Aksel Kjær Vidnes is our new editor-in-chief

The board has decided to hire Aksel Kjær Vidnes as editor-in-chief and general manager of forskning.no - the Norwegian motherboard of sciencenorway.no. He will take over the position on 1 May.

“Aksel is dedicated and has solid academic and journalistic knowledge. We view him as an inclusive and strong leader with knowledge and experience that fit perfectly with our wish list for a new editor-in-chief,” says chairman Jan-Børge Tjäder.

Vidnes currently works as opinion editor at forskning.no and has editorial experience from the national newspaper Aftenposten and the magazine Forskerforum (roughly translates as The researchers' forum).

“I am happy and honoured to have gained this trust and to have the opportunity to lead Norway's largest online newspaper on science and research,” says Vidnes.

“We have never done as well as now”

According to Vidnes, readers will not notice any immediate major upheavals with him at the helm. He takes over the position from Nina Kristiansen, who will remain with the newspaper and work as a journalist.

“There will be a continuous development more than a paradigm shift. We are celebrating our 20th anniversary this year. We have never had more readers than we do now. This is a development I will strive to continue,” says Vidnes.

Forskning.no has grown to become the Nordic region's largest online newspaper on science and research. In 2021, forskning.no, the youth initiative ung.forskning.no, the English-language ScienceNorway.no, and the opinion pages Forskersonen had a total of 3 million monthly page views, spread over 2.3 million sessions.

“We must take the lead in discussing uncertainty”

“Forskning.no will continue to provide knowledge-based journalism in Norway. We do not only disseminate the latest in the world of research, but we also show the importance of critical science journalism,” says Vidnes.

He believes that journalism on science and research has never been as important as it is now.

“We live in a time of long and short crises. There's a pandemic and a war in Europe at the same time as we are facing a fundamental climate crisis. In this landscape, forskning.no and sciencenorway.no will be places to gain insight. At the same time, we will continue to take the lead in discussing the uncertainty in research because we believe that openness and critical journalism are what create the best basis for an open and knowledge-based democracy,” Vidnes says.

No paywall

A lot of Norwegian journalism has in recent years ended up behind paywalls. The new editor-in-chief has no plans for the same to happen with forskning.no and sciencenorway.no.

“Our mandate is to reach as many as possible, so we must remain non-profit and open. If we are to reach everyone from children and young people to the oldest in Norway and beyond, people with and without education, then we have to deliver journalism that is not behind a paywall, as long as it is financially possible for us,” Vidnes says.

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Translated by Alette Gjellesvik.

Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no