The Future of Journalism Remains a Question Mark

June 15, 2010
Hilde Svenning, our host in Harstad, asked us if we would like anything in particular for breakfast during our stay with her and Nicole and I jumped at the chance to have some cereal! Cheerios for breakfast was such a treat! Our morning was off to a good start when we met up with the rest of the group for a driving tour of Harstad with Tore Lund, a retired Navy captain.

Harstad is the second largest city and municipality by population (23,000 residents) in Troms County and the third largest in Northern Norway. It is located about 250 km north of the Arctic Circle. The municipality is actually split onto two islands: Hinnøya, which is the Norway’s largest island except for Svalbard and houses most of the population and Grytøya, which is the northern part of the county but located on the southern half. The city of Harstad is located on Hinnøya and is popularly referred to as Vågsfjordens perle or Pearl of Vågsfjorden. Harstad celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2004. It is a unique city because unlike most cities in Norway, there was no governmental agency that created the city but instead people saw possibilities (rich herring fisheries) and moved here on their own. Today, there is no more fishing on the island (in the 1970s, overfishing caused a demise in herring, and although they are back today, fishing has not been resurrected) but the harbor remains active and Harstad is known as the oil capital of Northern Norway. Several oil rigs are located around the Northern Norway area with Harstad headquartering operations including Statoil.

On April 9, 1940, Norway was attacked by Germans. One of the goals was to occupy the city of Narvik, which is located inland and protected by the waterways of Harstad. The Germans successfully occupied Narvik until the Allied forces counterattacked and reoccupied the city in May 1940. During that time, the Allied forces including the British, Polish and the French worked with the Norwegians in Harstad for what was dubbed the Narvik campaign.

One of the stops during our tour was to the oldest church in the area, located in Trondanes. At the rear of the church, facing out to the ocean, is a memorial for the 800 Russians buried here after World War II. As in Mo I Rana, the Germans came into the area to take all the remains and add them to a mass grave off an island in Nordland County. Unlike Mo I Rana, they were successful and today only a memorial stands to honor the fallen Russians.

Interesting Facts about Harstad:
The cost of a house in Harstad is approximately 2-5 million kroner. The new apartments, although smaller, are significantly more expensive due to the construction costs.
Tine, a dairy factory, is headquartered in Harstad and produces all the consumer milk and sour cream for Northern Norway.

After our morning tour of the town, we spent the afternoon visiting our individual career partners. In Harstad, I was introduced to Bård Borch Michalsen, the editor-in-chief of the Harstad Tidende. Harstad Tidende is the daily regional newspaper and at 123, it is the oldest company in Harstad, outdating the city itself. A daily newspaper in Norway runs Monday-Saturday since it is too expensive to print on Sundays because labor wages are nearly double any other day of the week. Walking through the newspaper offices, operations mimicked the publications back in the United States. A typical workday starts around 8 am with the morning meeting and the printer deadline is 10 pm. In between, reporters work on stories, submit text to a section editor and finally to the copy editor who sends the articles to the design team to lay out the pages and a final copy is sent to the commercial printing press. The Harstad Tidende has a circulation of 13,000 at a price of 2,000 NOK a year versus the newsstand price of 20 NOK a copy. Bård and I had a lengthy conversation on the future of journalism in our respective countries. Even though Norway is one of the top nations of newspaper readers at 1.6 newspapers per household, Bård agrees that the future of print journalism lies in community newspapers. The national and international news happens at a pace that far exceeds the morning paper and will likely be entirely delegated to the Internet. Community newspapers though, still have an appeal for the average parent who wants to see a photograph of their child in the school play or neighbors interested in the new construction project that will affect their morning commute. The Harstad Tidende, like many newspapers back home, has eliminated all national and international news and strictly dedicates its 38 pages to local news with the occasional wire story filling in the gaps. The newspaper has also made a conscious effort to increase its presence on the web, with a full-time web reporter dedicated to adding new and interesting stories to draw in the readership. Approximately 60 percent of the newspaper revenue comes from advertising and the remaining 40 percent comes from subscriptions. In addition to publishing the daily regional newspaper, Harstad Tidende publishes a monthly magazine insert and a quarterly seasonal insert for all of Northern Norway.

