Editor-in-chief Bjørn Kristoffer Bore of Vårt Land considers that the comments field has lived its life. “What started as an exciting and democratic dream has become a boring and grey nightmare”, he writes. Now he wishes to give the field “a dignified death”.

Bore published on Friday the comment “Ordinary people keep well away from the comments field” in Vårt Land. The lead paragraph establishes the premise: “The figures speak clearly: The comments field is not used by ordinary people, but by a quite special group.” The text lies behind the newspaper’s paywall.
On Facebook he himself summarises the message:

– I have followed the comments field as journalist and editor throughout its entire life, since the modest beginning in the nineties. I consider that it is now time to give it a dignified death.

Bore points out that those who comment constitute “a quite special group”, and that “the research indicates that the comments field may just as well function as a greenhouse for polarisation as a democratic safety valve”.

“Norway does not need super-editors”

The editor is cautious about demanding closed comments fields directly. Instead he formulates himself as one who merely points out the consequences:

– Ought newspapers to close the comments field? Well, it is a free country. If an editor wishes to convey material which the figures show is little read, gives a skewed picture of public opinion, contributes to polarisation and challenges press ethics, then they are of course free to do so. Norway does not need super-editors. But we need editors who are conscious of their responsibility.

The sentence is a recipe for how Norwegian editors can speak about other editors’ choices without taking the word “ought” into their mouths. Four accusations in one subordinate clause – little read, skewed, polarising, press-ethically problematic – and thereafter an assurance that everyone is of course free.

Vårt Land closed its own eight years ago

Bore’s own newspaper discontinued in practice parts of the comments field already in December 2018. At that time Vårt Land closed the comments field under the debate articles online and introduced prior approval of posts instead.

At the time Alf Gjøsund was acting editor-in-chief. According to Medier24 he justified the measure by the fields “at times being so marked by digressions, irrelevancies and quarrelling that the serious debaters kept away”. Gjøsund considered at the time that prior approval would strengthen freedom of expression.

Bore was appointed editor-in-chief and managing director of Vårt Land in December 2018 and took up the post the following year.

Bore’s main objection is that the comments field “is little read” and “gives a skewed picture of public opinion”.
It is an argument that bears being turned around. Vårt Land had a circulation of 21,160 in 2023, and 50,833 daily readers on paper and online in the second quarter of 2024, according to the Norwegian Media Businesses’ Association. Ordinary people do not read Vårt Land either. That a selection is small and non-representative has never been an argument for closing down a newsroom.

The difference is who owns the microphone. A commentator on the leader page also reaches only a fraction of the population – but no one has proposed discontinuing the leader page because it “gives a skewed picture of public opinion”.

One of those who reacts to the intervention is the main competitor, editor-in-chief Vebjørn Selbekk of Dagen.
He asks:

– Here speaks a true elitist. Where did the respect for ordinary people go, Bjørn Kristoffer Bore?