Stefan Jonasson Interview Part 6

Duration of Audio Clip: 3:20 

Transcription of Audio:

Stefan: Today, of course, having made the conversion entirely to the English language, a transition that began in small ways soon after the merger of the two newspapers in 1959, accelerated in the 1960s and 1970s, and essentially became complete in the 1980s when Icelandic was kind of an added flavor in the newspaper rather than the primary language of its reporting. Once that change took place, then Lögberg-Heimskringla became a newspaper that focused primarily on community events, primarily on community figures, the noteworthy Icelanders in North America, some reporting from Iceland, but increasingly reporting about Iceland in the English language. And so there’s almost a sense in which the paper, during the course of its life, has evolved 180 degrees from primarily bringing the English-speaking world and the world of other languages to the Icelandic community while reporting on their news, their own community news, in the direction of continuing to report on the community news, but increasingly presenting Iceland in the English language. 

Subscribership to print media continues to decline. Readership continues to decline. And that’s not something that just affects Lögberg-Heimskringla. That’s something that affects every newspaper in almost every country around the world. And so, we’re in a situation where every week a community newspaper closes somewhere in North America. And so, the printed media continues to decline. A curious area where Lögberg-Heimskringla appears to have some growth in subscribership is actually beyond the Icelandic community, beyond the individuals who are descendants of the earlier Icelandic immigrants. So, what we see is that people with no Icelandic background at all, or people who may be Icelandic by marriage, or those who have visited Iceland and are just curious about the culture and curious about Iceland itself. That every year we pick up a few new subscribers from that unlikely source of subscribers to our paper. And I think that group is going to be increasingly important.