Vestkusten

{{Short description|Swedish-language American newspaper}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}

{{italic title}}{{Infobox newspaper

| name = Vestkusten

| type = Weekly newspaper

| founder = Johannes Telleen

| foundation = 1887

| language = Swedish

| ceased publication = 2007

| publishing_city = San Francisco, California, United States

| ISSN = 1073-6883

| free = https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=cl&cl=CL1&sp=VEST

}}

{{Lang|sv|Vestkusten}} was an originally Swedish-language newspaper, published in California from 1887 to 2007. It was founded as Ebenezer, a church news bulletin by Augustana Lutheran pastor Johannes Telleen, but it soon changed focus and became a newspaper after he gave it over to editor and typesetter Alrik G. Spencer.{{Cite book |title=Svenska män och kvinnor: biografisk uppslagsbok |volume=7 |pages=473 |language=sv |chapter=Telleen, Johannes |chapter-url=https://runeberg.org/smok/7/0523.html |via=Project Runeberg |access-date=2023-04-15 |archive-date=2023-01-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120231610/http://runeberg.org/smok/7/0523.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=Vestkusten |url=https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/swedishamerican/vestkusten |access-date=2022-05-26 |website=Minnesota Historical Society |archive-date=2023-04-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417094045/https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/swedishamerican/vestkusten |url-status=live }} For most of its run, it was a weekly newspaper published in San Francisco. It was primarily a local newspaper for Swedish Americans in northern California, but also contained news from the Swedish press in the form of special reports.

Swedish-Americans Ernst Skarstedt and {{Ill|Alexander Olsson|sv}} took over the newspaper in 1894, increasing its popularity.{{Cite journal |last=Thorsell |first=Elisabeth |date=2015-06-01 |title=Vestkusten is now digitized! |url=https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=swensonsag |journal=Swedish American Genealogist |volume=35 |issue=2}} After Olsson's death in the 1950s, it was run by writer Karin Person for some time; the association Friends of Vestkusten was founded in 1968 to keep it afloat when Person began to struggle.{{Cite journal |date=2007 |title= |journal=The Swedish-American Historical Quarterly |publisher=Swedish Pioneer Historical Society |volume=58–59 |pages=207–209}} More recently, the paper was owned and operated for many years by Swedish-American Barbro Sachs-Osher, who purchased it in 1991.

It has been digitized and is searchable on the Internet under CDNC – the California Digital Newspaper Collection – which also contains digitized versions of many other newspapers. The CDNC invites volunteers to proofread to correct conversion errors from scanning and digitizing.

At the time of its closure, {{Lang|sv|Vestkusten}} was incorporated into Nordstjernan, a newspaper with an editorial office in New York but with part of its circulation printed in California.{{Cite web |title=Nordstjernan |url=https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/swedishamerican/nordstjernan |access-date=2022-05-26 |website=Minnesota Historical Society |archive-date=2022-05-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526192613/https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/swedishamerican/nordstjernan |url-status=live }}