Jónas Kristjánsson (5 February 1940 – 29 June 2018) was an Icelandic writer,

newspaper journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

. He was one of the most influential people in the Icelandic newspaper history during the second half of the 20th century and was one of the strongest spokespersons for moving the newspapers publications away from the political parties.

Early life

Jónas was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, to Kristján Jónasson, a doctor, and Anna Pétursdóttir, a bookkeeper. His grandfather was Jónas Kristjánsson, a former member of

Alþingi The Alþingi (''general meeting'' in Icelandic, , anglicised as ' or ') is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ("thing fields" or "assembly ...

and the founder of ''Náttúrulækningafélag Íslands''. Jónas graduated from

Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík (MR; official name in English: Reykjavik Junior College) is a junior college in Iceland. It is located in Reykjavík. The school traces its origin to 1056, when a school was established in Skálholt, and it remains o ...

in 1959 and from the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( is, Háskóli Íslands ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' s ...

in 1966.

Career

Jónas was a journalist for

Tíminn ''Tíminn'' () was an Icelandic daily newspaper founded in 1917. It had close ties with the Icelandic Progressive Party but after years of financial difficulties, the party severed all ties with the paper in 1993. It merged with the newspaper ''Da ...

from 1961 to 1964 and then the editor of

Vísir ''Vísir'' was an Icelandic newspaper founded in December 1910 by Einar Gunnarsson, originally only distributed in and around Reykjavík. In 1967, Jónas Kristjánsson became its editor. In 1975, he left the paper after a conflict with the ownersh ...

until 1975. Jónas founded the Dagblaðið with others after a conflict in the ownership group of Vísir on his editorial policy. The establishment of Dagblaðið marked a major breakthrough in the publication of newspapers in Iceland as it was the first major paper to be independent of political parties. In 1981, Dagblaðið merged with Vísir to form

Dagblaðið Vísir ''DV'' (''Dagblaðið Vísir'') is an online newspaper in Iceland published by Torg ehf. It came into existence as a daily newspaper in 1981 when two formerly independent newspapers, Vísir and Dagblaðið, merged. Early on it was one of the la ...

, or DV for short, with Jónas serving there as editor until 2001. In 2002 he was the editor of

Fréttablaðið ''Fréttablaðið'' ( en, The Newspaper) is a free Icelandic newspaper. It is distributed five days per week. History and profile ''Fréttablaðið'' was established in 2001. It was originally owned primarily by the media group ''365''. The paper ...

and in 2003 he returned to the DV as a columnist. In 2005 he was again hired as the editor of DV before leaving the post for good in 2006. From 2006 to 2008 he taught journalism at

Personal life

Jónas married Kristín Halldórsdóttir on 24 December 1963 and together they had four children. Kristín, who was a member of

from 1983 to 1989 and 1995–1999, died on 14 July 2016.

Death

Jónas died on 29 June 2018 on the cardiology department of the National University Hospital of Iceland.

References

External links

jonas.is
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kristjánsson, Jonas 1940 births 2018 deaths Jonas Kristjansson Jonas Kristjansson Jonas Kristjansson 20th-century male writers