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In Focus

Consumers move online but won’t pay for content

Consumers move online but won’t pay for content

What happens when the number of communicators keep growing while the number of journalists keeps falling and many media are bleeding? Will it affect democracy in the Nordic countries?

Consumers move online but won’t pay for content - Read More…

Influential shadow people colour the political agenda

Influential shadow people colour the political agenda

Today’s Swedish government minister is on average surrounded by eight to ten so-called policy professionals. They work as communicators or policy advisors and have great influence over which issues are confronted and driven forward, even though they work in silence and with unclear mandates. These are some of the results from a new research report due to be published in the spring of 2015.

Influential shadow people colour the political agenda - Read More…

From journalist to spin doctor and back

Journalists becoming communications advisors, or in particular spin doctors to politicians, often say goodbye to journalism for good. But not always. Three former spin doctors tell us about their return to the media world. They all agree their time ‘on the opposite side of the table’ has made them better journalists.

From journalist to spin doctor and back - Read More…

Finnish media jobs disappearing fast

Finnish media jobs disappearing fast

For the first time ever there is a considerable problem of open unemployment among journalists in Finland. There is also substantial hidden numbers since many are working less than they would like or take on extra non-journalistic work in order to make ends meet.

Finnish media jobs disappearing fast - Read More…

Working environments influence quality in the media

Investigative journalism and the media’s role in a democracy are the main arguments used by media companies when they ask for special treatment. There is a debate in all the Nordic countries over the media’s framework — should they be exempt from paying VAT and should digital media be subsidised?

Working environments influence quality in the media - Read More…

Sea-based Icelandic cluster worth its salt and then some

Sea-based Icelandic cluster worth its salt and then some

The business cluster Íslenski sjávarklasinn or Ocean Cluster in Reykjavik is a cooperation between innovation companies and Iceland’s fisheries which has been running for two years. Foreign visitors are showing great interest. Other countries are very likely to set up similar centres in the future.

Sea-based Icelandic cluster worth its salt and then some - Read More…

Unemployment soon back to normal after eruptive increase

Unemployment soon back to normal after eruptive increase

Anyone who’s stood frozen-fingered waiting for the Icelandic Strokkur geysir to erupt with its boiling water can imagine what it felt like at Iceland’s Directorate of Labour when unemployment figures started emerging after the 2008 crisis.

Unemployment soon back to normal after eruptive increase - Read More…

The guardian of welfare during Iceland’s crisis

The guardian of welfare during Iceland’s crisis

Five and a half years after the Icelandic economy collapsed, we now know children were doing better during the crisis than before, even though the opposite had been feared. This is according to the Welfare Watch, a body set up soon after the crisis hit which brought many good forces together to protect Icelanders’ welfare.

The guardian of welfare during Iceland’s crisis - Read More…

Iceland a step closer to equal pay

Iceland a step closer to equal pay

A new voluntary equal pay standard is bringing Iceland one step closer to equal pay and cements Iceland’s leadership when it comes to gender equality.

Iceland a step closer to equal pay - Read More…

Harpa in Reykjavik: Iceland’s symbol of recovery

Harpa in Reykjavik: Iceland’s symbol of recovery

Despite being so heavy hit by the crisis, Icelanders continued construction of the new music house Harpa in Reykjavik - the only building project which kept going during the crisis. And as Iceland is bouncing back, the award-winning building Harpa has become the symbol of Iceland’s economic recovery.

Harpa in Reykjavik: Iceland’s symbol of recovery - Read More…

Mapped: Nordic migration between 1960 and 2010

Mapped: Nordic migration between 1960 and 2010

There have been major changes between 1960 and 2010. Sweden has the most emigrants, Norway takes in the most immigrants - not only from other Nordic countries, but from former eastern European countries and other parts of the world too.

Mapped: Nordic migration between 1960 and 2010 - Read More…

Bold Nordic agreement without a political “father”

Bold Nordic agreement without a political “father”

The common labour market is the jewel in the Nordic cooperation. It was established as early as 1954, three years before the five first member states of what would become the EU signed the Treaty of Rome.

Bold Nordic agreement without a political “father” - Read More…

Moving gave several identities

Moving gave several identities

Gunnel M Helander came to Sweden with her family aged four in late summer 1954. She now lives in Hanko in Finland’s south-westernmost point and is a retired architect. She feels Nordic: Swedish, Finnish and Ålandish. Her removal van has made many trips between Sweden and Finland.

Moving gave several identities - Read More…

“Sweden was somewhere you could make money”

“Sweden was somewhere you could make money”

Early autumn 1954, and Gösta Helsing is 17, one of nine siblings living at home in a small village in Vörå in Swedish-speaking Ostrobothnia. Post-war Finland is poor from paying reparations to Russia and there are few jobs. The small farm cannot sustain all nine siblings. Many neighbours, friends and relatives are moving to Sweden.

“Sweden was somewhere you could make money” - Read More…

An interest in engines took him to Sweden - but it didn’t pay enough

An interest in engines took him to Sweden - but it didn’t pay enough

Per Billington moved from Norway in 1984 to work at Volvo’s research department in Gothenburg for one and a half years. It shaped his entire career. This is where he learned ‘ordning och reda’ — Swedish ‘proper order’ — and he learned to love diesel engines.

An interest in engines took him to Sweden - but it didn’t pay enough - Read More…

Always Norwegian at heart

Always Norwegian at heart

This August Norwegian badminton player Erik Rundle has lived in Denmark for longer than he lived in Norway, and he doubts he will ever return for more than holidays and to defend his badminton titles.

Always Norwegian at heart - Read More…

Longed for Icelandic nature — became head of an aluminium plant

Longed for Icelandic nature — became head of an aluminium plant

When US aluminium giant Alcoa built a smelting plant in Iceland in the 2000s, Danish Janne Sigurðsson quit her job in Denmark and moved to Iceland. She was a stay-at-home mother for a while. Now she heads Alcoa’s largest aluminium smelting plant in Europe.

Longed for Icelandic nature — became head of an aluminium plant - Read More…

“Swede moving to Norway, what do I need to know?”

“Swede moving to Norway, what do I need to know?”

On 13 December 2010 Charlotte Lundell started working as Brand Manager at Orkla Confectionery & Snacks. The first thing she did when she got the job was to google: “Swede moving to Norway, what do I need to know?” At the time she was one of 80,000 Swedes working in Norway. In 2013 she is one of 90,000.

“Swede moving to Norway, what do I need to know?” - Read More…

Robots can save jobs

Robots and increased automation can save many jobs from disappearing. At the same time many low paid jobs disappear when machines take over certain tasks. The NLJ looks at what the new technological revolution means.

Robots can save jobs - Read More…

Denmark supercharges welfare technology

The Danish government wants the public sector to be obliged to use welfare technology in nursing homes and hospitals to a much larger degree. There has been some progress, but the breakthrough has not yet come.

Denmark supercharges welfare technology - Read More…

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