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Per Axel Koch

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Per Axel Koch
BornJanuary 29, 1961 (age 65)
Farsund, Norway
NationalityNorwegian
EducationNorwegian School of Economics (siviløkonom, 1985; Høyere Avdeling, 1987)
OccupationMedia executive
CompanyPolaris Media
TitleChief Executive Officer, Polaris Media ASA

Per Axel Koch (born January 29, 1961) is a Norwegian media executive who has been chief executive officer (konsernsjef) of Polaris Media ASA, the Trondheim-based newspaper, printing and distribution group, since the company was formed in 2008.[1] Before that he spent 17 years in senior management at Adresseavisen, the regional newspaper in Trondheim, serving as its managing director from 1996 and as group chief executive of Adresseavisen ASA from 2007 until the merger that created Polaris Media.[2]

Store norske leksikon, the Norwegian national encyclopedia, describes Koch as a media executive and "newspaper strategist" and credits him as one of the initiators behind Polaris Media, which was formed when the Adresseavisen group joined with the Harstad Tidende group.[1] Under his leadership the group grew from a company concentrated in Central and Northern Norway into a Scandinavian group, with acquisitions in southern and western Norway and, from 2019, control of the Swedish publisher Stampen Media, owner of Göteborgs-Posten.[3] In 2024 Polaris Media sold its 9.99 percent stake in the classified advertising business FINN.no to Schibsted for NOK 2.5 billion, paid in Schibsted shares, and over the following two years turned that holding into cash, an extraordinary dividend and the repayment of almost all long-term bank debt.[4]

The chair of Polaris Media, Stig Eide Sivertsen, has described Koch as the longest-serving chief executive of any large Norwegian media group.[5] On June 3, 2026, Koch told the board that he wished to step down as chief executive within the following 12 months, and the board began recruiting a successor. As of October 2026 no successor had been announced and Koch remained in post.[5][6]

Alongside his executive role, Koch has held a series of board chairmanships in Trøndelag business and public life. He chaired the savings bank SpareBank 1 SMN from 2001 to 2013, the public transport authority AtB from 2016 to 2023 and the energy retailer Fjordkraft from 2018 to 2021. In January 2026 the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services appointed him chair of the regional health authority Helse Midt-Norge.[2][7]

Early life and education

Koch was born on January 29, 1961, in Farsund, a coastal town in the south of Norway.[1] He studied business economics at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) in Bergen, graduating as a siviløkonom in 1985. He then completed the school's advanced programme, Høyere Avdeling, from 1985 to 1987.[1][2]

After graduating in 1985 he worked as a research fellow and project consultant at the shipping group Wilh. Wilhelmsen. Store norske leksikon and the company's management page date that position from 1985 to 1988, while Polaris Media's 2025 annual report gives 1985 to 1987.[1][8] He then worked as a consultant at the management consultancy McKinsey & Company until 1991.[1][8]

Career

Adresseavisen, 1991 to 2008

Koch moved into the newspaper industry in 1991, when he was hired as a director at Adresseavisen in Trondheim.[1] He was deputy managing director from 1993 to 1995 and became managing director (administrerende direktør) in 1996, a role he held until 2006. In 2007 he became group chief executive (konsernsjef) of Adresseavisen ASA, and he held that post until 2008.[1][2]

Formation of Polaris Media, 2008

Polaris Media ASA was established on October 20, 2008, as a listed media group with roots going back to the first issue of Adresseavisen in 1767.[3] Koch, as group chief executive of Adresseavisen, was one of the initiators of the merger with the Harstad Tidende group, which produced a company covering about 40 local and regional media houses from Nordfjord to Finnmark.[1] He became chief executive of the new company from its start in 2008.[2]

The group's subsidiary register shows that the core businesses, including Adresseavisen AS, Harstad Tidende AS, iTromsø, Folkebladet and the Polaris Trykk printing operations, were consolidated from October 1, 2008.[3] Tove Nedreberg, who had been Adresseavisen's deputy managing director from 2003, became managing director of Adresseavisen and Polaris Media Midt-Norge in 2008 and serves as Koch's deputy as group chief executive.[2]

Expansion in Norway and Sweden, 2019 to 2022

In April 2019, under Koch, the group took a stake in Stampen Media AB of Gothenburg, publisher of Göteborgs-Posten, through the holding company PNV Media AB, which it controlled with 70 percent. Stampen Media appears in the group's subsidiary list from April 25, 2019.[3] On April 6, 2021, PNV Media exercised its option against Stampen's minority shareholders, which raised its holding in Stampen Media AB from 51 percent to 99.99 percent.[3]

