Politiken

Politiken is a leading Danish daily broadsheet newspaper, published by JP/Politikens Hus in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in 1884 and played a role in the formation of the Danish Social Liberal Party. Since 1970 it has been independent of the party but maintains a liberal stance. It now runs an online newspaper, politiken.dk. The paper's design has won several international awards, and a number of its journalists have won the Cavling Prize.

For the Swedish paper Politiken, see Folkets Dagblad Politiken.

Politiken

Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner(s)	Politiken Fonden (88.4%) Ellen Hørups Fond (4.4%) Others (7.3%)
Publisher	JP/Politikens Hus A/S
Editor	Christian Jensen
Founded	1 October 1884 (1884-10-01)
Political alignment	Social liberal
Language	Danish
Headquarters	Copenhagen, Denmark
Circulation	88,597 (2013)
Sister newspapers	Jyllands-Posten
Website	Politiken

Politiken building on The City Hall Square, Copenhagen

History and profile

Dagbladet Politiken was founded on 1 October 1884[1][2] in Copenhagen by Viggo Hørup, Edvard Brandes and Hermann Bing.[3][4] Hørup and Brandes formed the newspaper after being fired as editors from the Morgenbladet over political differences. Hørup led the paper as editor-in-chief[5] for fifteen years from its start in 1884.[6]

In 1904, the tabloid Ekstra Bladet was founded as a supplement to Politiken and was later spun off as an independent newspaper on 1 January 1905. The paper established its present location in central Copenhagen at The City Hall Square in 1912.

In 1987 Politiken started its business supplement.[7] The paper was published by Politikens Hus until 1 January 2003 when the company merged with Jyllands-Posten A/S to form JP/Politikens Hus.[1][8] Thus, Jyllands-Posten became its sister paper.[1][8] Politiken is published in broadsheet format.[9]

The newspaper also publishes an international edition named Politiken Weekly which compiles the most important stories of the week for Danes living abroad.

Wartime reporting

On 28 April 1940, three weeks after the German invasion of Denmark, Politiken ran an editorial in which Winston Churchill was called "a dangerous man". The editorial was written by foreign affairs editor Einard Schou after a conversation in the editor-in-chief's office with chairman of the board and soon-to-be-again Danish foreign minister Erik Scavenius. The aim is thought to have been to please the German occupation force, though no other Danish newspaper took such steps at the time. Usually, it was enough to keep within the newly introduced censorship. The article led to 15,000 readers, about 10% of subscribers, cancelling their subscriptions in protest.[10]

Editorial line

During the early 1900s Politiken had a cultural radical political stance.[11] Historically the paper was connected to the Danish Social Liberal Party (Det Radikale Venstre),[7] but the newspaper declared its political independence in 1970. The paper has a far-leaning social, liberal and centre-left stance.[9][12]

In February 2010 the editor in chief at the time Tøger Seidenfaden apologized to anyone who was offended by the newspaper's decision to reprint the cartoon drawing by Kurt Westergaard depicting Muhammed with a bomb in his turban, which was originally published in Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten. Seidenfaden explained that "Politiken has never intended to reprint the cartoon drawing as a statement of editorial opinion or values but merely as part of the newspaper's news coverage".[13]

Circulation

Politiken started with a daily circulation of 2,000 copies. Its circulation was 23,142 copies in 1901.[14] In 1910 its circulation rose to 41,400 copies.[11] Later it became one of Denmark's leading newspapers in terms of both circulated copies and number of readers. Its circulation was 165,615 copies in 1950.[15] During the last six months of 1957 the paper had a circulation of 148,169 copies on weekdays.[16] It fell to 142,847 copies in 1960.[15] The circulation of the paper was 134,728 in 1970, 138,921 copies in 1980 and 152,435 copies in 1990.[15] During the second half of 1997 its circulation was 146,000 copies on weekdays.[7]

Politiken had a circulation of 143,000 copies on weekdays and 185,000 copies on Sundays in the first quarter of 2000, making it the third best selling newspaper in the country.[17] It was 142,780 copies in 2000.[15] In 2002 it was the third best-selling newspaper in the country with a circulation of 142,000 copies.[18] The circulation of the paper was 137,000 copies in 2003, making it again the third best selling newspaper in the country.[19] In 2004 the paper had a circulation of 134,000 copies.[8][20]

The circulation of Politiken was 110,230 copies in 2007.[21] The number of copies sold per day in the first half of 2012 were 97,820 on weekdays and Saturdays, and 120,411 on Sundays.[22][23] The same year the number of readers were 375,000 on weekdays and Saturdays, and 479,000 readers on Sundays.[24] The paper had a circulation of 88,597 copies in 2013.[25]

Its online newspaper, politiken.dk, received around 800,000 monthly users in 2011 and was the tenth most viewed page among the members of the Association of Danish Interactive Media.[26]

Awards

Internationally, Politiken has received recognition for its design through the form of several awards. In 2012 Politiken was declared 'World's Best' along with four other newspapers in a competition carried out by the Society for News Design.[27] In 2014 the paper was chosen as one of Scandinavia’s best-designed newspapers in the Best of Scandinavian News Design competition.[28]

The paper's design, format, and brand was given as the reason, when in 2010, the European Newspapers Congress awarded Politiken with the European Newspaper Award in the national newspaper category.[29][30]

Politiken has also been known for its photography. Jan Grarup, winner of several World Press Photo Awards and numerous other prizes, was a staff photographer from 2003 until 2009.[31]

Anselm Hüwe is one of the contemporary awarded photographers.

The Cavling Award

Cavlingprisen ("The Cavling Award") is a Danish honorary award for journalism. It was named after a former reporter and editor-in-chief at Politiken Henrik Cavling.