My trip to the local newspaper ended at Polaris Trykk, the print house for Harstad Tidende and 15 other local publications. This commercial printer, located about 10 minutes from the downtown area, is a hub of all printing operations in the area and runs two shifts during the daytime and nighttime. This was my first time walking through a printhouse and it was exciting to see the process from start to finish. This particular printhouse uses an Internet-based software that allows the newspaper to upload finished pages and send over a final approval when they are ready. Each of the newspapers has a staggered deadline, so as to not jam up the offset printing towers. Once the pages have been finished or rigged, they are sent over to a CTP machine to be turned into a template. In Norway, all the newspapers are printed in full color and only in a tabloid size. Once the templates are ready, they are transferred over to one of 10 offset printing towers. Each tower can print four pages at a time and are two stories tall. The pages start at the bottom and through each phrase as it moves upward, a new CMYK color is added to the page. The final copy is then picked up by a conveyer belt to be dried and then sent over to the next room to be cut, folded, pressed and packaged by different machines. A separate machine is present to add any inserts, if needed. Norway does not have weekly coupons and advertisements like we do at home. There are occasional company advertisements, particularly grocery stores, but they are not frequent and are not coupons but advertisements about sales and prices. On any given day, 16 or so print jobs are being fulfilled or planned for so the work is truly 24 hours.

It was exciting to see the inside of a print house but it’s true that regardless of where you are, the industry does indeed work similarly and the bottom line is still the same. Even in a country where reading newspapers is a respected culture, print journalism is facing the same problems.

Our night ended with perhaps one of the most exciting activites to date: B&B touring's RIB speedboats. These boats are essentially rafts with seats and are designed to allow the participants to feel the waves and go on a rollercoaster ride through the water. We joined the 20/40 Club of Harstad for tonight's activities. The 20/40 Club is a local organization geared toward professionals between the ages of 20 and 40. Although a relatively young club, the goal is to create a personal and professional network for young individuals so as to create incentive and a structure to stay in the region. After donning our extremely attractive survival suits (this time no fish smell!), a face mask and goggles, we were ready to hit the water. Our stops for the two hour trip included the island of Grytay, where a fence literally divided the island of four houses into two because of fueding heirs to the original inhabitants; Hamnan, home to the Viking chieftain; and Bjarkøy, home to the bird berg of 10,000 migratory krykkjeberget birds. The Krykkjeberget looks like a small seagull and is found in the region only from late February through August 25 where they come to lay and hatch their eggs. The Krykkjeberget berg is an interesting hub of activity. Throughout the day, there are at least a few birds that are circulating the area on the lookout for eagles. The eagles are interested in eating the baby chicks and are therefore, one of the most dangerous hunters during this time. If an eagle is spotted, the Krykkjeberget have a carefully planned and practiced series of actions. The birds all fly in various circles and paths to confuse the eagle, so he leaves the eggs alone. When the chicks hatch, the baby birds are taught this same action to protect themselves when the time comes. The speedboat ride came to an end all too soon!

Food of the Day: Verdens Beste Kake or Kvæfjordkake. A few years ago there was a nationwide contest for the best cake and a local town near Harstad won with what they dubbed the "World's Best Cake." It is a hazelnut infused cake with a cream filling and a flaky spongy cake base. I can't really describe it and I can't say it was my favorite, but it was an interesting local treat! In fact, we are lucky to get to taste the cake since originally a large sheet was ordered but while driving down to Harstad, the driver hit the breaks suddenly and the cake was crushed. Thankfully, they had also ordered a smaller cake which allowed us a taste.