On September 19, 2019, the group and Agderposten Medier agreed to create a new regional media group in Agder, with effect from January 1, 2020. The group would own 51 percent of the new company, Polaris Media Agder AS, after buying Schibsted's media houses and distribution business in Vest-Agder, including Fædrelandsvennen, and combining them with Agderposten Medier's media division. The nine media houses involved had a combined circulation of 107,000 in 2018, and the businesses had combined revenue of NOK 670 million that year.[9] The company, later renamed Polaris Media Sør, extended Koch's group into southern Norway. Store norske leksikon records that its nine media houses became part of the group from 2020.[1] On August 24, 2022, the group took its holding in Polaris Media Sør from 51 percent to 65 percent when the minority shareholders exercised an option covering 14 percent of the shares.[3]

The group kept adding smaller local titles. Its 2022 annual report records the purchase of the local media houses Gauldalsposten and Marsteinen and of 51 percent of Klæbuposten that year.[3] By the end of 2022 the group counted 76 media houses, up from 64 a year earlier, together with seven printing plants and six distribution companies.[3] In his letter for 2022 Koch warned that conditions in 2023 were likely to be more demanding than in previous years and that the group would have to cut costs while trying to increase advertising and subscription revenue.[3]

FINN sale and capital returns, 2024 to 2026

In May 2024, with Koch as chief executive, the group sold its 9.99 percent stake in FINN.no to Schibsted for NOK 2.5 billion, settled in Schibsted B shares. According to the company, taking payment in shares rather than cash was a deliberate decision.[4] In October 2024 the group sold 3,148,853 Schibsted B shares at NOK 321 each in an accelerated bookbuild managed by SEB, which left it with 4,881,426 shares, about 2.09 percent of Schibsted's share capital.[10] The board then proposed an extraordinary cash dividend of NOK 1 billion, about NOK 20.40 per share. Koch said the remaining holding gave the group "great financial flexibility" for strategic and operational development and that the group had strong faith in the continued development of Schibsted's marketplaces business, in which FINN held a leading position.[4]

On February 17, 2025, the group sold a further 1,663,122 Schibsted B shares at NOK 305.60 each, for about NOK 500 million, which reduced its holding to 3,218,304 shares.[11] The 2025 annual report describes that year's dividend, about NOK 1.1 billion in total, as the highest the company had ever paid. The report links it to the sale of shares in Vend Marketplaces ASA, the name under which Schibsted's marketplaces business was then listed.[8] In June 2026 the group sold its remaining Vend shares for net proceeds of NOK 759 million. The company said that the FINN investment had brought in almost NOK 3 billion in cash, counting the share sales and dividends received over the years it was held, and that the money had funded the extraordinary dividend, the repayment of all debt and the purchase of full ownership of Stampen Media.[6]

Restructuring in Sweden and later tenure, 2025 to 2026

On March 26 and July 23, 2025, the group bought 10 percent and 20 percent of PNV Media AB from Västerbottens-Kurirens Media AB and NWT Gruppen AB, for SEK 97.5 million and SEK 195 million respectively. After these purchases the group owned all of PNV Media and so all of Stampen Media.[8] In the third quarter of 2025, after weak results at Stampen in the first half of the year, the group carried out substantial cost reductions in the Swedish media houses and distribution business. The group's employee representative wrote in the annual report that Stampen cut a total of 68 full-time positions.[8] Koch called the measures "a necessary adjustment of the cost base in Stampen Media". Stampen's EBITDA rose from NOK 25 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 to NOK 50 million in the fourth quarter of 2025.[12]

In February 2026 the board of Stampen Media, which Koch chairs, appointed Christofer Ahlqvist, editor-in-chief of Göteborgs-Posten, as Stampen's managing director from August 15, 2026, succeeding Johan Hansson, who had led the company for more than nine years. Koch said that appointing an internal successor gave "stability, long-term thinking and clear direction" for Stampen Media, which he described as an increasingly important part of the group.[13]

On September 9, 2026, the remaining minority shareholders of Polaris Media Sør exercised put options on 12.5 percent of the shares, taking the group's holding from 87.5 percent to 100 percent. The group paid NOK 56.3 million, a price that valued the whole company at NOK 450.3 million. Speaking as chair of Polaris Media Sør, Koch said the group was "very well satisfied" with the company's development since 2020 and thanked the minority owners for the partnership.[14]

