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– I was very upset about that Tangen case, the executive director of the VG editor told some students. He set off so much drama in the duck pond that he had to chew through the grass.
Sometimes it’s okay that the so-called Publisher’s Poster was enacted in 2009. It precisely guarantees the independence of the editor-in-chief from an overzealous or “committed” newspaper owner.
This time it was CEO Kristin Skogen Lund at Schibsted who only I had to vent their frustrations:
– I am very upset with the Tangen case, I must admit, she said in a virtual conference with students from the Bergen School of Business (NHH), a statement that was quoted in Dagens Næringsliv on Friday (subscription).
Skogen Lund told the students that she “obviously” had not influenced VG’s editorial line in this case, as VG was the newspaper that Nicolai Tangen had run “very hard”. But she was also a free man with freedom of speech, he thought, adding about poor Tangen:
– I think it’s crazy what he’s been exposed to and what he’s been through.
Such a force ointment against his own Schibsted newspaper, of course, VG editor-in-chief Gard Steiro had to comment:
– He should be allowed to say what he wants, he said, before emphasizing that VG would continue its coverage completely beyond the opinion of the CEO.
Pressure from the “boss” is nothing new for Norwegian newspapers. In the A press, Youngstorget’s directives could be delayed long after the newspapers formally became independent, and other parties also had full control for a long time of what their newspaper editors should think.
And many local newspapers have had board chairs who could often and willingly refer to angry advertisers who thought the editor was a real jerk.
Legendary TV 2 boss Kåre Valebrokk has spoken of when he was editor-in-chief of Norges Handels- og Sjøfartstidende / Dagens Næringsliv in the 1980s and 1990s, and could often receive angry phone calls from his owner, the powerful owner Fred. Olsen.
– Of course you have the same right to express yourself as any other reader, said Valebrokk who used to say before hanging up.
But then it probably got a little rough, as Gard Steiro probably put on a band before the weekend. Of course, such pressure can be very unpleasant, and no one knows how a newspaper will be affected in the long run by such “free speeches” from the owners.
In this case, of course, I am completely in line with Steiro and VG. And here we can add that the banal undertone of the misery is that Kristin Skogen Lund is, yes, you guessed it, a close friend of Nicolai Tangen, now head of the Petroleum Fund.
She was, of course, cordially present at the famous dream seminar in the United States. It was also the president of Schibsted, Ole Jacob Sunde, who according to DN plus He is Chairman of the Board of the Formuesforvaltning company, which was the first client of ACO Capitals (Tangen’s company).
In other words, both private and business relationships are close and close.
And that may be one of the reasons why it must have exploded quite a bit at Schibsted this weekend.
Because last Monday, the industry newspaper Journalisten was able to tell that Jon Wessel-Aas himself was in the field. Not because he is the newly elected leader of the Norwegian Bar Association, but because he is an expert on freedom of expression and media law, and also chairman of the board of Blommenholm Industrier, who owner a large part of Schibsted.
He is also a member of the board of the Tinius Foundation, which in turn owns Blommenholm Industrier. Confused? You have every reason to do so.
READ ALSO: With the capital’s press on safari in the province
But perhaps it is enough to know that this is an ownership structure that former Schibsted boss Tinius Nagell-Erichsen created precisely to guarantee the editorial freedom of newspapers from future ownership interests.
And the meeting or the phone business must have been relatively hectic over the weekend, because to Monday’s Reporter, Wessel-Aas emphasizes that he speaks both of them on behalf of Blommenholm Industrier and the Tinius Foundation.
This means that there must have been urgent emergency meetings in both of them tables on Saturday and / or Sunday. Which thus ended with a statement that “the Tinius Foundation will have a direct dialogue with the Schibsted management” about their vision of Skogen Lund’s statements.
Read more comments from Erik Stephansen
Courteous and polite, that is, it should only be missing, but “direct dialogue” is not the softest expression of coffee and warmth. And the reason is obvious and serious enough:
– It is regrettable that the representatives of the owner and the publisher express themselves in ways that may be suitable to influence future editorial work in one or more complexes of cases, or that are suitable to create doubts among the public about editorial independence, he writes Wessel-Aas. to the journalist.
– This applies even if the statements were not intended to influence the editorial choices, and even if they did not influence the editorial choices.
Therefore, Kristin Skogen Lund had no choice but to lie down.
– In hindsight, I wish I had phrased it differently, he writes through his communications manager to Journalisten, adding that he subsequently spoke with VG editor Gard Steiro and with shop stewards at the newspaper.
Kjersti Løken Stavrum (left), Kristin Skogen Lund and Ole Jacob Sunde during a Schibsted meeting two years ago.
Photo: Tinius Trust
So it makes the situation even spicier that the CEO of the Tinius Foundation, Kjersti Løken Stavrum, is a colleague and friend of Kristin Skogen Lund, who is now being called to the carpet.
But for now, it may appear that the Tinius build, which was supposed to ensure editorial independence, really works. Some kind of sunny story, then?
Well, it is enough to care. Norway has come a long way in developing independent media, and media that are also independent of their owners.
But there are exceptions.
At Finansavisen, for example, Trygve Hegnar is owner and editor-in-chief. At the same time, he is a co-owner and chairman of the board of Hurtigruten, a scandalized tourism actor that Finansavisen about this summer, for reasons we can all speculate on, has shown no interest in writing.
Random? Barely.
BY ORDER: Kjersti Løken Stavrum of the Tinius Foundation is married to Nettavisen editor-in-chief Gunnar Stavrum. Of course, she has had no impact on this comment. It should have worked.
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