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Adresseavisen is a regional newspaper published daily, except Sundays, in Trondheim, Norway. It is an independent, conservative newspaper with a daily circulation of approximately 85,000. It is also informally known as Adressa. The newspaper covers the areas of Trøndelag and Nordmøre.

Adresseavisen switched from broadsheet to tabloid format on 16 September 2006. Stocks in Adresseavisen are traded on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

In addition to the main newspaper, Adresseavisen owns several smaller local newspapers in the Trøndelag region. They also own and operate a local radio station, Radio-Adressa, and a local TV station, TV-Adressa (prior to 30 January 2006: TVTrøndelag). They also have a stake in the national radio channel Kanal 24. In addition, the newspaper owns the local newspapers Fosna-Folket, Hitra-Frøya, Levanger-Avisa, Sør-Trøndelag, Trønderbladet and Verdalingen.


History

The newspaper was first published 3 July 1767 as Kongelig allene privilegerede Trondheims Adresse-Contoirs Efterretninger, making it the oldest Norwegian newspaper still being published. The name has changed several times before the newspaper got its present name in 1927. Locally it is often referred to as Adressa.

Martinus Lind Nissen (1744–1795) was the founder and first editor of Adresseavisen. At his death, Nissen was succeeded by Mathias Conrad Peterson, a French-oriented revolutionary pioneering radical journalism in Norway. Later editors, however, have been more conservative. In Peterson's age the paper was renamed Trondhjemske Tidender (roughly Trondhjem Times) and began to look more like a modern newspaper. Changing names, owners and profile several times during the 19th century, the paper was named Trondhjems Adresseavis in 1890. Its first press picture was seen in 1893. During the 1920s, the paper nearly bankrupted, but it was saved by the new editor, Harald Houge Torp, who had the position until 1969. Adressavisen became the first Norwegian newspaper to use computer technology in 1967. Its website was launched in 1996. Gunnar Flikke was editor-in-chief from 1989 to 2006.


Cartoon controversy

In response to the attack on the Danish embassy, the newspaper published on 3 June 2008 a caricature of a Muslim with a turban, a suicide belt and a T-shirt with the text "I am Mohammed and no one dares to publish me!" written on it. While the drawing itself has been claimed to be a caricature of Muhammad, the cartoonist behind the drawing, Jan O. Henriksen, and the publisher, Arne Blix, assured the drawing represents terrorists who make violent acts in the Prophet's name. "It is not an attack on the Prophet and Islam, but an attack on those who claim they are defending Muhammad, but who in reality are people with violent intents."

Although Arne Blix and Jan O. Henriksen stated that the drawing would result in little or no response and protest in the Middle East, the drawing has received worldwide attention. In both Norway and Denmark the drawing received media attention from all major newspapers. The Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard welcomed the drawing in an interview with the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, saying: "I think it's good that Jan O. made this drawing in the situation we are experiencing now, where freedom of expression is under attack and innocent lives are lost. We must stand firmly on the right to express ourselves. The freedom of speech is the most important thing we have". He also said that the Norwegian cartoonist would receive threats: "There are militant Muslims who have noticed this. He has exposed himself a lot with this drawing, and he will expect to receive threats."

On the other hand, the Pakistani-Norwegian lawyer Abid Q. Raja said that Muslims would interpret the drawing as an insult of Muhammad, and criticized the newspaper for not admitting it to be a Muhammad caricature."

In a Google search the television photographer Tariq Ali made with NRK Trøndelag around noon on 4 June, they noticed that over 400 Arab websites had mentioned the Norwegian drawing, and by the end of the day the number had reached 1,300 hits. Most of the websites condemned the drawing, some even stating they were more insulting than the Danish cartoons published in Jyllands-Posten in 2005.

In October 2010 the newspaper destroyed an edition of its weekend supplement, Uke-Adressa, before it was distributed. The reason was another satirical drawing by Jan O. Henriksen that editor Blix in subsequent interviews stated was in conflict with editorial policies. He declined to give details of the drawing or the reason for its unacceptability, however according to Henriksen the depiction was of Kurt Westergaard holding one of his Mohammad drawings.