Iceland News Today. Latest World and Local News from Iceland. Read the latest news, written by regional journalism, watch editorials and International headlines on major online newspapers of Iceland:
Since its initial publication, Morgunblaðið was until 2003 not published on Mondays. It soon established itself as the newspaper of record. It was always the number one newspaper in Iceland, and it took an absolute lead in the early 1970s and routed most of the competition, enjoying an unchallenged superiority for the next three decades. During this period, Morgunblaðið launched a number of special sections on finance, fisheries, food, etc. After the rival Fréttablaðið, delivered free to homes, took the competition to a new level by starting a Monday edition, Morgunblaðið responded to the challenge and has since 2003 been published every day of the week, with 60 to 120 pages. Advertising accounts for 30% to 40% of the column space. Daily circulation hovers between 20,000 and 30,000, the bulk being paid subscriptions. Circulation is mostly focused on the southwestern part of the country, especially the capital Reykjavík and nearby settlements.
It was one of the biggest newspapers in Iceland early on and at one point had a 64% readership in Iceland. In the 1990s its readership started to dwindle and in 2003 its publisher was declared bankrupt. It was resurrected a week later by the publisher of Fréttablaðið. In 2006 it was changed from a daily newspaper into a weekly one. Since then it has changed publishers regularly and in 2018 its publisher, DV ehf., went bankrupt. Its assets were bought by a new publisher, Frjáls fjölmiðlun ehf.
In December 2019, Torg ehf., the owner of Fréttablaðið, agreed to buy Dagblaðið Vísir from Frjáls Fjölmiðlun ehf.
The paper has changed dramatically since its inception. Today it is published weekly and focuses mainly on sensational crime stories, astrology, and domestic and foreign celebrity news. Its editorial policy has sparked public controversies in Iceland,
Fréttablaðið was established in 2001. The paper was published 6 days per week, Monday – Saturday until September 2003, when its frequency was switched to daily. It is primarily owned by the media group 365 media.