Eric Eikrem’s Blog

We need news, proper news, the results of professional investigative reporting. We need it now more than ever. Why? Due to the climate change and local, regional environmental destruction and global demographics, we have extremely turbulent times ahead. In fact, they have already started.

In this situation, the much reported decline of quality journalism is – to say the least – lamentable [fr1, fr2]. The so-called citizen journalism is no replacement for professional investigative reporting. But unlike the latter, professional journalists need to get paid. Maintaining and even expanding investigative reporting is possible, even with reduced sales of advertising space, but only if news media comes to grip with the new reality in terms of production, presentation and distribution. Read more

I believe that regional medium-sized cities have better prospects for a positive economical and societal development than before. A combination of facilitating innovation, doing smart marketing, and establishing services that aids networking, can counter the pull of the big cities. However, if no such steps are taken, regions will inevitably lose out to the big centres. Read more