First tabloid-format issue of Aamulehti published on Tuesday 1 April 2014

Alma Media Corporation     Press release        31 March 2014 at 12:00 am (EEST)

FIRST TABLOID-FORMAT ISSUE OF AAMULEHTI PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY 1 APRIL 2014 

Finland’s largest regional daily, the Aamulehti, issued in Tampere, gets a total makeover regarding content, structure, supplements and layout. The first new-version issue will be published tomorrow, 1 April 2014.

Aamulehti’s renewal was implemented in collaboration with readers. The workgroup responsible for the renewal invited the people of the Pirkanmaa province to participate in the design of a new tabloid paper as early as last October. More than 1,000 people took up the challenge and gave their input on Aamulehti’s road show around the province, on the Owela online forum and many reader workshops. Aamulehti’s renewal easily counts as the most extensive crowdsourcing project in the history of Finnish daily newspapers.

Stefani Urmas, Design Editor, Alma Regional Media, says the readers’ views and wishes had a significant effect on how the renewed paper is structured, designed and how its news are weighted.

“The printed newspaper is a medium people read, not just scan. It needs to be a coherent whole so when you have read it, you can say you are up to date on what is happening today”, says Matti Posio, the Head of the renewal project, about the project’s objectives.

“A newspaper must be conveniently shareable at the breakfast table. Newspapers are increasingly being read on buses and trains, or, for example, in the evening in a lying position. Tabloid is clearly the most reader-friendly format that is best suited for today’s needs”, says Jouko Jokinen, Executive Editor-in-Chief of Aamulehti.

The result of many earlier changes into tabloid format has been that people spend more time with the paper in comparison with the old broadsheet format. The renewed Aamulehti has more pages than before, and the number of stories and images is not reduced even if the format of the pages shrinks.

The renewal will not change Aamulehti’s subscription prices or the single copy price.

The last broadsheet issue of Aamulehti was published today Monday, 31 March 2014. Aamulehti has been published since 1881. Its print edition readership on weekdays is 270,000 (Finnish Audit Bureau of Circulations 2013). Aamulehti is part of Alma Regional Media business unit and will be one of the newspapers participating in a joint project by 12 regional papers that is presently being planned and named Lännen Media. When operational, Lännen Media will jointly produce content from Finland and abroad to its participating newspapers.

For more information, please contact:
Matti Posio, Project Manager, Aamulehti, tel. +358 40 771 7828
Jouko Jokinen, Executive Editor-in-Chief, Aamulehti, tel. +358 10 665 3100

Facts about the new Aamulehti:

-The renewed Aamulehti includes four basic sections every day: News and Sports in the A section, People and Culture in the B section. In addition, the editorial, weather and TV programmes appear every day, easily found at the beginnings and ends of the sections.

-The paper has two separate stapled parts every day. A third section C appears on most weekdays, sometimes replaced by additional sections.

-The product palette of Aamulehti will become more versatile along with the renewal. The Sunday paper will be a consistent reading package combining the slow journalism earlier included in the Sunday supplement to more topical news. The Travel section on Sundays will expand.

-The entertainment and TV supplement Valo will be discontinued and replaced by two new sections: Menomini, an industry first in Finland, and a separate TV Week section. Menomini is a pocket-size Wednesday supplement presenting the most interesting events and happenings and can easily be detached as a takeaway event calendar. TV Week is a tabloid-format section C on Fridays.

-As part of its renewal, Aamulehti will introduce the Mini product family including, in addition to the weekly Menomini, special Minis in the same format. The format, half of the tabloid, enables in-depth coverage of one topic or story. The Mini format also allows printing, for example, guides for sports events, cultural themes, games, recipe tips and many types of reader surprises.

-Of Aamulehti’s old sections, the hyper-local Moro for the inhabitants of Tampere will remain. On Saturdays, a Home supplement will appear as section C. Theme supplements will be published several times a year, as before.

-Also advertisers get many new, interesting possibilities to reach the Pirkanmaa people through the new Aamulehti. However, the front page will be dedicated to news instead of advertisements, just like before.

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 Baltic States and Central Europe. The company employs 1,965 professionals (excluding distributors), of whom approximately one third are based outside Finland. Alma Media’s revenue in 2013 totalled approximately MEUR 300. Alma Media’s share is listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki. Read more at www.almamedia.com.

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