Kjell Aamot, CEO of Schibsted, an active player on the European media scene, announced his resignation today, amid continued losses resulting in an additional NOK 250 million cost reduction – on top of the original NOK 500 million.
The press release issued earlier this morning, and the (at present) ongoing press conference are sparse with regards to Aamot’s motivation for resigning, but you really can’t blame the man for his reluctance to go down in history as the boss who brought about the inevitable Schibsted newspaper onslaught – as well as, undoubtedly, massive cuts in other media operations.
Mr Aamot will however remain on post until March next year.
He has held the position as CEO of Schibsted ASA since the group was formed in 1989, and is one of the CEO’s with the longest tenure among listed Norwegian companies.
Suggested reading
- Kristine Lowe’s take on the resignation
- Newspaper Death in Norway – also Kristine Lowe
- Twitter comments and news on the resignation
My uneducated guess is that Aamot’s resignment marks the beginning of a series of press and media reorganisations.
Hold on to your hats, good people!
A little background info on Schibsted (aimed at potential trainees) is only appropriate, though:
I have failed to track down news on the matter in English so far (which could easily be conceived as sign of Norway’s inflated self-perception, and misjudged impression of our industry’s importance, of course), but here’s a piece from Norwegian online daily, Dagbladet.no, in case you’re familiar with the language – as well as a later update (also in Norwegian).
Photo: Schibsted CEO Kjell Aamot (phto from Schibsted)
