There is much at stake in the North Atlantic & Arctic region. For those living there and those already connected or wanting to be connected to its emerging opportunities or those needing to react to the effects climate change is having in the North Atlantic. Journal of the North Atlantic & Arctic, JONAA, is set up to become a powerful tool for global stakeholders needing to know and understand the commercial, industrial, political, cultural, economical and ecological landscape of our JONAA defined North Atlantic and largely Arctic region. And for local stakeholders, communities, countries, businesses and people of the North Atlantic to communicate, cooperate and join hands in seeking a sustainable future for the region.
Climate change has been the catalyst for an unprecedented shift in practices, politics, procedures and power games in the North Atlantic. Nowhere on earth are such tangible changes to be seen at such rate, and until now, no one entity has sought to provide a channel dedicated to the region and the unfolding challenges – and opportunities – that these changes will bring to its people, businesses, culture, government, nature and remote communities.
JONAA will be this channel. An online media and information powerhouse with detailed, localized information, accurate news, trusted data, analysis and transparent opinion – enhanced with descriptive, original imagery.
The JONAA defined region is one of small countries and communities that have all developed from the closeness to the North Atlantic’s wealthy waters. It is the all important gateway to the Arctic and the region where future High North activities are largely planned or are already happening.
The JONAA region is Northern and coastal Norway, Svalbard, The Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Maine, Nunavut, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland-Labrador, Scotland, Shetland Islands, Orkney Islands, Denmark and Northern Germany – 9 countries, 8 official languages, and some 13m inhabitants scattered in small communities over 5.000.000 square km. A non-conflict zone of abundant natural resources of energy and minerals and some of the world’s riches fishing grounds. Communities sharing generally good standards of living and democratic governance.
The editorial team is based throughout this area. Journalists, photojournalists, specialized writers in business, policy, science, culture and travel, with inside access, local understanding and first hand knowledge of the local “why, who, how, where and when.” Our editorial strength and credibility lies in this unique access to accurate and important information from local stakeholders which will both deepen debate within the North Atlantic community, and connect this community with the rest of the world.
JONAA’s vision is to bring this region of changing environmental and geopolitical importance closer to the rest of the world, providing details and insight for a better regional and global understanding, strengthening the region specific media flow by bringing together the voices of different communities who collectively face unprecedented potentially prosperous global interest and at the same time potentially damaging changes that may disrupt their fragile societies.
JONAA will provide insight into ways of living, structure of societies and cultures and cast new light to challenges and changing infrastructures – with the pulse on current affairs, new opportunities and future prospects. It will carry the voices of local people and leaders and be a unique one-stop hub of detailed and constant free-of-charge flow of information in English for both the regional and global community with stakes in the North Atlantic and its future.
“Global understanding of the gravity of changes occurring in the North Atlantic and Arctic regions and their abrupt impacts on the world’s environment and economies will require dialogue, cooperation and that stories be told—from the source.
In Maine, Arctic change will have a direct impact on Maine’s economy, coastline and natural resources. JONAA will be the multifaceted net that connects us with real-time, authentic coverage to inform decisions that will impact our future, and will help us develop deeper connections with our North Atlantic partners.”
Dana Eidsness, Director MENADO and chairman of the advisory board of the Journal of the North Atlantic & Arctic, JONAA
“I’m honoured to be included on this board, and hope I will be able to link top Scottish expertise with interested parties based in our North Atlantic neighbourhood.
We have world-class experts in many sectors – oil and gas, renewables, aquaculture – and this knowledge could be better shared with those with similar industries to us.
It is a two way street, however, and I am looking forward to learning more about what is going on in these other states to take their best practice back with me to Scotland.”
Alyn Smith, MEP SNP and member of the advisory board of the Journal of the North Atlantic & Arctic, JONAA
Dana Eidsness
Chairman. Director Maine North Atlantic Development Office (MENADO) at Maine International Trade Center
Inga Dora Markussen
General Secretary of West Nordic Council
Kuupik Kleist
Former Prime minister of Greenland
Hakun Jogvanson Djurhus
Head of EU-EFTA-NORDIC affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Faroe Islands
Paul Andrew Mayewski
Explorer, Glaciologist, Climate Scientist, Director & Distinguished Professor, Climate Change Institute, University of Maine
Okalik Eegeesiak
Chairman of the ICC, Inuit Circumpolar Council
Alyn Smith
Scottish National Party Member of the European Parliament for Scotland
Graham Hogg
Director of Lateral North, Scotland
Helge M. Markusson
Outreach Coordinator
FRAM – High North Research Centre for Climate and the Environment, Tromsö
Tina Jensen
Head of the Business Development Office at the Ministry of Industry in Greenland
John Henshaw
Director of Maine Port Authorities
Adrian P. Kendall
Laywer and Honorary Consul of the Fed. Republic of Germany to Maine
Darlene Trew Crist
Director of Communications, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, Maine
Nils Arne Johnsen
Ramboll Arctic Director, Tromsø
JONAA is developed to be a leader in creating awareness about the diverse North Atlantic and Arctic issues that matter: Climate, Business, Culture, Ecology, Infrastructure and Economy. This will be done through several ” JONAA Matters”, extensive multimedia series of important issues such as Energy Matters, Marine Matters, Indigenous Matters, Infrastructure Matters, Food Matters, Technology Matters and Travel Matters, to give examples of JONAA’s many multileveled and subsectional Matters .
