Google to support Alma Media’s financial journalism development project

Alma Media Corporation                 Press Release                 25 February 2016, 3:30 p.m. (EET)

GOOGLE TO SUPPORT ALMA MEDIA’S FINANCIAL JOURNALISM DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

Alma Media and Streamr Oy will receive funding for their financial journalism development project from Google’s Digital News Initiative Innovation Fund. A maximum amount of funding, i.e. EUR 50,000, has been granted to the pilot project. The project pilots a technology that enables news topics to be identified and news containing financial data to be updated automatically.

The aim of the new development project is to automatically recognise important events and changes on the stock markets and create draft stories about them that reporters will then work on. The project will use a cloud service platform designed for analysing real time data. It allows monitoring and combining signals from different feeds, such as stock exchange releases, the prices of shares and other financial instruments and the social media.

The project will pilot a technology that automatically updates different types of dynamic elements, such as stock exchange prices and visualisations, into financial news.

– Our project challenges the traditional news concept, in which a single piece of news is strongly tied with a specific time – the publication moment. We will present an alternative model in which financial news is dynamic and updated in real time, allowing reporters to devote their time to tasks other than monitoring financial data, says Santtu Elsinen, SVP & Chief Digital Officer, Alma Media.

– Technology will by no means replace reporters’ work, but rather allows them to focus on more demanding journalistic tasks, Elsinen continues.

During the project, tools will be constructed for use by Alma Talent to address the needs of the financial news departments and websites of Kauppalehti, Arvopaperi and Talouselämä, for instance.

The project will be implemented together with our technology partner Streamr Oy.

– It was difficult to fulfil Google’s criteria, and passing them was already a fine achievement and an indication of the innovativeness of our vision. This is a really interesting project and it is nice to be able to build future news technology together with Alma Media, says Risto Karjalainen, COO, Streamr Oy.

The Digital News Initiative (DNI) is a collaboration between Google and news publishers in Europe to support high quality journalism and encourage a more sustainable news ecosystem through technology and innovation.

For more information, please contact:

Santtu Elsinen, SVP & Chief Digital Officer, Alma Media
tel. +358 40 342 4433

Risto Karjalainen, COO, Streamr Oy
tel. +358 40 77 505 88

Alma Media in brief

Alma Media is a media company focusing on the service business and journalistic content. The company’s best-known brands are Kauppalehti, Talouselämä, Affärsvärlden, Iltalehti, Aamulehti, Etuovi.com and Monster. Alma Media builds sustainable growth for its customers by utilising the opportunities of digitality, including information services, system and expert services and advertising solutions. Alma Media’s operations have expanded from Finland to the Nordic countries, the Baltics and Central Europe. Alma Media employs approximately 2,500 professionals (excluding delivery personnel), of whom approximately 30% work outside Finland. Alma Media’s revenue in 2015 was EUR 291.5 million. Alma Media’s share is listed on NASDAQ Helsinki. Read more at www.almamedia.com.

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