Dimmalætting and Sosialurin merge

The two largest newspapers will have a joint management from 1 January 2023, but the papers will be working independently of each other

Sigrún H. Brend

Eyðbjørt Skylv Midjord

29.12.2022 - 14:08

The owners of the country’s two largest newspapers, Dimmalætting and Sosialinum, have agreed to merge their activities from 1 January 2023.

As this is a management merger, the two newspapers will continue to work independently of each other with one editor each.

A fast-changing media landscape

Jonhard Hammer, the interim CEO of the merged media company, says the merger is the result of a significant change in the Faroese media landscape.

Jonhard Hammer

Caption:

Jonhard Hammer is the interim CEO of the merged media company

”We have just come out of a pandemic, and the media subsidies have been removed,” he says.

“The Faroese newspaper delivery service is probably the most expensive in the world, and we are competing with Kringvarp Føroya, Føroya Tele and other public institutions for advertising revenues. This was a tough decision to make, but we felt it was necessary.”

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He adds that a permanent CEO will be appointed soon.

The decision to merge was made quite suddenly, partly due to ever-increasing expenses.

“Printing and delivery prices continue to rise, and without any media subsidies, we had no other choice but to merge.”

It is too early to say whether the merger will result in job redundancies, and no decision has yet been made about how the sudden change will affect the content of the newspapers.

Sosialurin will continue with its weekly ‘Vikuskiftis-Sosialurin’ along with a fortnightly free edition delivered to every home in the country. The in.fo news portal will carry on as normal.

Dimmalæting will move its operations to Sosialurin’s Miðlahúsið media house located by the Vágsbotnur marina in Tórshavn’s city centre.