to have a row. But this did nothing to set Levin’s mind at ease. Once upon a time he and Blomkvist had both temped for Expressen. They mostly wrote quick news stories and a whole lot of rubbish.

n the easy life in the bars and the women, but the dreams – he missed the power in them. He sometimes longed for that throbbing urge to change society and jou

ad he bowed to pressure from the establishment or compromised his ideals, whereas Levin himself … Well, really he was the one with the big career, wasn’t he? He was probably making ten times as much as Blomkvist these days and that gave him an enormous amount of

himself, and that had changed his life and made him rich. Today he was the most senior journalist responsible for a whole series of newspaper houses and

hard for the group to buy a stake in Millennium. A little bird had told him that the magazine was up against it and that the editor-in-chief, Erika Berger,

e fresh

ner’s management was not enthusiastic, to put it mildly. On the contrary, people were heard to mutter that Millennium was o

uld give them something much greater, namely credibility. Right now, after the cutbacks and blood-letting, Serner’s reputation wasn’t exactly their prime asset. Taking a stake in Millennium would be a sign that the group did after all care abou

ed, well-written reportage, with Levin himself beaming like the sun and even taking part in a debate at the Writers’ Club,

firmament, Levin had rejoiced secretly whenever Blomkvist was sneered at in the media. This time, though, his joy did not last. Serner’s young son Thorvald became aware of the commot

ncouraged the C.E.O. – who until quite recently had not concerned himself with such trivial matters – to declare that Millenni

ere tied and he was forced to play some intricate games behind the scenes. He did everything he could to get Berger, Malin Eriksson and Christer Malm at the magazine to buy into

hat he meant by that. He only knew that to keep the directors happy he needed to get more glamour into the magazine and reduce the number of lengthy i

ts and ties which had become de rigueur at head office. He had instead opted for jeans, a white shirt and a dark-blue V-necked pullover which was not even cashmere. His long curly hair – which had always been h

or me personally it amounts to more even than that. It’s the commitment to magazines like Millennium which makes my job meaningful; it reminds me why I went into this profession in the fir

if he remembered. But Le

e murder in the middle of nowhere we would hire a helicopter and book an entire floor at the poshest hotel, and order champagne for the after party. You know, when I was about to go o

and it’s not easy these days to make a profit in journalism, not even if you have Sweden’s best editorial team, as you do. So I thought we should talk a little bit today about the challenges of the future. Not that I imagine for one moment that I can teach you anything. I’m just going to provide you with some con

axed and youthful, and whether he had started off in too chatty and jocular a vein. As Haakon Serner would say, “It is imposs