Strategy

The foundation of Alma Media’s strategy is built on transforming the core, grow in digital, and internationalisation.

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.

The digital transformation strategy of recent years has been successful: the majority of the company’s revenue comes from digital sources and the share of digital business has clearly already exceeded 80%. The expansion of our digital services has been particularly successful in Eastern Central Europe. The marketplace business accounts for nearly half of revenue, the media business for about a third and services for about a fifth. Digitisation is opening up a variety of opportunities for us, and media is increasingly becoming a service.

Our journey continues to the development of digital businesses towards advanced trading platforms – in the media business, the transformation continues to grow the share of digital media even further

We are continuing the transformation of our business from media to marketplaces and digital services. Our aim is to strengthen our existing business activities in the areas of recruitment, housing and business premises, mobility, information services targeted at professionals, and media. We seek synergies between our businesses through cooperation and jointly produced services in areas such as audience development, data and technology, and advertising sales.

Our strategy involves moving towards more advanced media, information and trading platforms. Our goal is to diversify our revenue streams and complement our offering in digital purchasing and selling processes for our corporate and consumer customers. In addition to organic development, growth will be accelerated through acquisitions. We will continue to move forward on the path of internationalisation in the recruitment business and also look for new opportunities for expansion in our current markets. In our marketplaces business, we focus on expanding our information and trading platforms, growing the transactional business and new data services.

Alma Media is preparing for changes and will continue to implement the three focus areas of the strategy. In the operating environment, the trend of digitalisation continues and is driven by the development of technology and the change in consumer behaviour. Digital business is evolving to meet the expectations of service users. Competition continues to intensify, as more and more international technology giants and new market-disrupting operators challenge local operators. An effective response to intensifying competition and a changing operating environment requires active cooperation and the sharing of information within the Group and within industries. The cooperation between the segments and the businesses in Finland will continue and synergy will be sought from joint advertising sales, data and technology know-how and audience growth.

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 11 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 in our recruitment business in the Alma Career segment, progressed according to plan with renewal of common system architecture and back-end systems projects. The
development of cross-border product organisation is well under way and the objectives are to maintain competitiveness, enhance product development, accelerate the integration of platform systems and improve the management of the product portfolio. The Prace za Rohem mobile recruitment service developed in the Czech Republic was successfully expanded into the Slovakian market at the turn of the year, and the redesigned Poslovac mobile recruitment service was launched in the Croatian market.

In the Alma Marketplaces segment, the acquisition of Netwheels complements the range of automotive and mobility services for business customers in our marketplaces business. The acquisition expands our offering, which streamlines vehicle
purchasing and selling processes and promotes the development of our marketplaces and systems business. We also continued our development projects focused on the renewal of our sales systems aimed at professionals in the automotive and housing verticals, and the growth of the transactional business. We are now in the deployment phase of our OviPro system for digital real estate business. OviPro will gradually replace the current KIVI real estate agency system.

In Alma News Media, one of the key development projects is the creation of a common media platform for the media brands. As part of this effort, the technology and data organisations were consolidated in 2023. In Q1 2024, we launched common digital publication tools for the use of the editorial teams. The AI team in the segment has started its work and the first tools to assist editorial work have already been deployed. On the product side, Kauppalehti’s digital services for users and the Kauppalehti website and application have been completely redesigned and the news content has been sharpened. As an entirely new content product, we have launched the KL Avain concept that puts more emphasis on in-depth content and increases Kauppalehti’s value for digital subscribers.

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.