Norway: Aftenposten will go tabloid next year

Posted by Bertrand Pecquerie on March 24, 2004 at 1:03 PM

Two days ago, I and the World Editors Forum board have met in Oslo Hans Erik Matre, Aftenposten's new editor-in-chief. He announced that beginning of 2005 the leading newspaper in Norway will change its format from broadsheet to tabloid.

Aftenposten last year converted its feature sections to tabloid while the main news, business, sports and commentary sections remained in broadsheet format.

The English edition of Aftenposten online acknowledged that both the newspaper's market position and its profitability have been weakened in recent years. The morning edition's circulation dropped from just over 288,000 in 1998 to less than 257,000 last year. A recent readership survey showed that 73 percent of those aged 15-29 prefer a smaller format, while the same was true for 70 percent of all subscribers.

Shares in media company Schibsted (Aftenposten is owned by this Norwegian group more well known for the launching of the free paper 20 Minutes - the competitor of METRO - in different European countries) rose after the announce.

Source: Aftenposten, english version.

Aftenposten is a 145 years old newspaper.