Strategy

Our strategy is focused on the customer, improving the customer experience and creating value for all our stakeholders. The three focus
areas are: 1) transformation, 2) growth, and 3) scalability.

Three focus areas of the strategy

Our transformation from a company reliant on the printed newspaper publishing business to a provider of digital services has been well underway for a long time and investments in digital media and services have been made since the mid-1990s. Alma Media has been transforming the media business since it decided to take the publishing business to the future by turning printed media into digital.

In fact, the first efforts were already seen in the late 1990s in the form of Kauppalehti and Iltalehti websites. At the time, digital business accounted for a few percent of revenue. At the same time, as work on the media revolution began, investments in marketplaces also started. During the transformation trip, the company has had practically the same strategy all the time: translation from print to digital media and media to services, and internationalisation.

In our strategy, we have outlined a comprehensive plan for the development, growth and scaling up of our business

We focus on carefully selected business areas that interest us the most and enable profitable growth. We also make full use of the possibilities presented by the latest AI-based technology.

We integrate our own and our customers’ technical and commercial platforms into seamless solutions and expand our role in value chains.

We continue to accelerate growth through acquisitions.

Our product development activities are aimed at enabling fully personalised services for consumers and a seamless service experience also for corporate customers in all parts of the value chain and in every business. We make full use of group-level synergies by sharing audiences, data and technology between segments and services, and by investing in common media sales in Finland.

The transformation of our business from media to marketplaces and digital services will continue, accelerated by AI.

We will move towards more advanced media, information and commerce platforms that aim for a seamless customer experience and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. For corporate customers, we will combine our offering and platform to create efficient end-to-end service solutions that enhance our customers’ sales and marketing processes and accelerate their business. At the same time, we will diversify our revenue streams with new services. We will harness AI across all of our businesses to accelerate product and service development and speed up the introduction of new products to the market. In addition to organic development, we will accelerate growth through acquisitions, also in new geographical areas.

The Group’s synergies will be maximised through efficient internal cooperation. We will ensure that we continuously have access to high-quality, efficient and developing Group services to support our business activities. We will make extensive use of data collected from all of the Group’s services in product and service development, day-to-day service production, marketing and sales.

We will develop and leverage common technology, including AI and technical capabilities, for use across all of our businesses in order to ensure our cost efficiency and competitiveness. Together, we will invest in the acquisition, refinement and diverse commercialisation of audiences. In the domestic market, our Group-level media sales function provides our advertiser customers with the best advertising and commercialisation solutions in the country, as well as financial success in conditions of increasing competition.

Users are increasingly interested in online services and trading, even when it comes to larger household purchases. With the digitalisation of purchasing processes, we are taking a strategic step towards developing our marketplaces from classified advertisement listing services to advanced digital platforms. The goal is to help both our end users and our B2B partners to easily and smoothly interact online, and we also aim to offer additional services at different stages of the transaction process. For example, a consumer can take the car or housing transaction to the end, up to financial arrangements, on new trading platforms. This will require a licence granted to Alma Media in late spring 2023 to handle payment intermediation.

Examples of the advanced new services in the mobility vertical include the digital used car auction service Baana, online documentation and electronic payments in the car trade, and the “Helpot Kaupat” (“Easy transaction”) model that can be used with a smartphone. In the housing vertical, the OviPro solution is a similar example. The DOKS service is a digital tool that helps companies manage anti-money laundering obligations, monitor sanctions and, in general, identify and know their customers.

Since the end of 2021, the Alma Career United project has increased cooperation, as planned, in product development, sales and marketing, harmonised technology and operating models, and built services that are even more internationally competitive. The project aims for stronger synergies in the production of services for corporate customers, as well as the development of recruitment solutions that extend across the borders of our countries of operation. Central to the progress is the harmonisation of technology and service platforms enabling joint product development in 10 countries, as well as the gradual integration of financial, HR and legal processes into the Group’s processes. The Alma Career B2B brand has been launched for corporate customers, also enabling the buying and selling of the entire Alma Career product and service portfolio in all operating countries and across Europe going forward.

Strategy implementation during 2024

The Career United project, which seeks to deepen internal cooperation and improve productivity in the Alma Career segment, continued to move forward. Projects related to the renewal of a common system architecture and back-end systems progressed according to plan. The CV databases in Czechia and Slovakia were consolidated to serve the needs of recruiting companies even more effectively. Our cross-border product organisation began its operations with the aim of maintaining competitiveness, enhancing product development, accelerating the integration of platform systems and improving the management of the product portfolio.

