independent organization and many party members chose to quit AKP and concentrate on RV. Among these were several of those sympathetic to Allern's strategy, while the skepticism toward the editor in the rest-AKP became obvious. In 1995, Allern took the consequences of this and resigned. Paul Bjerke, who had been Allern's deputy, was appointed new editor. He had worked in the paper since 1982. His work style was very opposite to his predecessor's. In a portrait interview in 1997 with the headline "Mumble mumble" he described himself as "somewhat over the edge antisocial". Bjerke soon had to accept reductions in staff and number of pages. His proposed strategy was to meet the problems with expansion. This line was supported by Aksel Nærstad, who from late 1994 had been leading the company board. Nærstad argued that it would be possible to reach a circulation of 15,000 within few years, and that a capital increase of ten million NOK could be obtained provided AKP reduced its ownership. AKP considered these to be numbers without links to reality and instead suggested a discussion on what could be done to fulfill the paper's purpose and strengthen Klassekampen as a "revolutionary, radical, indignant on behalf of the poor, critical to the system and foresighted" newspaper. The national convention of AKP in May 1997 was positive to reducing the party's ownership, but also stated that changing the name or the purpose clause was unacceptable. Criticism of the paper did not only arise from the AKP leadership and cadre. In 1966, an internet forum named KK-forum was established by outsiders as an attempt on participatory democracy, but this was not welcomed by the paper and its staff, who mostly refused to participate in open polemics. Around the same time there was a notable change in Klassekampen's culture pages with more high-brow intellectual essays that seemed uninteresting and unavailable for the common reader. This led to heavy discussions. Early 1997 Nærstad and Bjerke chose – against AKP's will – to go public with their suggested strategy. This led to Nærstad being sacked as leader of the board, and also to discussions about Bjerke's position. During the spring and summer several initiatives were taken to solve the situation, but there was an increasing lack of confidence between the groups. In September 1997, parliamentary elections were due. For four years RV had had its first representative, Erling Folkvord, but polls