''Bratsberg Amtstidende'' was a Norwegian newspaper, published in

Skien Skien () is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county in Norway. In modern times it is regarded as part of the traditional region of Grenland, although historically it belonged to Grenmar/Skiensfjorden, while Grenland referred the ...

Telemark Telemark is a traditional region, a former county, and a current electoral district in southern Norway. In 2020, Telemark merged with the former county of Vestfold to form the county of Vestfold og Telemark. Telemark borders the traditional ...

county. It also held the names ''Ugeblad for Skien og Omegn'' (1830 to 1840), ''Bratsberg Amtstidende og Correspondent'' (1843 to 1844) and ''Skiensposten'' (1863 to 1884).

The first ten years

''Ugeblad for Skien, Skiens-Fjord og Omegn'' was started as a weekly newspaper on 1 January 1830, and omitted the "Skiens-Fjord" from its name already in July 1830. It was the project of printing press owner Peter Feilberg, who with "Ugebladet" had started the first newspaper in Skien. "Ugebladet" had no competing newspapers during its existence, the most nearby "rival" being '' Jarlsbergs og Laurvigs Amtstidende'' in

Laurvig Larvik () is a town and municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Larvik. The municipality of Larvik has about 46,364 inhabitants. The municipality has a 110 ...

. Feilberg and "Ugebladet" was notably convicted of libel in 1837 and sentenced to pay 60

speciedaler The rigsdaler specie was a unit of silver currency used in Norway, renamed as the speciedaler in 1816 and used until 1873. Norway used a common reichsthaler currency system shared with Denmark, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein until 1873 when the go ...

; the complaint had been filed by County Governor Frederik Wilhelm Wedel Jarlsberg. For comparison, a yearly subscription to ''Skiens Ugeblad'' cost 2 speciedaler. The legal case contributed to the newspaper's demise, but after releasing its final issue on 28 December 1839, it resurfaced already on 3 January 1840 under the name ''Bratsberg Amtstidende''.

Later history

''Bratsberg Amtstidende'' soon got a competitor. Its journalist with somewhat radical political ambitions, Herman Bagger, left the newspaper in 1842 and started a competitor '' Skiensposten''. ''Skiensposten'' survived for the time being, but went defunct in 1843. The same year, Bagger returned to ''Bratsberg Amtstidende'' as co-editor. The name was changed to ''Bratsberg Amtstidende og Correspondent''. Bagger left already in 1844, to form ''Bratsberg Amts Correspondent'' (from 1846 '' Correspondenten'') while Feilberg's newspaper reverted to the name ''Bratsberg Amtstidende''. It became the number-two-newspaper in Skien. After Feilberg's death in August 1863, it even went defunct. New publishers managed to revive it in the first half of 1864, but then with the name ''Skiensposten''. Together with ''Correspondenten'' it eventually lost terrain to ''

Varden Varden may refer to: People *Erik Varden (born 1974), Norwegian Roman Catholic prelate *Evelyn Varden (1893-1958), American actress *Helga Varden, American philosopher *Norma Varden (1898-1989), English actress * Varden Tsulukidze (1865–1923), Ge ...

'' (founded 1874). Despite a merger between the two old rivals to once again form ''Bratsberg Amtstidende'' in 1884, it soon lost terrain to another new newspaper '' Fremskridt'' (founded 1885). ''Fremskridt'' absorbed ''Bratsberg Amtstidende'' after the latter's last issue on 23 February 1901. At that time, the editor of ''Fremskridt'' was Mons Klingenberg Gjerløw, who had edited ''Bratsberg Amtstidende'' from 1884 to 1885.

References

1830 establishments in Norway 1901 disestablishments in Norway Defunct newspapers published in Norway Mass media in Skien Norwegian-language newspapers Newspapers established in 1830 Publications disestablished in 1901 {{Norway-newspaper-stub