Monday + Tuesday, 23-24 September
INMA’s European News Media Study Tours are the most popular in the media industry: an immersive, walking-talking experience that provides both knowledge and flavour that a conference stage (or a Zoom meeting) can’t. INMA also brings unique, expert-level moderation, distillation, insights, and community.
Since 2015, we have criss-crossed Europe, providing unique and deep experiences with 30+ professionals annually in Stockholm, Oslo, Hamburg, London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Antwerp. We aim to give media professionals a taste of Europe over time.
In 2024, we will dive into the Finnish media scene. While Norwegian and Swedish media companies are well-known for their digital excellence with media executives around the world, their Finnish counterparts are no less impressive. We’ll show you why during this study tour. But a quick search in INMA’s Best Practices Archive will give you some hints. We will visit all of Finland's leading media companies in a sustainable way, of course, just as the Finnish would have it: by train, tram, and on foot (umbrellas provided if need be).
Meet the group in the lobby of the Scandic Grand Central at 08:15 for a sharp 08:30 departure on foot. Bring your government-issued identification card and wear comfortable shoes.
A 700 m (9 minutes) walk from Scandic Grand Central to Alma Media.
Before we dive into Alma Media; you will get an overview of the Finnish Media market. To better understand the various companies we will be visiting over the next two days and how they relate to one another.
Alma News Media is the number one in journalistic news media in Finland. It is a pioneer in paid digital content and a market leader in the field of digital advertising. Alma News Media includes Finland’s largest digital news media Iltalehti, the leading financial news media Kauppalehti and seven other journalistic titles.
Alma News Media is the second largest segment of Alma Media in terms of net sales. News Media's revenue streams consists mainly of media content and advertising revenue. Digital media accounted for 57% of segment revenue in 2023. Content revenue accounted for 46% of the segment's net sales in 2023, bringing stability to net sales. Content revenue in the financial media today is almost entirely made up of recurring subscription revenue, while the share of single-digit sales is very small.
As a publicly listed company in Helsinki Stock Exchange, Alma Media has successfully implemented its digital transformation strategy for over 15 years already. The company has turned from a traditional local print media company to a profitable digital media and services company, operating in 12 countries, with 82% of its turnover today being digital.
And lastly, Alma Media has featured regularly in the Global Media Awards in recent years.
Walking instructions via Google maps and Apple maps.
Sanoma Media Finland is the leading Finnish cross-media company and a forerunner in the digital transformation of media. Sanoma reaches 97% of all Finns every week by providing trusted Finnish journalism and inspiring entertainment. Out of 2.7 million households, 900k pay for digital subscriptions. Sanoma’s flagship brands are Helsingin Sanomat and Ilta-Sanomat; whle other brands include Aamulehti, Me Naiset, Aku Ankka, Nelonen, Ruutu, Supla, and Radio Suomipop. Sanoma Media has also featured regularly in the Global Media Awards in recent years.
Walking instructions on Google maps and Apple maps.
Hufvudstadsbladet Ab — formerly known as KSF Media — is the leading Swedish-language media company in Finland and publisher of the country's largest Swedish-language daily Hufvudstadsbladet as well as the local newspapers Västra Nyland and Borgåbladet [note: reverting to its traditional name from Östnyland in April 2024]. In addition, the company publishes the news magazine for children, HBL Junior. Since July 2023 Hufvudstadsbladet Ab is part of the Swedish media group Bonnier and works in close cooperation with Stockholm-based Dagens Nyheter.
Over a well-deserved, end-of-day drink, we discuss and distill what we’ve learned during day one of the study tour.
Participants have the evening free to explore Helsinki.
Meet the group in the lobby of the Scandic Grand Central at 08:15 for a sharp 08:30 departure on foot. Bring your government-issued identification card and wear comfortable shoes.
We transfer by tram to Keskisuomalainen Media group.
Keskisuomalainen Group is a 152 years old Finnish media company with a range of 100 media around Finland, including the biggest local newspapers such as Keskisuomalainen, Savon Sanomat Sanomat and Etelä-Suomen Sanomat. Keskisuomalainen Group is also the leading publisher and distributor of local free newspapers in Finland such as Helsingin Uutiset, Länsiväylä and Vantaan Sanomat. In addition, it offers marketing communications, research, printing, and distribution services. It employs 5,000 professionals from various fields. Media group Keskisuomalainen's printed and digital newspapers, digital outdoor advertising, and radio reaches weekly 3.1 million Finns, in total 71 percent of the entire population. 2022 the company’s net sales totaled 221 million euros. Keskisuomalainen Group has grown strongly over the past 10 years. From 2010 to 2022, it has more than doubled its turnover. This growth has been based on company acquisitions in the field of local media. Digital transformation of local news media, developing new business concepts and scaling is in the focus of the company.
We take the tram to Yle. Instructions on Google maps.
Yleisradio Oy abbreviated as Yle – and pronounced Ule – and translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock company which is 99.98% owned by the Finnish state and employs around 3,200 people in Finland. Yle shares many of its organisational characteristics with its British counterpart, the BBC, on which it was largely modeled. It was one of the first to merge all of its various media-specific newsrooms into one multi-platform, digital newsroom. Timo Kämäräinen, executive online producer and responsible for growing audiences at Yle, will tell us that story. Yle has a status that could be described as that of a non-departmental public body. It is governed by a parliamentary governing council. Yle's turnover in 2010 was €398.4 million. In 2022, Yle's annual budget was about €560 million. Yle operates three national television channels, 13 radio channels and services, and 25 regional radio stations. As Finland is constitutionally bilingual—around 5.5% of the population speaks Swedish as their mother tongue—Yle provides radio and TV programming in Swedish through its Swedish-language department, Svenska Yle. As is customary in Finland, foreign films and TV programmes, (as well as segments of local programmes that feature foreign language content, like news reports) are generally subtitled on Yle's channels.
We take the tram to MTV. Instructions on Google maps.
MTV Oy (formerly Oy Mainos-TV-Reklam Ab) is a Finnish media company owned by Telia Company through TV4 Media (formerly known as Bonnier Broadcasting). The company owns the largest commercial television channel in Finland, MTV3. In 2018, Telia Company announced the acquisition proposal of the Bonnier Broadcasting, which includes this company, for 9.2 billion SEK (roughly US$1 billion).
We transfer back to Scandic Grand Central Hotel by Tram (Tram 9).
Get a debrief of the past two days and discuss the visits with fellow participants over a drink at the Scandic Grand Central Hotel.
Tom Corbett
Head of European Division
Antwerp, Belgium
Dutch, English
Tel.: +32 486 37 13 36