The article reviews the media policy objectives of the Norwegian state as they appear in earlier research (H. Østbye, 1988/1995; T. Syvertsen, 2004) and in the government’s own main media political documents. The review identifies 3 identical media policy value chains serving different societal purposes: politics, culture, and economics. Equipped with this analysis, the article challenges J. van Cuilenburg and D. McQuail’s (2003) theory of a media policy paradigm shift redefining the public interest from politics to economics, and comments on D. C. Hallin and P. Mancini’s (2004) models of media and politics, according to which Norway should be in transition from democratic corporatism to liberalism. Contrary to them, the article argues that the state has reinforced its political interpretation of the public interest, not despite the media having changed their own interests from politics to profit but precisely for that reason.