In the course of the nineteenth century the advent of printed pamphlets, with their news and advertisements, gave every town along Norway's long coast – populated by farmers, fishermen, clergy, businessmen and shopkeepers – a common language and a public arena for news and ideas. In Norway alone, the number of titles grew from a handful to a hundred in the course of the century. From 1900 to 1940 the number of papers swelled to two hundred and seventy – the number that remains today.

The press system created a substantial structure, which would prove vital for many of the later media outlets that developed over the twentieth century with the breakthrough of new technologies - cinema industry, radio broadcasting, television and the internet. Newspapers generated the money and power for the development of these media, thus shaping such media and determining, or at least influencing, their perception and reception in Norwegian society. The press in Norway is therefore at the core of the modern media system and its rich history.

Hans Fredrik Dahl is Professor Emeritus in Media and Communication at the University of Oslo, Norway. He is formerly the cultural editor of Dagbladet, and the author of numerous books about the Second World War and Norwegian media in the twentieth century. His previous publications include a biography of Vidkun Quisling and a three-volume history of broadcasting in Norway.