Finnish Media and Communication System

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NEWSPAPER

In terms of print media, for only a small population of 5.2 million, there are 208 newspaper titles in Finland out of which 54 are daily newspapers (as of 2001). Although there are many titles, the newspapers are mainly concentrated under big companies such as SanomaWSOY (25% market share), Alma Media (18% market share), Keskisuomalainen (8,5% market share), which dominates half of the market share out of 24 companies.

Although the main focus in this lecture is going to be on newspapers, the print media is not consisted of only newspapers. According to Statistics Finland the number of consumer magazines, professional/organization/trade magazines, customer magazines and opinion journals published in Finland adds up to some 2800 titles. If the periodicals that are published at least twice a year would be added to that number the total number would be around 5000. The magazines, for some reason, were not affected badly at the economic recession of 1990's where the newspaper circulation went down about 20% and some medium-sized newspapers closed down. Finns are avid readers of newspapers and magazines, 82% of the adult population reads a magazine everyday and the average time used on reading a magazine is about 42 minutes a day. The trend of concentration of business under big companies has taken place also for the magazines. There are three big players in the market; Yhtyneet Kuvalehdet, Helsinki Media Company and A-Lehdet (Lehti in Finnish means both paper and magazine). These three publishers dominate by publishing 80% of the magazines in the market.

Book publishing is the third area of print media. "Statistics on the number of book titles relative to population show that Finland has retained its position among the leading countries in the world. Other high-ranking countries apart from Finland include Iceland, Denmark, Holland and Switzerland. In 1999 a total of around 13000 book titles were published in Finland, twice as many as in the early 1980s. At least in the light of this evidence it seems that the growth of electronic communication has had no adverse impact on book publishing." (2002, Statistics Finland, pp 76-77).

Starting with a short history of Finland from the Swedish reign up till today, the following article by Raimo Salokangas tells about the birth, development and present state of the Finnish newspaper structure in detail.

From Political to National, Regional and Local. The Newspaper Structure in Finland By Raimo Salokangas. Article published in Nordicom Review, Number 1,1999
http://www.nordicom.gu.se/common/publ_pdf/31_salokangas.pdf