Bergens Tidende is a daily newspaper in Bergen, founded in 1868 by Johan Wilhelm Eide.
Bergens Tidende is the leading Norwegian media house outside Oslo, and the fourth largest newspaper in Norway. BT has around 226,700 daily readers in print and online. The editor-in-chief since 2024 is Trond Olav Skrunes.
In the latter half of the 19th century, thousands of young people moved to Bergen from the neighboring county in the north. Among them was Johan Wilhelm Eide (1832–1896) from Stryn in Nordfjord – the founder of Bergens Tidende.
Early on, Bergens Tidende established itself as a political newspaper with an “independent and liberal standpoint.” BT eventually became the Liberal Party’s main organ in Western Norway. In 1973, the newspaper transitioned from being a Liberal Party organ to politically independent.
Rose after the fire
The Bergen Fire in 1916 reduced both the equipment and premises of BT to ashes, but the newspaper rose again after the fire. Bergens Tidende soon became the major newspaper in Western Norway. From around the First World War, the newspaper was the largest in Bergen. Bergens Tidende was published throughout the Second World War, from 1942 with an editor appointed by the occupying forces. In 1940, the newspaper had a circulation of 35,220.
BT became a morning newspaper in 1993, and a Sunday edition and online edition were established in 1996. In September 2017, BT moved to Media City Bergen, along with, among others, TV2 and NRK Vestland.
Currently BT has over 84,000 subscribers, more than 60,000 of them on the online edition and there is a continued strong growth.
