What is Josimar?
Josimar is a Norwegian football magazine and website published by Dype Skoger AS of Oslo. It publishes in Norwegian at josimar.no and in English at josimarfootball.com, and operates on a subscription model supplemented by donations; its stated remit is football's greatness and its shadow sides.[1] The title states that it began in 2009 as a printed football magazine in Norway and that it launched an English-language website in November 2018, and describes itself as the world's only media platform devoted solely to investigative football journalism.[2]
It is not a results or match-report publication. Its subject is the governance, finance and labour conditions of the sport: the title states that it reports on corruption, money laundering, tax evasion, fraud and human-rights abuses connected to football, and that it has faced legal threats from FIFA, a former FIFA president, betting-industry actors and the Qatar World Cup organising committee without having had to defend its reporting in court.[2]
What does Josimar cover?
Josimar's Norwegian edition covers Norwegian football as a field, a cultural phenomenon, a social actor and a business area, and its front page in September 2026 carried reporting on FIFA governance.[1] [3] The English edition carries the international investigations. Documented examples include a special issue on abuses of the rights of migrant workers in Qatar, supported by a grant from the Fritt Ord foundation in April 2022, and a cross-border project on corruption in grassroots football supported by Journalismfund Europe.[4] [5]
What it does not do is cover matches, transfers or results as news, and it holds no broadcast rights. Its output is long-form reporting, published irregularly rather than to a daily cycle, and it depends on subscriptions and external journalism grants rather than on advertising volume.[1] [3] Its coverage of Norwegian football concerns club finances, federation governance and ownership as often as it concerns the game.[1]
What are Josimar's reach and standing?
Josimar's audience is small in absolute terms and is not measured by Kantar's national panel. In June 2025 the magazine stated it had close to 4,000 subscribers and needed roughly 1,000 more, or about 580,000 kroner, to sustain stable operation, and said that after sixteen years as an independent publication it might be over.[3] It has continued publishing since, with articles dated to 11 September 2026 on its Norwegian site.[1]
Its standing rests on citation rather than on circulation. Play the Game, the Danish Institute for Sports Studies' conference and news platform, cited a Josimar investigation by Anders Dehn in an April 2026 assessment of ten years of the FIFA presidency of Gianni Infantino.[6] The Fritt Ord foundation's director, awarding the 2022 grant, said Josimar was committed to providing dependable international-class journalism on corruption and other crime in top football.[4] Journalismfund Europe lists Dype Skoger as a supported medium.[5]
Since when?
Josimar states that it started in 2009 as a printed football magazine in Norway, and that its English-language website went online in November 2018; the title reports that its readership doubled between 2019 and 2021 and doubled again in 2022.[2] Those growth figures are the magazine's own and no independent measurement of them could be retrieved.
The ownership history is short and unsettled. The magazine was rescued from bankruptcy in 2023, when Venture Factory Media — the owner of the Norwegian outlet Filter Nyheter — acquired a majority shareholding.[3] In June 2025 it published an appeal stating that its subscriber base was insufficient for stable operation.[3] The publishing company remains Dype Skoger AS, organisation number 992171782, and the Norwegian site was publishing as of September 2026, carrying an article on FIFA governance dated 11 September 2026.[1] Through the same period the magazine has been supported by external journalism funders rather than by a publishing group: the Fritt Ord grant of 500,000 kroner was awarded in April 2022, and Journalismfund Europe lists Dype Skoger among the media it supports.[4] [5]
Why does Josimar matter in Norway's sport?
Josimar is the Norwegian sports title whose work is read outside Norway. Where the country's broadcasters and dailies are read for competition and results, Josimar reports on the institutions that run football, and that reporting is picked up by international sports-governance bodies: Play the Game's April 2026 review of the FIFA presidency drew on a Josimar investigation into how the president is photographed with heads of state.[6]
Within Norway it occupies a position no other sports outlet does. It is a single-subject title of national circulation whose subject is governance rather than sport, funded in part by grants from the Fritt Ord foundation and Journalismfund Europe rather than by rights or advertising, and it publishes in two languages from the same editorial operation.[2] [4] [5] Its finances have twice been publicly precarious, in 2023 and again in 2025.[3]
References
- Josimar — Norwegian edition front page. Accessed September 2026.
- Josimar — About Josimar. Accessed September 2026.
- Journalisten — Josimar: it may now be over, 5 June 2025. Accessed September 2026.
- Fritt Ord — the football magazine Josimar receives support for a special issue on the World Cup in Qatar, April 2022. Accessed September 2026.
- Journalismfund Europe — Dype Skoger (Josimar) supported media entry. Accessed September 2026.
- Play the Game — Infantino's FIFA: ten years of power, politics, and so-called ethics, 13 April 2026. Accessed September 2026.