Cavling award winners at Politiken:

• 1945 Henrik V. Ringsted
• 1946 Kristian Find (Findus)
• 1962 Jørgen Hartmann-Petersen (Habakuk)
• 1966 Herbert Pundik
• 1967 Sune Skallerup Sørensen
• 1968 Erik Nørgaard
• 1974 Anne Wolden-Ræthinge (Ninka)
• 1976 Inger Østergaard
• 1982 J. B. Holmgaard
• 1992 Svend Bjering Schmidt (Svenne)
• 2006 Miriam Dalsgaard (photographer) and Olav Hergel

Editors in chief

Politiken has had a number of editors in chief since its inception. In some periods there were more than one editor at a time, causing overlap.

• 1884–1901: Viggo Hørup
• 1901–1904: Edvard Brandes
• 1905–1927: Henrik Cavling
• 1927–1937: Valdemar Koppel
• 1937–1933: Ove Rode
• 1931–1959: Niels Hasager
• 1941–1963: Poul Graae
• 1946–1959: Hakon Stephensen
• 1959–1963: Svend Tillge-Rasmussen
• 1963–1966: Bo Bramsen
• 1963–1970: Ernst Priemé
• 1963–1971: Harald Engberg
• 1966–1971: Arne Ejbye-Ernst
• 1970–1993: Herbert Pundik
• 1971–1982: Bent Thorndahl
• 1981–1993: Agner Ahm
• 1981–1992: Jørgen Grunnet[32]
• 1993–2011: Tøger Seidenfaden
• 2011– 2016: Bo Lidegaard
• 2016-: Christian Jensen

See also

• List of non-English newspapers with English language subsections

References

1. Anna B. Holm. "Discontinuities in Business Model Innovation of the Danish Newspaper Industry" (PDF). Conferenga. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 December 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
2. Bent Jensen (2001). "Foreigners in the Danish newspaper debate from the 1870s to the 1990s" (PDF). The Rockwool Foundation Research Unit. Copenhagen. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2015. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
3. (in Danish) Politiken
4. "Factsheet Denmark" (PDF). Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. January 2007. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
5. Stig Hjarvad (2004). "The Globalization of Language" (PDF). Nordicom Review (1–2). Retrieved 6 April 2015.
6. Bent Jensen (2008). The Unemployed in the Danish Newspaper Debate from the 1840s to the 1990s (PDF). Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 January 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
7. Jose L. Alvarez; Carmelo Mazza; Jordi Mur (October 1999). "The management publishing industry in Europe" (PDF). University of Navarra. Archived from the original (Occasional Paper No:99/4) on 30 June 2010. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
8. "The Press in Denmark". BBC. 20 December 2005. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
9. Tina Gudrun Jensen; Sara Jul Jacobsen; Kathrine Vitus; Kristina Weibel (March 2012). "Analysis of Danish Media setting and framing of Muslims, Islam and racism" (Working paper). Danish National Centre for Social Research. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
10. En levende avis kommer til verden Politiken. 19 November 2008. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
11. Hans Henrik Hjermitslev (October 2010). "Danes commemorating Darwin: apes and evolution at the 1909 anniversary". Annals of Science. 67 (4): 485–525. doi:10.1080/00033790.2010.495316. PMID 21466130.
12. Henrik Søndergaard; Rasmus Helles (October 2010). "Media policies and regulatory practices in a selected set of European countries, the EU and the Council of Europe: The case of Denmark" (PDF). MEDIADEM. Archived from the original (Background information report) on 13 December 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
13. Statement published by Politiken Politiken. 26 February 2010. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
14. Casper Andersen; Hans H. Hjermitslev (2009). "Directing Public Interest: Danish Newspaper Science 1900-1903". Centaurus. 51 (2): 143–167. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0498.2009.00145.x.
15. Peter Kjær (2005). "The evolution of business news in Denmark 1960-2000: context and content" (PDF). Copenhagen Business School Working Papers (16). Retrieved 24 March 2015.
16. Britt-Mari Persson Blegvad (1964). "Newspapers and Rock and Roll Riots in Copenhagen". Acta Sociologica. 7 (3): 151–178. doi:10.1177/000169936400700302. JSTOR 4193580.
17. "The 20 largest daily newspapers 2000" (PDF). Danmarks Statistik. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
18. "World Press Trends" (PDF). World Association of Newspapers. Paris. 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 November 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
19. "World Press Trends" (PDF). World Association of Newspapers. Paris. 2004. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
20. "Media pluralism in the Member States of the European Union" (PDF). Commission of the European Communities. Brussels. 16 January 2007. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
21. "The Nordic Media Market" (PDF). Nordicom. 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
22. (in Danish) Dansk Oplagskontrol
23. Politiken er den største morgenavis Politiken. 3 September 2012. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
24. Læsertal TNS. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
25. "Top 20 daily paid-for newspapers in the Nordic countries 2013". Nordicom. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
26. Toplisten FDIM
27. World’s Best: Politiken SND. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
28. "The Scandinavian News Design winners 2014". SNDS. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
29. Award 2010 Archived 21 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine Editorial Design.
30. Award 2011 Archived 10 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine European Newspapers Congress. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
31. Jens Tønnesen. "Jan Grarup forlader Politiken". Pressefotografforbundet. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 27 February 2010.
32. Jørgen Grunnet død Politiken. 22 January 2009.

• Bjørn Bredal, Politiken mod Politiken – Idékampe 1884–2009, Politikens Forlag, 2009. ISBN 978-87-567-9080-2.

External links

• Official website (in Danish)
• News in English. From Politiken