Skup-prisen.

VG is not affiliated with any political party.

The 1996 circulation of VG was 370,000 copies.[7] In the period of 1995–1996 the paper had a circulation of 386,137 copies, making it the best-selling paper in the country.[11] Its circulation was 388,000 copies in 2001.[5]

VG had a circulation of 284,414 copies in 2008.[6] It was for many years the largest newspaper in Norway, but was surpassed by Aftenposten in 2010.[12] VG was Norway’s second largest print newspapers, measured in circulation, but had the largest number of readers,[13] with a daily readership of 631,000 in 2013.[14]

VG Nett

VG Nett is VG's news site online, operated through its wholly owned subsidiary VG Multimedia. It was started in 1995.[15] VG Nett made a net operating profit of 40 percent in 2006, making it an unusually successful online media operation.[16] VG Nett initiated the HTTP accelerator project varnish with its first release in 2006 as open-source.

Circulation

Numbers from the Norwegian Media Businesses' Association, Mediebedriftenes Landsforening.

  • 1980: 200 536
  • 1981: 227 191
  • 1982: 240 302
  • 1983: 256 747
  • 1984: 269 140
  • 1985: 290 705
  • 1986: 317 049
  • 1987: 333 698
  • 1988: 345 636
  • 1989: 360 331
  • 1990: 367 036
  • 1991: 365 318
  • 1992: 374 092
  • 1993: 377 575
  • 1994: 386 137
  • 1995: 371 238
  • 1996: 356 861
  • 1997: 370 115[4]
  • 1998: 364 619
  • 1999: 373 552
  • 2000: 375 983
  • 2001: 387 508
  • 2002: 390 510
  • 2003: 380 190
  • 2004: 365 266
  • 2005: 343 703
  • 2006: 315 549
  • 2007: 309 610
  • 2008: 284 414
  • 2009: 262 374
  • 2010: 233 295
  • 2011: 211 588
  • 2012: 188 345
  • 2013: 164 430
Circulation of VG 1980 - 2009

See also

References

  1. ↑ Epp Lauk; Svennik Hoyer (Fall 2008). "Recreating journalism after censorship. Generational shifts and professional ambiguities among journalists after changes in the political systems". Central European Journal of Communication 1 (1). Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  2. ↑ "Verdens Gang". NorgesLexi (in Norwegian). Retrieved 30 August 2008.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Olav Anders Øvrebø (2008). "Journalism After the Monopoly on Publishing has been Broken" (Book chapter). Bergen Open Research Archive. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Media in Norway" (Guideline). Regjeringen.no. 31 August 1996. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Adam Smith (15 November 2002). "Europe's Top Papers". campaign. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Craig Carroll (1 September 2010). Corporate Reputation and the News Media: Agenda-setting Within Business News Coverage in Developed, Emerging, and Frontier Markets. Routledge. p. 155. ISBN 978-1-135-25244-1. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Sigurd Høst (1999). "Newspaper Growth in the Television Era. The Norwegian Experience". Nordicom Review 1 (1). Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  8. ↑ "Bernt Olufsen går av som VG-redaktør". VG (in Norwegian). 17 January 2011. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
  9. ↑ SKUP - Stiftelsen for en Kritisk og Undersøkende Presse
  10. ↑ Gravejournalistisk bonanza | Journalisten.no
  11. ↑ Media Policy: Convergence, Concentration & Commerce. SAGE Publications. 24 September 1998. p. 7. ISBN 978-1-4462-6524-6. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  12. ↑ Mediebedriftene.no. Retrieved 1 February 2009.
  13. ↑ VGs kanaler er mest lest - VG Nett om Media
  14. ↑ Readership of Norwegian print newspapers 2013 MEDIANORWAY ©2014
  15. ↑ "Online Journalism Atlas: Norway". Online Journalism. 25 January 2008. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  16. ↑ Pfanner, Eric. (18 February 2007) "Norwegian newspaper publisher finds the secret to profiting online". International Herald Tribune. Archived 20 February 2007. Retrieved 1 February 2009.

External links