JONAA will provide essential information and professional knowledge about what is happening in the region, the visions, needs and interests of local communities as well as providing an overview of new operations in the making and who is involved.
JONAA will serve a wide audience, including the general public, specific business and industry, administration, NGO’s and governments. Using outstanding journalism, descriptive visuals and professional monitoring, it will unite and complement existing, but scattered, multilingual media and information portals from across the region, giving the people of the North Atlantic a venue for a united voice, a forum for discussion and a platform to truly see and understand what is important to North Atlantic neighbours, and why?
JONAA is neither an investigative magazine nor a traditional news portal, but a unique digital information platform to bring this region of changing environmental and geopolitical importance closer to the rest of the world. It is a tool for strengthening media flow throughout the region by bringing together the voices concerned with different interests and visions for a more positive future.
JONAA will provide through the numerous issue-specific JONAA Matters, insight into ways of living and structure of cultures and societies, casting new light to challenges, technical development and changing infrastructures, with the pulse on current affairs, new opportunities and future prospects.
JONAA’s journalism will consist of interconnecting multimedia platforms; articles, interviews, photo-stories, analyses, special reports, short films, info-graphics and discussions – all contributing to give readers a holistic and balanced view of the issues and topics covered.
JONAA’s trademark will be its use of high quality visual multimedia information from the award winning photographers, designers and writers on the JONAA team.
The strength of JONAA lies within the network of professionals forming the group behind the project. Professionals in journalism, analysis, editing, monitoring, print and online media production, TV reporting, moderating marketing and IT production – and professionals in photography, graphic design, documentation, film production, visual arts and photojournalism. This pool of diverse international expertise is the hard substance of the Journal of the North Atlantic & Arctic, JONAA.
Our diverse academic backgrounds strengthen the team further: business, strategy, tourism, media, political science, anthropology, economics, law, oceanology, management, philosophy, design, arts, marine science, programming, music, culture, cartography, marketing, photography and history. With years of collective experience in the North, the JONAA team shares a passion for high quality journalism and visual documentation.
We believe that working together across borders brings better results and we want to show our part of the planet as it is with accuracy and transparency. Previous work connections within this group are the backbone of the project, where talent, trust, experience, work ethics, expertise and interests all combines to make JONAA the unique media resource we want it to be.
The High North has been our common work space for the past decades and our network covers the whole JONAA defined North Atlantic region. Within JONAA’s growing editorial group are 10 nationalities and we speak all local languages, in addition to several others e.g. Chinese and Russian. We share vast experiences of reporting, monitoring and documenting about our region from different perspectives – culturally, journalistically, politically and commercially.
19 years as specialised arctic media producer for film, television and print, mainly in Greenland. Brief overview of past work includes magazine editing (in-chief); Commercial production: Scriptwriting for film/television, feature films and documentaries (e.g. Story of a Child, Mother´s courage: Talking back to autism); Photo-book editing (e.g. Ammassalik, A Jewel in the Arctic Crown, Thomasine’s Verden); Commercial production (several international productions filmed in Greenland); Photographic artwork e.g. owned by Reykjavik City Museum; Production of promotional material (Greenland tourism, Össur prosthetics; Motorsport management in Formula3; Consultancy on Greenland business and culture; Cultural Production and publication for Ursus Parvus (e.g. Cultural Event of the Nordic Countries, The Wandering Drumdancer).
Vilborg Einarsdottir is one of two Editors-in-Chief of the Jewels of the North Atlantic & Arctic, JoNAA.
Contact information: vilborg.einarsdottir@jonamagazine.com / +354 866 7192
Strong international experience e.g. as reporter/correspondent in central and eastern Europe; Associate editor (Hospodarske Noviny, HN, in Prague delegated by Handelsblatt and the Wall Street Journal, Europe); Head of Publishing central/eastern Europe for Handelsblatt publishing group, co-managing a network of media outlets, launch and relaunch of news portals Co-founder of euractiv.de, initiator and head of dpa Insight EU and its issue monitoring services at Deutsche Press Agentur.
