New BarentsObserver newsdesk
This is the newsdesk from where your daily Barentsnews is coordinated.
News articles published at BarentsObserver are written by the staff of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat in Kirkenes, just near Norway’s border to Russia in the north. The staff-writers are now located around one common table with top-modern equipment linking in different news-sources from the Barents Region into the newsdesk’s screens.
Also, the newsdesk coordinate articles produced by our editorial contributors in Oslo, Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Nikel.
- BarentsObserver is an ultimate important tool for our daily work with Barents-related issues, says Rune Rafaelsen, head of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat.
- High focus on cross-border news is important for building confidence and common platform for cooperative projects, says Rafaelsen.
BarentsObserver’s newsdesk in Kirkenes is also constructed with ready-to-move-in desks for Russian journalists that are visiting Kirkenes and want to work together with an already well established editorial staff with international focus.
BarentsObserver cooperates with Norwegian Embassies around the world that from time to time sends correspondents to Northern Norway to report on Arctic issues and to cover the cross-border cooperation within the Barents Region.
- It is important for us in BarentsObserver not only to bring everyday stories from the Barents Region to a broader audience interested in northern issues, but also to facilitate for other journalists covering the region, says Thomas Nilsen, editor of BarentsObserver.
Thomas Nilsen is together with Trude Pettersen and Jonas Karlsbakk the three Barents Secretariat employees that write for BarentsObserver from the Kirkenes desk. In Oslo, the Barents Secretariat employee Atle Staalesen contributes with insight articles for BarentsObserver as well. All articles are written in English and then translated to Russian. The translator is Michael Smirnov that works from the Russian border town of Nikel, just an hour drive eastwards from BarentsObserver’s newsdesk in Kirkenes.
Also, the Norwegian Barents Secretariat’s offices in Russia, located in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Naryan-Mar contributes to BarentsObserver with regional status-reports concerning the economical and demographical development trends and other issues interesting for readers monitoring the situation in Northwestern Russia.
Artilces published at BarentsObserver are important news sources for officials, reporters, researchers and the general public, not only within the Barents Region, but worldwide. Therefore, the statistics for BarentsObserver continues to climb upwards.
Today, some 30 percent of the readers are from Russia and another 30 percent from Norway. Also, United States, Finland and Canada contribute with many readers and are high up on the statistics of BarentsObserver, in addition to countries within the European Union.