The Prace za Rohem mobile recruitment service developed in Czechia was successfully expanded into the Slovakian market, and the redesigned Poslovac mobile recruitment service was launched in the Croatian market. The business operations in Poland were wound down during the review period and we will withdraw from that market by the end of 2024.

The Netwheels acquisition has complemented the range of automotive systems and marketplace services in the Alma Marketplaces segment. The expanded offering streamlines vehicle purchasing and selling processes and promotes the development of the marketplaces and systems business. Continued progress was made in the development projects focused on the renewal of sales systems aimed at professionals in the automotive and housing verticals, and the growth of the transactional business. The OviPro system for digital real estate agency, which will replace the current KIVI real estate agency system, progressed to the deployment phase and the continued development of the system’s functionalities. Digital transactions for residential real estate continued to become increasingly common: digital DIAS transactions accounted for nearly half of the transactions for shares in housing companies that were mediated by real estate agents. The Nettimökki service for renting holiday homes was redesigned, enabling secure payments via Alma’s own payment service. A new service was launched for legal professionals, bringing together content produced by specialists in various branches of law.

In the Alma News Media segment, the main development projects included building a shared media platform for different media brands and taking advantage of AI in editorial work. The new segment’s technology and data organisations were consolidated in 2023 and, during the period under review, common digital publication tools were launched for use by the editorial teams. The AI team started its work at the beginning of 2024 and tools that assist editorial work have been widely deployed. AI is also used in Iltalehti’s sentiment analysis, which helps develop content and target content at audiences even more effectively than before. Among the products, Kauppalehti’s website, application and digital services were completely redesigned and the news content has been sharpened. The KL Avain concept was launched as a new content product. It puts more emphasis on in-depth content and increases Kauppalehti’s value for digital subscribers. In Q3, the focus of the redesign effort was shifted to Arvopaperi. The segment’s digital subscription sales strategy is supported by the merger of the Group’s Finnish companies in Q3, which made it possible to consolidate the customer bases of different media products.

Read more about Alma Media long-term financial targets.

Business model

Alma Media has business operations in three business and reporting segments:

• Ama Career
• Alma Marketplaces
• Alma News Media

Alma Media’s sources of revenue are:

• classified advertising,
• advertising,
• digital services,
• content,
• other sales.

The revenue categories listed above comprise several different revenue generating models. The media sector’s historically clear division between circulation sales and advertising sales has become diversified as a result of digitisation. 

Description of the business model

As the digital transformation has progressed, digital marketplaces have become an increasingly significant area of Alma Media’s business. They include services related to recruitment, housing, cars and mobility, for example. The customers of Alma Media’s digital services include both companies and consumers. The digital services business model is based on customer fees charged for classified advertising, fees for increased visibility in classified advertising, service sales, revenue streams from service content and/or advertising targeted at the users of the service, subscription fees and licence fees for the use of information systems.

The media business includes, for example, the professional and financial media and books as well as the national multichannel media Iltalehti. The media business is based on a relationship with readers built through content. As media develops, the reader relationship is shaped into a multidimensional customer relationship with a media brand. The strength of this relationship can vary from occasional visitors or buyers of single copies to the use of online services as registered users of online services, paying consumers of digital content and long-term subscribers of print publications.

The Group’s other services include information services as well as training, event and direct marketing business.

For all businesses, readers and online visitors constitute target groups that are characteristic to each brand. These target groups are the basis for advertising sales. These target group contacts are sold to advertisers on a brand-specific basis and as audience segments from the digital Alma network. For advertisers, this opens up valuable opportunities to specifically target the businesses, professionals, decision-makers, entrepreneurs or consumers that are relevant to the growth of their business. The use of data, analytics and machine learning plays an increasingly important role in improving the product and service offering for advertisers and enriching the end-user service experience. Data and marketing automation enable the provision of increasingly high-quality, effective and impactful solutions to advertisers.

Brand appeal and the communications and marketing efforts aimed at maintaining it are crucial in the digital environment. Alma Media’s services are the best-known brands in their segments in Finland and the Group’s operating countries in Eastern Central Europe. The popularity of these services among users is based on a high level of usability, unique content and, in many cases, the importance of the social or communal dimension. It is also essential to have the ability to respond to customer needs by delivering localised products and services.

Value creation

In Alma Media’s value creation for customers, shareholders and society, the key roles are played by the strong journalism, marketing and technology expertise of the Group’s employees, strong product and service brands, customer data, the best partners, an efficient production and delivery network and a stable financial position.  These are described in more detail in value creation model.