Seven lessons Scandinavian media can teach us On topics ranging from job training to self-regulation

CJR reporting:
Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark are consistently ranked highest in the world for both freedom of the press and participatory democracy. The Scandinavian population has among the highest news readership in the world, and can choose among the world’s greatest number, per capita, of local and national newspapers. Why? What are these countries doing right?
These countries are all relatively rich, and have not been hit as hard by the global financial crisis as many other places. And all have traditionally been comfortable with high governmental spending on public services—services that include both higher education and the media.
But beyond the most obvious explanations, there are many other reasons why the Scandinavian media is so healthy and successful. I spent two months last fall traveling through Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark, researching and reporting on the media there. Here are a few lessons that I think the American media could learn from our colleagues across the ocean.
1.) PBS and NPR should go big or go home. When Eva Hamilton, CEO of Sweden’s public television network SVT, hears about the budget cuts and political controversies plaguing her American counterparts, she nods in sympathy. Hamilton and many of her colleagues say that staying ambitious with a wide range of programming is the only way to ensure relevance in the cultural conversation—and, therefore, the best way to ensure funding. That’s why, in addition to the types of shows you’d expect from public TV (like high-brow costume dramas and news-analysis roundtables), SVT also shows all kinds of things that you wouldn’t expect (like sports games and HBO imports)...
...6) Journalists and whistleblowers should have strong laws protecting them. Sweden’s first Freedom of the Press Act is older than the United States, and is widely cited as the world’s first law of its kind. Today, the Principle of Public Access in the Swedish constitution requires that all court records, documents, and communications within the government be available to the public. Government employees are encouraged to provide information to journalists, and punishing them for doing so is prohibited.
7) Journalism training, and jobs in journalism, should be much more accessible and inviting...
http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/seven_lessons_scandinavian_med.php?page=4