Planned departure

In the June 3, 2026, stock exchange announcement of his planned departure, Koch said he would turn 66 in 2027 and could look back on more than 30 years as a top executive in the Adresseavisen group and Polaris Media. He said it was time to hand over responsibility to someone else, but that he was "one hundred percent" committed to working fully until a new chief executive was in place. Sivertsen said Koch had been decisive for the group's success and had been entitled to retire on a pension since 2021.[5] The company published the notice as inside information under the EU Market Abuse Regulation.[5] As of October 2026 Koch was still listed as group chief executive on the company's website and was quoted in that role in the company's August and September 2026 announcements.[2][6][14]

Leadership and management style

The group's 2025 annual report describes a structure in which Koch and a ten-member group management team hold overall responsibility for ownership governance, group strategy and day-to-day operations. The business is organised in nine main subsidiaries, each with its own management and board. The operational heads of the main regional media groups and of Stampen Media sit on the group management team.[8] Koch chairs most of the main subsidiaries in the Norwegian part of the group and also chairs Stampen Media AB.[8] The company's 2022 corporate governance statement said that the group chief executive chairs the main subsidiaries and that group oversight is carried out largely through their board meetings.[3]

In his public statements on results, Koch has repeatedly identified digital subscription income as the main driver of the group's revenue. In August 2026 he said that growth in digital user revenue "is still the most important driver of revenue growth in the media houses" and that the group would continue to invest in journalism, technology and artificial intelligence.[6] In his letter for 2025 he wrote that artificial intelligence was being built into more and more functions, adding editorial capacity and making commercial work more efficient. He also presented the move from print to digital products as a central part of the group's climate transition, noting an 8 percent fall in the group's greenhouse gas emissions in 2025.[8]

Koch has also stressed cost control in the print and distribution businesses. In February 2026 he said that the group continually adjusted capacity and costs at its printing plants and distribution companies to stay profitable on paper products, and that print newspapers still made a significant contribution to group earnings.[12]

Major deals and strategic decisions

  • 2008: Co-initiated the merger of the Adresseavisen group and the Harstad Tidende group to form Polaris Media ASA, established on October 20, 2008.[1][3]
  • 2019: Entry into Sweden through PNV Media AB, 70 percent owned by Polaris Media, which took 51 percent of Stampen Media AB.[3]
  • 2019 to 2020: Agreement with Agderposten Medier to create Polaris Media Agder (later Polaris Media Sør), 51 percent owned by Polaris Media, combining Schibsted's former Vest-Agder titles with Agderposten Medier's media division.[9]
  • 2021: Option exercised to raise PNV Media's holding in Stampen Media AB to 99.99 percent.[3]
  • 2022: Holding in Polaris Media Sør raised to 65 percent; purchase of several local titles in Trøndelag and western Norway.[3]
  • 2024: Sale of the 9.99 percent stake in FINN.no to Schibsted for NOK 2.5 billion in Schibsted shares; sale of 3,148,853 Schibsted shares at NOK 321 each; proposed NOK 1 billion extraordinary dividend.[4][10]
  • 2025: Sale of a further 1,663,122 Schibsted shares for about NOK 500 million; purchase of the remaining 30 percent of PNV Media for a combined SEK 292.5 million; cost reductions at Stampen Media.[11][8]
  • 2026: Sale of the remaining Vend Marketplaces shares for net NOK 759 million; purchase of the remaining 12.5 percent of Polaris Media Sør for NOK 56.3 million.[6][14]

Financial and market performance

The group reported operating revenue of NOK 3.684 billion in 2021 and 3.630 billion in 2022. Adjusted EBITDA fell from NOK 460 million to 332 million over the same period, and the group employed an average of 1,767 full-time equivalents in 2022, excluding newspaper carriers.[3] In 2025 operating revenue was NOK 3.651 billion, compared with 3.598 billion in 2024. Adjusted EBITDA rose to NOK 310 million from 290 million, and the group employed an average of 1,787 full-time equivalents.[8]

The capital returns that followed the FINN sale reduced the size of the balance sheet. Between the end of 2024 and the end of 2025 the group's cash fell from NOK 1.283 billion to 348 million, total assets fell from NOK 5.712 billion to 3.994 billion and equity fell from NOK 3.692 billion to 2.064 billion. Interest-bearing debt stood at NOK 40 million at the end of 2025.[8] Earnings per share were NOK 13.83 in 2024 and 0.15 in 2025. The share price was NOK 84.00 at the end of 2024 and 54.50 at the end of 2025; payments to shareholders in 2025 included an additional dividend of NOK 20.40 per share.[8]

On the operating side, the group had 658,000 subscriptions at the end of 2025, of which 495,000 were digital-only.[8] In the second quarter of 2026 the group reported EBITDA of NOK 96 million, and first-half EBITDA of NOK 150 million, which the company called its strongest half-year result in several years. The group had 492,500 digital-only subscriptions at the end of June 2026, 77 percent of its subscription base.[6]

