from the Hindustan Times

I read it here. So can you.

Arctic newspapers struggle to survive with offbeat news

Of all the newspapers on all the islands in the world, Svalbardposten, the globe's northernmost broadsheet, can lay claim to the most offbeat front page news, ranging from polar bears on the rampage to serial shoe theft.

Given the hostile climate and the constant threat of bear attacks in this island group in the middle of the Arctic, newsmen go about their business by helicopter and snowmobile and usually carry a rifle as they hunt for news, which is never easy to come by.

"Svalbard is in the middle of nowhere," Torbjoern Pedersen, editor of Svalbardposten, said.

"We don't get press releases or news conferences, so we work only with primary sources. We always have to dig."
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And of course everybody knows everybody else, which would make an ideal backdrop for an Agatha Christie murder mystery, but in fact, violent crime is very rare in this part of the world.

And yet, Svalbardposten, which is published on Friday, somehow manages to fill its 28 pages with things to write about, although the topics can be as obscure as the long winter months.

"Shoe theft tops the list of crime here," says Pedersen.

People here usually leave their footwear at the door when they come in from the cold "and when they party, it very easily happens that they leave with a different pair of shoes from the ones they came with," he explained.
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After losing money for decades, Svalbardposten is in the black now, selling 3,330 issues every Friday, four times the number of households on Svalbard.

Sold for 15 kroner (just under two euros) at the newsstand, Svalbardposten also boasts subscribers on every continent.