Lecturer e.g. on Business journalism and European public affairs; Expert for Innovation Media Consultants in Russia; Consultant for several German and international publications on digital content development: Specialised in EU data and document scraping and aggregation.
Joachim Weidemann is JoNAA’s Editor of European Affairs and Business and Director of JoNAA’s Monitoring
Contact information: joachim.weidemann@jonamagazine.com / +49 175 292 5775
Specialized in planning, structure, budgeting, documentation and overall project execution. Past work incl. Freelance magazine journalist; President of Production department, Icelandic Film School; Cultural producer of Official Cultural Event of the Nordic Countries; Founder and partner in Cultural Production Houses Ursus Parvus and Vintage Pictures.
Hlín Johannesdóttir is the Managing Editor for the Jewels of the North Atlantic & Arctic, JoNAA.
Contact information: hlin.johannesdottir@jonamagazine.com / +354 695 4230
In addition to this, in 2006 Mark founded a live entertainment business in the US which now has a permanent sell out show at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas as well as two more international touring productions. Mark also directs short films and was recently awarded a Red Dot Design Award and nominations for both the Design And Art Director’s (D&AD) and European Drone Film Festival Awards.
Since arriving in Hong Kong Mark has established a property development partnership that is spearheading efforts to revitalize and renovate old residential apartment buildings. Mark Cumming is JoNAA’s head of business development as well as being in charge of presenting the project to Asian companies and institutions with stakes in the North Atlantic region.
Contact information: mark.cumming@jonamagazine.com / +85 295 39 4494
His photojournalism has cast a global spotlight on the lives of people in the Arctic and challenges facing the cultures of the High North for reasons originating in Climate Change. Same focus is in his major photography books: Faces of the North (2004), Last Days of the Arctic (2010) and Behind the Mountains (2013).
In 2011 a documentary on his work was released, Last Days of the Arctic- – Capturing the Faces of the North, produced by BBC4, NDR, ARTE and ITVS.
Jesper is based in Copenhagen, works with JoNAA’s business development and is in charge of JoNAA’s interests in Denmark and the Nordic region.
Contact information: jesper.brask.fischer@jonamagazine.com
For the past eight years she worked for NBC owned New England Cable News as a general assignment reporter covering Maine. Many of her stories focus on the natural resources that drive Maine’s economy including fishing and tourism and the impact climate change is having on the coastal regions of North America’s east coast.
Marnie Maclean is the sectional editor for Maine for the Jewels of the North Atlantic & Arctic, JoNAA.
Contact information: marnie.maclean@jonamagazine.com / +1 207 310 0184
Hansen is well known for her journalistic work on the circumpolar indigenous Arctic, has traveled widely throughout the region, speaks the languages and has specialised in writing about Indigenous cultures and affairs. Advisor on indigenous culture and knowledge in face of the modern challenges of economic development and climate change in the Arctic for Anvio Research.
Inga Hansen is the editor of Indigenous Matters of the Jewels of the North Atlantic & Arctic, JoNAA.
Contact information: inga.hansen@jonamagazine.com / +299 221052
From early on his work and visual story telling has been heavily influenced by his studies in Geography and Marine Science at the University of Glasgow, landing his pictures on prestigious lists such as, “Time Magazine’s pictures of the Year 2000” and “Life Magazine Year in Pictures 2001”.
John Cunningham is the Marine Science Editor of the Jewels of the North Atlantic & Arctic and a content contributor for written material and photography alike.
Contact information: john.cunningham@jonamagazine.com / +44 771 777 7299
Contact information: larus.isfeld@jonamagazine.com / +1 516 602 1162
With a keen interest in environmental and natural history stories, he also enjoys capturing images of human stories in indigenous communities across the Arctic.
Adventures have included crossing the North Atlantic by ship to follow the Norse migration from Europe to North America, as well as an two year project to capture the intimate story of a polar bear mother raising her cubs for National Geographic.
Contact information: david.wright@jonamagazine.com
His career spanned years working full time with the Herald, Evening Times and Sunday Herald across a broad spectrum of news, features, sport arts, and environmental portraiture.”This career has granted me access to other people’s life’s, projects and challenges both at community and international level, which has been both humbling and enriching.”
Marc has specialised in photographing in the environment where the subjects are, rather than in a studio and his passion for photography in the fields of conservation, sailing, water sports and artistic composition of marine seascapes, has has led to a successful career in freelance photography and photo storytelling through his company PFM Pictures in Scotland.
Contact information: marc.turner@jonamagazine.com
Contact information: tom.morton@jonamagazine.com
Stein has worked in journalism and Norwegian media for some 30 years, e.g. as a journalist with VG, Nordlys and Blikk. He has worked for the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as the main political media advisor for the City Council (Byrådet) in Tromsø. Stein was the head of media information at The Sami National Theatre Beaivváš in Kautokeino and currently holds the same position at the Hålogaland Teater – The Arctic Theatre in Tromsø. Since 2015 he has also been the festival director of the Tromsø Arctic Pride.He is an avid traveller, and has visited most corners of the world, with special emphasis on Latin America. He also works as a freelance translator from English and Spanish.
