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Sports media · Norway

VG

Norway's largest newspaper by circulation and by measured daily reach, whose VG Sporten desk also supplies sport to other Schibsted and Polaris titles.
✓ Last reviewed: September 2026
Founded23 June 1945
OwnerSchibsted Media (from 1966)
Circulation362,000, second half of 2025 (MBL, medietall.no)
Daily digital reach1,881,000, Q4 2025 (Kantar Media, Forbruker og Media)
Sport sectionVG Sporten, at vg.no/sport
Rights acquiredNorwegian Cup, women's and men's, 2029 to 2034

What is VG?

VG, registered as Verdens Gang, is a national daily newspaper and news website published in Oslo by Schibsted Media. It appears in tabloid format in print and as a free news site at vg.no with a paid tier, VG+, alongside a video and live-streaming service, VGTV, and a results and fixtures service, VG Live.[1] [2]

Its sports desk, VG Sporten, is a department of the newsroom with its own front page at vg.no/sport. Store norske leksikon describes VG's sports journalism as offering wide-ranging and detailed coverage of most sporting disciplines.[1] Since late 2020 the desk has also worked as a sports agency for other newspapers: when the shared Schibsted and Polaris Media service 100% Sport was wound up, VG took over the supply of national and international sport to Aftenposten, Bergens Tidende, Stavanger Aftenblad, Fædrelandsvennen and Adresseavisen.[3] Schibsted is also a rights holder in its own name from 2029.[4]

What does VG cover?

VG Sporten's own description of its remit names football, handball, winter sport, tennis and athletics, and the section carries domestic and international results and reporting side by side.[2] Football dominates by volume, covering the Norwegian men's and women's national teams, Eliteserien and the European club competitions; the Nordic and alpine skiing and biathlon World Cups occupy the winter months; handball championships and summer athletics are treated as national events.

Alongside the written desk, VG runs live sport on VGTV. Schibsted stated in April 2026 that VG shows more than 2,000 live sports events a year on the service and intends to expand that before 2029.[4] What VG does not do is sell a general sports subscription channel or bid for the top domestic league packages; its acquired rights are cup and youth-international football rather than league football, and the bulk of its sports output remains reporting, commentary and live text rather than broadcast production.[4] [5]

What are VG's reach and standing?

Kantar Media's Forbruker og Media study, the measurement the Norwegian Media Businesses' Association publishes as the official daily digital reach figures, recorded 1,881,000 daily digital users for VG in the fourth quarter of 2025 — the highest of any Norwegian news brand in that measurement, ahead of NRK at 1,361,000 and Dagbladet at 872,000.[6] The same association's circulation report for the second half of 2025 put VG's net circulation at 362,000, of which 336,800 was the digital VG+ edition and 25,100 print.[7]

Medietilsynet, the national media regulator, recorded Schibsted Media as holding 28.1 per cent of total Norwegian newspaper circulation and 55.5 per cent of national newspaper circulation in its media diversity report published in January 2026.[8] VG's standing inside the sports trade is separately visible in the agency arrangement: five subscription dailies in two competing groups take their sport from it.[3]

Since when?

VG was founded on 23 June 1945, in the weeks after the German occupation of Norway ended, and was bought by Schibsted — then the publisher of Aftenposten — in 1966. It moved to tabloid format in 1963 and added a Sunday edition in 1990. Print circulation peaked at 390,510 in 2002; the paid digital edition VG+ launched in 2009 and now accounts for the great majority of the reported circulation.[1] [7]

Two dates matter for the sports desk specifically. In August 2020 the 19-year-old shared service 100% Sport was closed and VG took over as sports agency for the Schibsted and Polaris subscription papers from late that autumn.[3] On 20 April 2026 Schibsted announced that VG and the group's regional newspapers had acquired the broadcast rights to the Norwegian Cup, women's and men's, and to matches of the age-group national teams, for the seasons 2029 through 2034, to be shown on VGTV.[4] [5]

Why does VG matter in Norway's sport?

VG is the title with the largest measured sports audience in a country of about five and a half million people, and the agency arrangement means its sports copy also appears under the mastheads of the main regional subscription dailies.[3] [6] For a reader trying to establish whether a Norwegian athlete has been covered by a publication of national consequence, VG is the widest single filter available.

From 2029 it also changes category. Norwegian football's media agreement of April 2026 divided the sport between a broadcaster and two publishers, and the Norwegian Cup — the knockout competition whose final is played at Ullevaal — went to Schibsted and VG rather than to a television company.[4] [5] That makes VG both the country's most-read sports desk and, from the 2029 season through 2034, a rights holder whose cup coverage is not derived from anyone else's pictures.

References

  1. Store norske leksikon — VG. Accessed September 2026.
  2. VG — VG Sporten section front. Accessed September 2026.
  3. M24 — 100% Sport wound up; VG becomes sports agency for Adresseavisen, Aftenposten, BT, Fædrelandsvennen and Aftenbladet, 24 August 2020. Accessed September 2026.
  4. Schibsted — press release on Norwegian football rights, via NTB Kommunikasjon, 20 April 2026. Accessed September 2026.
  5. VG — TV 2 extends Eliteserien to 2034; VG and Schibsted take the cup, 20 April 2026. Accessed September 2026.
  6. Kantar Media for MBL — official digital reach figures, Q4 2025, published 13 February 2026. Accessed September 2026.
  7. Mediebedriftenes Landsforening — circulation for the second half of 2025, 10 March 2026. Accessed September 2026.
  8. Medietilsynet — Mediemangfoldsregnskapet 2025, January 2026. Accessed September 2026.