From Iceland — Morgunblaðið Loses Third of Subscribers in the Past Year

Morgunblaðið Loses Third of Subscribers in the Past Year

Published September 9, 2010

Since former Central Bank chairman Davíð Oddsson was hired as the paper’s co-editor, Morgunblaðið’s subscriptions have dropped by a third.
According to data from Capacent, 35% of Icelanders subscribed to Morgunblaðið at this time last year. Today, that figure is now at 24%.
The paper has undergone great criticism since the hiring of Oddsson last year, which was done simultaneously with the firing of about 40 journalists at the paper, many of whom had been working their for decades. Journalist unions both in Iceland and abroad decried the hiring, calling it a blow to fair and truthful media.
Despite assurances from the editorial office at that time their coverage of the economic collapse of Iceland would continue to be fair, the release of the Special Investigative Commission report on the causes for the economic collapse was announced on the pages of Morgunblaðið with the headline “The Banks Are to Blame,” despite the fact that Oddsson, as Central Bank chairman in the time leading up to and during the collapse, is mentioned probably more than any other individual in the report.

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