European Local Newspaper of the Year: „Smålandsposten“, Schweden

Smålandsposten” is a local paper which doesn’t get absorbed into international political issues, but ferrets out the events in the area: concerts, ice hockey matches, accidents, the economy in the region. Editor-in-Chief Magnus Karlsson ascribes the newspaper’s success to technical changes. “Today, you can lay out a page in 45 minutes”, he says. His colleagues then use the time saved for journalistic details.
The result is impressive: most of the reports have fact boxes, lists, infographics, and naturally the name, email and phone extension of the authors.
“Smålandsposten” is local journalism at its best. A masterpiece of local journalism is created from the intuitive reading guides with page titles and stapled sections which can be pulled out like separate magazines, or from the use of predominantly locality-focused images.

“Smålandsposten” has a circulation of 38,600 and appears in Southern Sweden.
The newspaper is published in tabloid format, and employs 35 editors, 6 photographers and 18 layout artists.

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