It started on a day that was completely uninteresting. November 1, 1996. Cold. Grey. Like so many other days in Norway.
But on that very day, one of the world’s first fully digital newspapers was launched. It was called Nettavisen.
One of the founders later said that the paper newspapers were going to disappear. It sounded about as unlikely as Kodak dying.
A true contender
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Most newsrooms hoped the internet was a parenthesis. Nettavisen behaved as if it were the future. The newspaper published news. All the time. It provoked the other editors.
It is easy to romanticize the pioneer era in retrospect. The truth is that it must have been both chaotic and unnerving. But one thing was clear from the start: Nettavisen had the will to fight. This was a real underdog.
Or as Pål Nisja-Wilhelmsen formulated it in his book: Rampen i gata.
Change of ownership, but same DNA
The years that followed offered both ups and downs. Some bets hit, others didn’t. The newspaper passed from owner to owner – Spray, Lycos and TV 2.
Nevertheless, the course was clear: This was to be a newsroom that wanted something. Brave, independent and free. Tabloid in form, hard-hitting in content.
Nettavisen distinguished itself as a loud and distinctly liberal voice. Rational. Tolerant. Preoccupied with personal freedom and responsibility, and with an allergy to unnecessary public patronage.
Where many newsrooms pronounced “dividend” as if they were talking about root filling, Nettavisen was a liberating market liberal. While others butchered popular entertainment, Nettavisen chose to pay tribute to it.
Under Gunnar Stavrum’s leadership, Nettavisen has cultivated what many fear most: a lack of respect for established truths. We will continue to stick to that line.
All Norway’s newspaper
A lot has happened since that gray November day almost 30 years ago. Today Nettavisen is part of Amedia, Norway’s largest newspaper publisher.
The online newspaper is growing in both users and subscribers, and readers are well distributed across the country.
With both an audience and cooperative newspapers throughout Norway, Nettavisen is more than a national newspaper. It is all of Norway’s newspaper.
Next transformation
The media industry is once again facing a massive transformation driven by ground-breaking new technology.
Nettavisen has already started to prepare for the next chapter: Strong podcast voices, more video and new tools.
We must change faster in the face of a new everyday media life – and at the same time preserve the core: The liberal point of view, breaking news, sport, entertainment, economics, revelations and hard-hitting opinions.
Still a contender. And we will definitely continue to create friction.
