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BEHIND THE NEWS
A News Commentary Service Published by Ramm Kommunikasjon
HOW IT WORKS
WHAT IT IS
"Behind The News" (BTN) is a news
analysis and commentary service - not a news digest.
The idea is to comment and analyze current events related to the petroleum and energy business in Norway and in Norwegian politics as they happen, and where possible and relevant, add additional
information not provided by the main news sources. In particular, I go deeply into relevant studies and reports from the Government, business organisations and the academic community. Go to lists over all back issues with headlines from this open page.
WHAT YOU
GET
When there is something to analyze or
comment, you will receive an e-mail with a short summary of the
news or documents to be commented, followed by the commentary. Each issue includes links to
the original news sources or documents, in English
when available, otherwise in Norwegian. The commentaries come in two
channels, one Petroleum
Channel and one for Norwegian Politics, always in English. They do not follow any pre-determined schedule (events
never do), and could be frequent in some periods and infrequent
in others, but you are guaranteed at least 40 messages (both
channels together) in any six month subscription period.
A DATA BASE COVERING A DECADE
When you order a permanent subscription, I will give you user-ID and password to access the closed part of this website. Here you can browse or search through all back issues in full text since the beginning in August 1999 (total number 823 as of 5 June 2009). This is an extremely valuable data base for the relevant parts of Norwegian history for close to a decade, not available anywhere else.
WHY YOU
NEED IT
You need this service for your corporate planning in Norway; a country where business is strongly affected by politics. You also need it as an actor participating in the many processes within the business community and its cluster organisastions and institutions. What are the new strategic issues for the petrolem cluster during good times? Will the Norwegian petroleum cluster maintain its technological edge, and will the the supply industry reach its internationalisation targets? How well will the many new actors perform? What are the issues relating the the future of the large international companies at the NCS? How will Statoil adjust to its new dominating position after the merger? Will the State intervene more in Statoil's business activities? Will Statoil succeed with its internationalization strategy? Will other actors contribute to re-establish diversity? Will the supply industry maintain its innovative power, and will it continue to internationalize? How does ownership matter for the supply industry? What happens to emerging venture firms? What is "best practise" between customers and suppliers? How will business and oil price cycles affect the NCS? Will the industry get access to new northern acreage? Will the government follow up on its plans to develop "national strategies" for cluster industries, and what will they contain? Are framework conditions well designed for optimal E&P activities? Which way will the petroleum tax system develop? Will the Government reach its ambitions about developing new CO2 capture technology? Where is the world and Norway going on climate policies? How should the the petroleum industry meet the challenges from its green critics?
On the political scene, we follow in particular economic policies, industry policy, energy policy, regulative issues etc. We also follow the debate on new growth and innovation theory and policy, the debates about ownership and "active industry policy", and so on. Then there are many questions about the political development before and after this year's national election: Will the red-green coalition continue? Or will there be a clean Labour government, or some sort of non-socialist government? What will the different alternatives mean for the petroleum industry?
WHY YOU
NEED THIS SERVICE
To start with, there isn't any other. More
important, because it is completely independent, candid and
better than the media. Norwegian media have grown increasingly tabloid and
homogenous, and their perception of reality often influenced by
what is considered "politically correct" and convenient
for circulation.
WHY IT IS
SPECIAL
BTN is not written by a committee
with compromises and reservations, but by one individual
with a profiled view - myself. The "we" in the commentaries is the editorial "we" - it sounds too self-centered to use "I" in that context. And
BTN is not mainstream. I consider it to be more important to try to be right
than to be liked. It is not value-neutral, since only
zombies are void of values and opinions. It is objective
in the sense that I try my best to be loyal to reality, but not in the twarthed sense that all
opinions and perceptions are equally true or good.
WHY I
KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT
I have intimate knowledge of all relevant
institutions and relationships through more than 40
years of experience from Norwegian politics, public
administration, and the petroleum business. I have been a journalist
and an editor; a politician and a deputy minister; a small
business manager and a business consultant for most major
companies in the industry as well as the authorities and many business associations. Nobody else
can claim to be an insider from all these vantage points. You can
see my CV here. Better, contact your trusted business friends
in Norway.
HOW YOU
TRY IT
BTN is available for subscribers only, but
you can on request (send a
mail!) get a free trial
subscription for the period you need to test and decide. I
don't want any uninformed or impulsive sales. I want you to
realize that you like the service and need it before you pay.
Some do not like it - or me. That's fair enough. I
don't like everybody or everything either. And you don't
need something that tries to be everything to everybody.
HOW YOU
BUY IT
I'll invoice you when you are ready to make
a purchase. The price is NOK 11,200 (25% VAT added if invoice is paid from Norway) for six months, pre-paid (reasonable
after you have enjoyed a free trial subscription, OK?) which
includes all messages of both channels and access to the
closed web site. This is a company
subscription which is the only one available. It gives you
the right to redistribute as much as you like within your
corporation (at least 50% ownership both directions), world-wide. External Board Members can be included with a supplementary subscription of NOK 2,500.
CONFIDENTIALITY
By agreeing to a trial subscription or
purchasing a paid subscription, you commit yourself to treat the
messages as company confidential, that is, not to quote or
redistribute to persons not employed by the
subscriber. You are, however, allowed to recommend the service to
your business contacts and I won't object if you once in a while
extend the confidentiality for this purpose.
SECURITY
I have full virus protection, and have never encountered any virus problems. Your email address is safe, since all messages are emailed with a suppressed recipient list. Nobody else has access to the subscribers list, and I am not in the irresponsible business of selling addresses, to anyone. Dealing with me will definitely not cause any spamming. There is no advertisements in the mails or the website, not because I have objections to advertisements, but because I can't bother to sell them. Note that I occasionally encounter problems with subscribers' spam filters. Such problems are ususally dicovered and solved, but if I appear to be silent for too long, please take contact to check whether there might be a technical explanation.
FORMALITIES
I am not in the US, so I do not need long
pages of disclaimers, but it should be obvious that although I
have a pretty good record of analyzing future events, I can't be
responsible for whatever actions you undertake based on my advice.
Once you have agreed to a subscription, it will run until you
cancel, which means you are liable for a proportional share of
the subscription fee if you cancel after the renewal date. There
is no refund if you cancel in the middle of the period, but I will credit you in the next invoice if the number of messages falls short
of 40 per six months (or 80 for a 12-month subscription that also is available). Nothing is added for messages
above the guaranteed number. And, by the way, my one-person company Ramm Kommunikasjon is not a PR company, it is stricly about giving advice on strategy. I know the company name is misleading, I should have changed it many years ago, maybe I will some time.
CREDIT
I am a one-man company and
not a bank, so I am not in the business of giving credit. You are
expected to pay within
14 days after I have sent the invoice. I don't care whether
large corporations have a "policy of at least 30 days credit",
I do not and that's how the deal is, unless we have agreed
differently. On the other hand, I am very sloppy about sending reminders, I am often late with invoices, and I rarely bother to add anything for late payment. It is more interesting to write than to deal with all that paper work. That should make up for the 14 days. Thanks for understanding how it is to run a small business alone.
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Ramm Kommunikasjon, PO Box 104 Stovner, N-0913 Oslo, Norway.
Tel +47 21902000 or +47 92805015.
Email btn@getmail.no
This page last updated 5 June, 2009.