Alma Media sets up joint newspaper editorial desk in Helsinki

ALMA MEDIA CORP.                 PRESS RELEASE 29 SEPT 2006,  8.30     1 (1)

 

ALMA MEDIA SETS UP JOINT NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL DESK IN HELSINKI

 

Alma Media has decided to establish a joint political desk for its regional papers and Kauppalehti in Helsinki. The new desk will begin operating in September 1007. The move is a practical implementation of Alma Media’s chaining strategy under which the Group’s newspapers collaborate in areas in which co-operation creates opportunities for renewal and for improving quality levels and efficiency.

 

The Helsinki desk’s strength will be its team of ten people, making it one of the largest political desks in Finland.

 

In the case of Kauppalehti and Kauppalehti Presso, the effect of the new desk will be to expand content to cover also social news. This will be reflected in moderate growth in the number of pages in the weekday issues.

 

“Politics and other social matters increasingly involve economics,” notes Hannu Leinonen, Kauppalehti’s executive editor-in-chief. “The economic implications of political decisions are felt by both consumers and the business community. Helsinki is the natural venue for a political desk because Helsinki is the centre of political decision-making in the country.”

 

The Helsinki desk will act as a joint political editorial department for Kauppalehti, Aamulehti, Satakunnan Kansa, Lapin Kansa, Kainuun Sanomat and Pohjolan Sanomat. Together, these papers reach more than one million readers.

 

The new desk will combine the required editorial resources under one roof in the Kauppalehti offices. It will also mean the termination of co-operation between the Helsinki editorial departments of Aamulehti and Turun Sanomat and between Satakunnan Kansa and Etelä-Suomen Sanomat.

 

The head of the new Helsinki desk is currently being recruited.

 

Further information:

Hannu Leinonen, executive editor-in-chief, Kauppalehti, tel. +358 10 665 2392

 

DISTRIBUTION: Helsinki Stock Exchange, principal media

 

Alma Media is a Finnish media group that publishes newspapers, produces and distributes economic information, and maintains online marketplaces. The Group’s portfolio contains business, afternoon, regional, local and town papers. Alma Media also owns leading online marketplaces, a business that it is also expanding into markets outside Finland.

 

Alma Media’s best known products are the Aamulehti, Iltalehti and Kauppalehti papers and the Etuovi.com home-buying internet service. The Group derives about half of its net sales from media advertising and roughly 40 % from newspaper circulation revenues. Net sales of continuing operations in 2005 amounted to MEUR 286, generating an operating profit of MEUR 42 or an operating margin of 14.8 %. The company’s share is quoted on the Main List of the Helsinki Exchanges. The trading code is ALN1V. More information at http://www.almamedia.fi/home.