Olaf Gjerløw

Jens Olaf Gjerløw (20 March 1885 – 5 December 1949) was a Norwegian newspaper editor. He was editor for the newspaper Morgenbladet from 1920 until his death in 1949, except for a period in German prisons during World War II.

Career Gjerløw finished his secondary education in 1903, and graduated from the Royal Frederick University in 1909 with the cand.philol. degree. In 1910 he was hired in the conservative newspaper Fredrikstad Tilskuer. After half a year he was hired in Høires Pressekontor, a centralized office that helped conservative newspapers with articles. In 1916 he went on to be sub-editor in Morgenbladet, and in 1918 he became acting editor-in-chief, succeeding Carl Joachim Hambro. He was appointed editor for the newspaper in 1920, and remained editor until 1949, except for some years during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. He chaired the Conservative Press Association from 1925 to 1936. Following the milk strike in September 1941, he was arrested for "anti-German sentiments" and sentenced to fifteen years in jail. He was released, but kept under close scrutiny, and Morgenbladet was stopped between 1943 and 1945. Gjerløw was then editor again from 1945 to his death, when he was succeeded by Rolv Werner Erichsen.

He also wrote the conservative-tinted history work Norges politiske historie, released in three volumes between 1934 and 1936. After the war Gjerløw became less of a Conservative Party supporter; he advocated broad political cooperation and was against NATO membership. He died in December 1949 in Oslo.