Swedish Cultural Magazines Struggle Amid Funding Cuts

The country's cultural magazines are on their knees after two years of reduced grants. In 2025, the crisis will lead to fewer magazine issues and reduced circulations. It hits very hard against operations that already have little money, says Elin Persson at Provins.

» Published: Fri 21 Mar 2025 08:23 CET

The government has reduced support to the country's magazines by four million over two years. Now, the effects are being felt by several of them who have received reduced grants.

The cuts come at a time when printing and postage costs have long been increasing, says Håkan Trygger, editor of Aiolos, whose support has been reduced from 450,000 in 2023 to 290,000 kronor in 2025.

It's tough. We're saving on everything that can be saved. It means increased voluntary work both for us and, unfortunately, also for some employees, in an industry where the degree of voluntary work is already high, he says.

Fewer numbers

The magazines' savings strategies differ. Aiolos has no premises, they work from home and have storage in basement storage rooms. They are now looking for cheap printers outside Sweden and trying to deliver magazines by hand when possible. Ord&Bild, which has existed since 1892, sees itself forced to reduce the number of issues per year.

So you can't keep going like this, but that's how we thought we'd start, says editor Ann Ighe – who thinks the government doesn't seem to see the value of the magazine as an art form.

It's a point that some texts don't come in the shortest clickable format. A democracy and a language area need that.

Håkan Trygger also emphasizes that the government's "minimal savings" are damaging an entire system. Partly, magazines are nurseries for authors. Aiolos also translates texts into Swedish used at universities, he points out.

Swedish is a small language, and if we don't continue to produce text and make translations, the language will lose power.

Seeking money

At the Norrland literary magazine Provins, they have instead chosen to abandon all outward-facing work and reduced the print run. The demand for the magazine is now greater than the number of issues they can afford to print.

Right now, we're one of the few operations that cover Norrland, many cultural pages have been shut down. We've made a big double issue about Tornedalian, Kven, and Lantalaiska artists, where else can you read about such things in magazines? says Elin Persson, author and editor.

Provins, like many magazines, has sought money elsewhere – but then you usually only get funding for individual projects, says Elin Persson.