Google to fund media platform development by Alma Regions

Alma Media Corporation        Press release   14 December 2017

GOOGLE TO FUND MEDIA PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT BY ALMA REGIONS

Alma Regions has received funding from Google’s Digital News Initiative Innovation Fund for developing its media platform development project, especially for the development of smart notifications. Funding of EUR 300,000 has been granted to the project. The project charts smart notification technology that makes it possible to offer the consumer increasingly customised content according to areas of interest, geographic location and time. Smart notifications make it possible to build an even more customised and meaningful user experience.

The project uses machine learning to optimise the user experience and make the content richer for the customer.

One of the central objectives of Alma Regions that publishes Alma Media’s regional and local newspapers is to promote customers’ shift to digitality. A growing number of consumers use a mobile device to follow different media. At the core of product development at Alma Regions is the creation of superior digital services with mobile devices at the forefront.

The upcoming project, funded by Google’s Digital News Initiative Innovation Fund, is a continuation of the Reviiri project that helped to start building a common media platform for the digital services and applications of the regional media. At the core of Reviiri was also the tailoring of different content based increasingly on location data and the use of smart notifications.

“We will be offering the media platform to our content partners and printing customers to use,” says Jussi Maaniitty, Director of Digital Business of Alma Regions.

“Notifications are becoming increasingly important for the news media through reaching wide audiences and potential subscribers.”

The purpose of the Digital News Initiative (DNI) fund is to support high-quality journalism and to encourage the creation of new innovations and the utilisation of different technologies in the news sector.”

For more information, please contact:

Jussi Maaniitty, Director of Digital Business of Alma Regions, tel. +358 (0)10 665 3161

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 2,300 professionals (excluding delivery personnel), of whom approximately 30% work outside Finland. Alma Media’s revenue in 2016 was EUR 353.2 million. Alma Media’s share is listed on NASDAQ Helsinki. Read more at www.almamedia.com.

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