Newspapers in Western and Northern Finland to collaborate more closely through Lännen Media

Alma Media Corporation         Press Release                5 February 2014, 9.00 a.m. (EET)
 

NEWSPAPERS IN WESTERN AND NORTHERN FINLAND TO COLLABORATE MORE CLOSELY THROUGH LÄNNEN MEDIA

Six Finnish newspaper publishers have signed a memorandum of understanding for a significant extension of their journalistic collaboration.

The newspapers Aamulehti, Satakunnan Kansa, Lapin Kansa, Kainuun Sanomat, Pohjolan Sanomat, Turun Sanomat, Kaleva, Ilkka, Pohjalainen, Hämeen Sanomat, Forssan Lehti and Keskipohjanmaa are planning to establish in 2014 a company called Lännen Media to provide shared content for all the participating newspapers.

If the collaboration plans materialise, Lännen Media will provide the domestic political, financial and societal news for the twelve participating papers. In addition, Lännen Media will provide news from abroad, weekend materials, theme pages and domestic online news.

Lännen Media would serve as a joint editorial team consisting of journalists around Finland. It would process the shared material ready for printing, and each individual newspaper would be able to focus its resources on strengthening its local contents and services. The joint team would be comprised of approximately 40 journalists.

At the same time, the participating papers in Lännen Media would increase their collaboration with regard to other journalistic content, design, product development and training. One of the most important objectives of Lännen Media would be to expedite the product development of digital content.

The establishment of Lännen Media is part of the newspaper publishers’ campaign to ensure the survival of high-quality newspaper media in Finland. According to the Editors-in-Chief, the deeper collaboration is a logical next step to follow the mutual journalistic cooperation which has been going on for a long time.

The total reach of the Lännen Media newspapers is nearly two million (1.933,000) Finns. The aggregate circulation of the printed newspapers is 542,783 (2013) and the number of readers 1.32 million.

The establishment of Lännen Media will have no direct impacts on employees of Alma Regional Media.

For more information, please contact:

Jouko Jokinen, Senior Editor-in-Chief of Aamulehti, tel. +358 (0)10 665 3100, jouko.jokinen@aamulehti.fi
Kari Vainio, Senior Editor-in-Chief of Turun Sanomat, tel. +358 (0)2 269 3266, kari.vainio@turunsanomat.fi
Markku Mantila, Senior Editor-in-Chief of Kaleva, tel. +358 50 311 7777, markku.mantila@kaleva.fi

Alma Media in brief

Alma Media is a media company focusing on digital services and publishing. In addition to news services, the company’s products provide useful information related to lifestyle, career and business development. The services of Alma Media have expanded from Finland to the Nordic countries, the Baltics and Central Europe. The company employs approximately 1,900 professionals (excluding distributors), of whom over 20% work outside Finland. Alma Media’s revenue in 2012 totalled approximately MEUR 320. Alma Media’s share is listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki. Read more at www.almamedia.com

Share article