Newsletter from the Nordic Labour Journal 8/2012

Theme: The fastest shrinking trade

Editorial: Changing media and redundant journalists

Are the big media corporations panicking in the face of changing media habits when redundancies spread across the industry? Falling classifieds revenues, budget cuts and fewer readers are shaking Nordic newspaper houses. Jobs are cut across the board and senior writers take early retirement, bidding a sad farewell after serving society for many years. What is happening?

Print shrinks as advertising goes online

Newspapers are the fastest shrinking businesses in the USA according to a LinkedIn survey. The social network has looked at their members’ stated occupations. The number of journalists fell by 28.4 percent between 2007 and 2011. Europe and the Nordic countries are right behind this trend.

Denmark’s media storm

Experts and newspapers warn of the death of even more print media and a decline in the quality of news ahead of political negotiations on moving state media support from printed to digital media. The government calls it necessary change.

Jobs disappear before the ink is dry

Finnish journalists have faced major changes in recent years - many of them negative ones. Jobs are disappearing and media owners’ visions for the future are bleak.

Ole Jacob Sunde: the important thing is the media - not whether news is printed on paper

“The most important thing is to have good platforms and sources of information where you find important and relevant news and stories presented with integrity. Which medium is being used is less important in the long run. We should make use of technology,” says Ole Jacob Sunde, chairman both at Schibsted and the Tinius Trust.

Iceland’s plan for bridging the pay gap

Iceland’s government and the social partners have reached a new gender pay gap deal. In the next two years they aim to reduce the gap and to agree on a project plan with joint solutions and measures. Their goal is equal pay for equal work. The public sector should set an example for other employers.

Iceland's new labour market policy focuses on young men

Iceland is developing a labour market policy for the period leading up to 2020, the first such policy the country has ever had. There are more people with low education in Iceland than elsewhere in Europe. Experts say the most important thing now is to develop a strategy for educating young men.

Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson: I believe the future is Nordic

As the EU focuses intensively on the Euro and other economic problems, it has never been more important to intensify Nordic cooperation says the new President of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO), Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson. Soon he and the LO leadership set off on a Nordic tour to see LO colleagues, starting off in Norway. “We are among the world’s most competitive countries, and if we could share our strengths we could become a cutting edge region,” he says.

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