Arbetet

Arbetet was first published in Malmö on 6 August 1887.^[1][2] Axel Danielsson was the founder^[3][4] and served as the editor-in-chief of the paper between 1887 and 1889.^[1] The paper had a social democrat leaning^[1][5] and was officially affiliated with the Social Democratic Party.^[6][7]

The target audience of Arbetet was not only Malmö workers, but also economically middle-class.^[8] The paper described the food riots in Sweden in April 1917 as dignified and impressive.^[9] Bengt Lidforss was among the contributors of Arbetet^[10] who published articles about natural sciences, politics, philosophy and literature.^[11]

The paper awarded the Let Live Award (Swedish: Låt leva-priset).^[12] In 1981 the recipient of the award was Lech Wałęsa.^[12]

Arbetet ceased publication on 30 September 2000 soon after it went bankrupt in August 2000.^[2][13][14]

As mentioned above the founding editor-in-chief of Arbetet was Axel Danielsson between 1887 and 1889.^[1] In the 1910s Bengt Lidforss served as the editor-in-chief of the paper.^[15] Another editor-in-chief was Allan Vougt who was succeeded by Gösta Netzén in 1944.^[16][17] Netzén was in office until 1957.^[16] Frans Nilsson was named as its editor-in-chief in 1961.^[18] From 1980 to 1990 Lars Engqvist was its editor-in-chief.^[19]

Fredrik Sterky worked as the business manager of Arbetet.^[20]

Arbetet was the best-selling newspaper in Malmö in the 1930s selling more copies than the other Malmö papers Skånska Dagbladet and Sydsvenska Dagbladet.^[21] However, its coverage of the Malmö households was less than 50% reducing its dominance in the region.^[21] In addition, Sydsvenska Dagbladet managed to sell more copies than Arbetet from the mid-1950s.^[21] When a social democratic news magazine entitled Ny Tid which was headquartered in Gothenburg folded in 1965, Arbetet acquired its circulation.^[21]

In the 1980s Arbetet enjoyed high levels of circulation and readership.^[2] In 1998 the paper sold 54,000 copies on weekdays and 58,000 copies on Sundays.^[22]