Compensation

The company's remuneration reports show Koch's total pay, including performance-based pay, as NOK 5.177 million in 2019, 3.975 million in 2020, 5.435 million in 2021, 4.594 million in 2022 and 4.883 million in 2023.[15] The group management earned no performance-based pay for 2022 or 2023. Under the scheme in place for 2023, Koch's bonus could reach 30 percent of base salary, based 75 percent on group EBITDA and 25 percent on digital measures including subscriber numbers and digital revenue.[15] His total remuneration was NOK 6.171 million in 2024, including NOK 1.463 million in performance-based pay, and NOK 5.190 million in 2025, including a base salary of NOK 4.053 million.[8]

Koch held 157,593 shares in Polaris Media at the end of 2025, up from 157,086 at the end of 2023, after small annual purchases.[8][15]

Board memberships and outside roles

Koch's board roles have been concentrated in Trøndelag business, public services and culture:

  • SpareBank 1 SMN: chair of the board from 2001 to 2013.[1][2]
  • AtB: chair from 2016 to 2023 of the county-owned public transport company in Trøndelag.[1][2]
  • Fjordkraft: chair from 2018 to 2021.[2]
  • Helse Midt-Norge RHF: chair since 2026. On January 9, 2026, the Ministry of Health and Care Services appointed a new board for the regional health authority for the period 2026 to 2028, with Koch as chair and Bjørn Haugstad as deputy chair.[7] On his appointment Koch said the authority had been through a demanding period with the pandemic and then the introduction of a new medical records system. He said he wanted it to deliver good patient treatment, be an attractive workplace, have a sustainable economy and "be at the front" in digitalising the health service.[7]
  • Trønder-Avisa: deputy chair. The group is a shareholder in the newspaper.[8] Store norske leksikon earlier listed him as a board member of Trønder-Avisa and of FINN.no.[1]
  • Kolstad Håndball: deputy chair of the handball club.[8]
  • Midt-Norsk Jazzsenter: chair. Store norske leksikon also lists him as a board member of Norsk Jazzforum.[1][8]

Within the group Koch chairs most of the main subsidiaries, including Polaris Media Sør, as well as Stampen Media AB.[8][14]

Personal life

Altinget reported in January 2026 that Koch lives in Trondheim.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 <ref>Olav Garvik."Per Axel Koch".Store norske leksikon.April 21, 2023.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 <ref>"Konsernledelsen i Polaris Media".Polaris Media ASA.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 <ref>"Årsrapport Polaris Media ASA 2022".Polaris Media ASA, via Euronext.March 22, 2023.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 <ref>"Polaris Media ASA (POL): Foreslått ekstraordinært kontantutbytte på 1 milliard kroner".Polaris Media ASA, via MFN.November 6, 2024.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 <ref>"Per Axel Koch varsler planlagt fratreden som konsernsjef i Polaris Media".Polaris Media ASA, via Placera.June 3, 2026.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 <ref>"2. kvartal 2026: Sterk resultatvekst for Polaris Media i andre kvartal".Polaris Media ASA, via MFN.August 14, 2026.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 <ref>Ulrik Øen Johnsen."Per Axel Koch ny styreleder i Helse Midt-Norge".January 9, 2026.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  8. ↑ 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 8.11 8.12 8.13 8.14 8.15 8.16 8.17 8.18 <ref>"Årsrapport 2025".Polaris Media ASA.2026.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 <ref>"Polaris Media vil sammen med Agderposten Medier etablere et nytt regionalt mediehuskonsern i Agder".Polaris Media ASA.September 19, 2019.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 <ref>"Polaris Media ASA (POL): Successful completion of secondary placement of existing shares in Schibsted ASA".Polaris Media ASA, via MFN.October 29, 2024.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 <ref>"Polaris Media ASA (POL): Notice of transaction".Polaris Media ASA, via MFN.February 17, 2025.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 <ref>"4. kvartal 2025: Sterk resultatforbedring for Polaris Media".Polaris Media ASA, via MFN.February 12, 2026.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  13. ↑ <ref>"Sjefredaktør i Göteborgs-Posten blir Stampen Medias nye administrerende direktør".Polaris Media ASA, via MFN.February 27, 2026.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 <ref>"Polaris Media ASA (POL): Polaris Media kjøper seg opp til 100 % eierandel i Polaris Media Sør".Polaris Media ASA, via Placera.September 9, 2026.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 <ref>"Sak 5: Godtgjørelse til ledende personer og styret".Polaris Media ASA.April 2024.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
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