This article compares systems of journalism education in the Nordic countries, focusing on how education programmes for journalists first emerged. The theoretical perspectiveof the sociology of journalism education used by sociologist Margaret Archer, who viewsnational educational systems as always being shaped through a struggle between interest groups. The questions are when education programmes for journalists were founded, who initiated them and how the process of founding schools and programmes progressed. In addition to these questions, the article discusses the emergence of journalism educationin relation to the party press system and to the process of professionalisation. Theres pective developments of journalism education in the Nordic countries emerged in similar patterns. The apprentice system was, at first, combined with short courses arranged by press organisations, and then step-by-step replaced by journalism schools. In this process, the press organisations lost control over journalism education, even if theytried to maintain control through independent schools or through cooperation with universities. The mix of subjects in the journalist training curriculum has been discussedin all countries, centred on the balance between theoretical and vocational subjects.