Contact information: kerri.arsenault@jonamagazine.com
Contact information: patrick.arnold@jonamagazine.com
David is a frequent contributor to Huffington Post where he writes about entrepreneurship, marketing strategy, and his Mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s.
Contact information: david.pride@jonamagazine.com
Living for the past 5 years in Tromsö, North Norway, Linnea is a bi-lingual dual-citizen of the US and Swedish speaking Finland with a BSc from the University of Helsinki in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and a minor in Journalism. She is currently completing a MSc in Science Communication and Public Engagement at the University of Edinburgh. Linnea has held a position at the Arctic Council Secretariat in Tromsö since 2011 with focus on communications, their website and photography and has traveled widely around the Arctic. Her focus and goal is to communicate fascinating science to a wider audience, in the hopes that this will inspire new solutions to keep the Arctic a beautiful and safe place for both wildlife and humans to live.
Contact information: linnea.nordstrom@jonamagazine.com
Contact information: nina.jul.larsen@jonamagazine.com
Contact information: justin.levesque@jonamagazine.com
JONAA is funded through different levels of transparent sponsorship and sponsor visibility – not by traditional advertising. The project has been developed on solid belief that within the North Atlantic community – and globally, there are many who share our vision of economical and ecological improvement and prosperity by strengthening communication, flow of information and cooperation on all levels of business, environment and societies – and are willing to join us and support in making that vision become a reality.
Sponsors who believe that having access to and sharing accurate, transparent and localized information is the way to move forward towards a sustainable future for the world’s ecology, business, economy and people.
JONAA has a registered presence, legal representation and certified auditors on both sides of the North Atlantic. Finances of the project are transparent and audited annual reports accessible to founding sponsors, funding institutions and those investing JONAA’s Gold, Silver and Bronze sponsorship packages.
The project also has professional representation and dedicated members of the editorial and marketing team based outside of the region, covering business and media and overseeing sponsor relations in countries with an interest, agenda and established or planned business presence in the Arctic and especially in the North Atlantic. Such representation is established in Brussels, Belgium, focusing on EU affairs impacting on the North Atlantic region on any level. Likewise, JONAA has professional media and business presence in Asia and in the US.
Our mission is to create a unique media and information platform made possible by the support of a community of sponsors who uphold a long term vision for a sustainable future of the region, understand that their activities have an impact on the people,communities and the environment where they operate – and sponsors who demonstrate their corporate social responsibility with a broad set of investments criteria that includes environmental, social and governance considerations.
In accordance with JONAA’s mission of strengthening North Atlantic communication and cooperation the JONAA team is open to cooperation, suggestions and support in covering specific issues and unafraid of sharing expertise and information. But in all coverage JONAA upholds highest journalistic ethics, strives to expand discussions to include all sides and respects sources. JONAA maintains journalistic independence with the transparent business model, meaning that we do not privilege views from any sponsor and it is very clear to readers who JONAA’s sponsors are.
Becoming a JONAA sponsor is an investment for public institutions and private entities, saving valuable time in monitoring news, policy and legislation progress and for companies and cooperations to establish valuable presence and visibility in the Arctic community, with unprecedented access to networking and matchmaking opportunities in the remote regions of the North Atlantic. Sponsorship is threefold:
Founding Sponsors are companies, organizations and institutions that fund the media and technical work through the final development period prior to JONAA’s launch in late 2016. Founding sponsorship can be private or public, channeled towards specific series and topics or the project as a whole. Founding sponsors have permanent visibility within JONAA and play an important role in the shaping of the project from the beginning.
Fundraising through grants. The JONAA business model allows for sponsorship and grants from public and private foundations both through the projects development period and after launch.
Gold, Silver and Bronze sponsorship packages. Once JONAA is launched, annual operating budgets will be largely covered by Gold, Silver and Bronze Sponsor packages & Series Section Supporters packages. Packages are for 12 month sponsorship, offering a range of benefits such as special reports, strong visibility in sponsor selected “JONAA Matters”, as our fifteen main multileveled topic series are called, access to the North Atlantic Map of Productivity, moderated video discussions, consultation and more.
JONAA Journal of the North Atlantic & Arctic
Head office: Armuli 20, 108 Reykjavik, Iceland
mailto:vilborg@jonaa.org
Contact numbers:
+354 866 7192 / Iceland
+49 175 292 5775 / Germany
+85 295 39 4494 / Asia
+1 207 310 0184 / Maine
+44 771 777 7299 / Scotland
+298 220 382 / Faroe Islands