A sad day at Aftenposten

So long, farewell …

Aftenposten has now stopped producing its “News in English” service. Those of us on Aftenposten’s English news desk would like to thank our thousands of readers around the world for clicking in over the years. Our archived stories will still be available.

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We’d also like to thank our readers for all the e-mails of appreciation and good wishes that have arrived during the past two weeks. We’ve been overwhelmed by the response, from all over the world and not least from non-Norwegian readers here in Norway who say they have relied on us to bring them some local news and help demystify the country where they now live. Many of you have written that we helped explain Norway, that we provided a link to the land of their ancestors, or that we simply offered some entertaining stories from far away.

It’s been impossible to answer all the mail, but it has cheered us greatly, and reminded us once again that it’s you, the readers, who have made this all worthwhile. We will miss you, too.

“Med vennlig hilsen,” as the locals would say,

As I mentioned before, I’m disappointed to see the service go.  It has been an invaluable resource for this blog and they did a very good job.

In other news, that election thing seems to be dominating the coverage worldwide. 

The Republic of Perpetual Winter?

At least if these guys have their way:

New northern party aims to secede from Norway

What started as a group of disgruntled residents of northern Norway on web site Facebook is now emerging as a new political party bent on breaking away from the rest of the nation.

Ok, the real name they want is Republikken Hålogaland, but I think my name is more accurate. 

This is my favorite part of Aftenposten’s article (not editorial), describing the group’s founder:

Winther seems to be one angry man, unleashing a stream of derogatory comments about his “arrogant” still-fellow Norwegians in the south and east.

I wonder how much the per capita income would go up in the rest of Norway if this actually happened.  The southern part of Norway is where almost all of the oil, industry, and tourism is and the proposed new republic is where a lot of the government subsidies currently go.  Maybe the government should wish them well and close the deal as quickly as possible. 

Goodbye Aftenposten

Well, at least the English version. 

Media house Aftenposten in Oslo, faced with a need to dramatically cut costs, has decided to shut down its nine-year-old English-language news service, “News in English.”

Aftenposten announced last month that it needs to cut NOK 100 million (nearly USD 20 million) in costs over the next two years. Early retirement incentives and severance pay packages have been offered to employees in an effort to reduce staff through attrition.

The hard-working staff at Viking Quest steals borrows a lot of stories from it, so the site will be missed.  I guess our loyal readers will now be seeing more articles from the Norway Post.

Soon to be the next big thing in Norway…chess!

In a post to come, I will detail how quickly trends take over Norway.  The short version: it’s a small country, so when a Norwegian becomes good at or famous for X thing, X becomes a lot more popular for a short period.

For now, congratulations are in order for Magnus Carlsen, who moved into first place in the lastest unofficial chess rankings.  The 17-year-old from Lommedalen became the youngest player ever to reach #1.

He has been featured in media outlets around the world, including this excellent piece from the International Herald Tribune.  So what does his almost hometown paper of Aftenposten have to say?

Ibsen, Munch, Heyerdahl … and now Magnus Carlsen

A teenager from a picturesque valley just outside of Oslo is on his way to becoming one of the world’s best-known Norwegians, after he emerged over the weekend as the best chess player on the planet.

The secretary general of the Norwegian Chess Association, Dag Danielsen, doesn’t mince his superlatives.

“I think Magnus Carlsen is the best-known Norwegian who’s ever lived,” Danielsen told newspaper Aftenposten.

In other words, move over cross-country skiing, chess mania is coming!

"Drunken moose alert in southern Norway"

OK, so this article isn’t new.  But it’s still one of the most humorous headlines I’ve ever seen.

The actual story was first published in 2002 in one of the largest papers in the country, Aftenposten.  Much like an article from the Onion, most of the humor is in the concept of the story.  Here’s a choice quote, though:

“This is the first time I have heard that moose are getting drunk. But I assume that they react the same way people do to intoxication – some become harmless while others are the exact opposite,” said district veterinarian Paul Stamberg in Kristiansand.

Nice to know that Norwegian moose behave the same way as Norwegian humans.  The real question is when the government is going to find a way to tax the moose alcohol!