Håvard Narum (born 23 June 1944) is a Norwegian journalist and author.

Biography

Born in Hov, Norway, Narum has degrees in political science, history and English from the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

. He started his career in journalism at ''

Oppland Arbeiderblad ''Oppland Arbeiderblad'' (''OA'') is a newspaper based in Gjøvik, Norway. It was founded in 1924 after the Labour Party lost its newspaper in the city, '' Ny Dag'', to the Communists. At that time there were several daily newspapers in Vestoppl ...

'' in 1964, joining the

Norwegian News Agency The Norwegian News Agency (; abbreviated NTB) is a Norwegian press agency and wire service that serves most of the largest Norwegian media outlets. The agency is located in Oslo and has bureaus in Brussels in Belgium and Tromsø in northern Norw ...

in 1969. Narum joined the

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

in 1975, where he headed the international newsroom at ''

Dagsnytt ''Dagsnytt'' (Norwegian language, Norwegian: "daily news") is Norwegian public radio's main news programme. It is broadcast on most of NRK radio channels, with 3-minute bulletins every hour, including in the overnight hours, and longer programme ...

'' from 1984 to 1987. From 1987 to 1991 Narum was a news correspondent for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Returning to Norway, Narum headed the political newsroom at ''Dagsnytt'' from 1991 to 1997. In 1997, Narum joined ''

Aftenposten (; ; stylized as in the masthead) is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation as well as Norway's newspaper of record. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 daily copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen ...

'', where he worked as head of the political newsroom (1997-2000), and acting political editor (2000). Since 2000, Narum was a political commentator and editorial writer at ''Aftenposten''. In a 2009 survey conducted by

Journalisten ''Journalisten'' is a member magazine of the Swedish Union of Journalists which has been in circulation since 1904. It is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. History and profile The magazine was first published in March 1904 and was printed fiv ...

among a bi-partisan selection of Norwegian political party leaders, Narum was tied with

Trine Eilertsen Trine Eilertsen (born 1 May 1969) is a Norwegian journalist and newspaper editor. She is the current editor-in-chief of the Norwegian newspaper . Early life and education Eilertsen was born in Bærum and grew up at Sotra. She graduated from the ...

as the best political commentator in Norway. He is often referred to as the " grand old man" of political commentary in Norway. Narum retired from ''Aftenposten'' in September 2012. His retirement ceremony was attended by

Jens Stoltenberg Jens Stoltenberg (; born 16 March 1959) is a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party. Since 2025, he has been the Minister of Finance in the Støre Cabinet. He has previously been the prime minister of Norway and secretary general of NATO. ...

, then

Prime Minister of Norway The prime minister of Norway (, which directly translates to "minister of state") is the head of government and chief executive of Norway. The prime minister and Cabinet of Norway, Cabinet (consisting of all the most senior government departme ...

, who made a surprise speech. Following his retirement from journalism, Narum was recruited by Julie Brodtkorb as a communications consultant at JKL Group, becoming a colleague of

Göran Persson Hans Göran Persson (; born 20 January 1949) is a Swedish politician who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1996 to 2006 and leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1996 to 2007. Persson was first elected to the Swedish Parliame ...

. He has maintained his participation in public affairs as a freelance writer and public speaker.

References

1944 births Aftenposten people NRK people Norwegian broadcast news analysts Norwegian expatriates in the United States Norwegian newspaper editors Norwegian television reporters and correspondents Living people People from Søndre Land University of Oslo alumni {{Norway-journalist-stub