AFTONBLADET

'''Aftonbladet''' (Swedish for ''The Evening-Sheet'') is a Swedish tabloid, founded by Lars Johan Hierta in 1830, during the liberalization of Sweden. Today the newspaper labels itself independently Social Democrat and it is the largest daily newspaper in Scandinavia (according to Tidningsstatistik AB - a Swedish statistics company) and one of the largest in the Nordic countries. While the paper is often classified as a tabloid, its journalism is generally less serious than more known members of that genre, such as the British ''The Sun''. ''Aftonbladet'' is owned by the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (''LO'') and Norwegian media group Schibsted. In 2006 the paper had 1,425,000 daily readers (Orvesto research 2005:2).

Contents

History

Internet publishing

Criticism

See also

References

External links

History

When it was first published in 1830 by Lars Johan Hierta, it was a tabloid that reported news and also criticised the new Swedish king Charles XIV John. The king stopped Aftonbladet from being printed and banned it, this was answered by starting the new newspaper "Det andra Aftonbladet" (The second Aftonbladet), which was subsequently banned, followed by new versions named in similar fashion until the newspaper had been renamed 26 times, after which it was allowed by the king. ^[1]
During its existence, ''Aftonbladet'' has leant in different political directions. Initially liberal, it drifted towards conservatism under Harald Sohlman, Editor in Chief from 1890 to 1921. During World War I, a majority holding was sold to the German government in a secret arrangement.
In 1929 the newspaper came under the control of the Kreuger family, when a majority of the shares was bought by Swedish Match, at that time the heart of Ivar Kreuger's corporate empire. ''Aftonbladet'' was labelled "neutral". In 1932 it backed Per Albin Hansson's new Social Democratic government. Just a few years later it realigned with the Liberal Party and turned to advocate liberal politics. Heavily influenced by pro-German staff members, the newspaper supported Germany during World War II.
The Kreuger era came to an end on October 8, 1956. Despite interest from both the Liberal Party and the Centre Party, Torsten Kreuger sold ''Aftonbladet'' to the Swedish Trade Union Confederation. The ownership change was first followed by a slight drop in circulation. In the 1960s, however, the newspaper saw its circulation surge rapidly, peaking at 507,000.
As reported by Ingmar Bergman, Aftonbladet was the main media force behind echoing his alleged finance misdeeds, which finally led to Bergman's self-imposed exile to Munich in 1970s. In his memoir book ''Laterna Magica'', Bergman called ''Aftonbladet'' a rubbish yellow paper which had deliberately aimed at tarnishing his reputation.
By the early 1990s ''Aftonbladet'' had run into economical problems, and many had begun to question the competence of the trade union movement as a media owner. On May 2, 1996, the Norwegian media group Schibsted acquired a 49.9 percent stake in the newspaper. The Swedish Trade Union Confederation kept the remaining 50.1 percent of its shares, and retains full control of the political direction of ''Aftonbladet's editorial page. The same year, its circulation passed that of long-time tabloid rival ''Expressen''.

Internet publishing

''Aftonbladet'' adopted Internet publishing early on. It has been published on the world wide web since August 25, 1994, and the main news service is free. Since its inception, aftonbladet.se has consistently been rated as one of the top five most visited Swedish web sites in various surveys.

Criticism

The journalistic quality of Aftonbladet has sometimes been questioned. In late 2006, the papers own journalist Peter Kadhammar directed criticism at the fact that his own paper appears to treat the love life of Swedish tabloid celebrity Linda Rosing as equally important to the war in Iraq. Also in 2006, Lonely Planet listed the very low quality of the Swedish evening press as one of the main drawbacks in Stockholm.

See also

★ Expressen

★ List of Swedish newspapers

References

1. Aftonbladet blev starten för den fria pressen i Sverige from aftonbladet.se, ''accessed on 11 July, 2007''.

External links

★ Official website

★ Company history