The Finnish media environment is characterised by a strong regional press. Daily papers are mainly purchased by subscriptions, often covering both print and online editions. The two national afternoon tabloids both reach half of the population weekly (mainly online). Tax-funded Public Broadcasting Company YLE and commercial MTV3 dominate broadcast TV-news and have a wide reach via digital platforms.

Digital developments

The two afternoon tabloids Ilta-Sanomat and Iltalehti dominate online news usage. They offer their online content mainly free. The biggest daily, Helsingin Sanomat, erected a metered paywall at the end of 2012 (with five free items a week) but has retained a strong position online. Many other newspapers have also erected paywalls or are planning to do so in near future. The reasons for high digital reach of newspapers (82%) relate to the high volume of free content combined with soft paywalls, bundled subscriptions, and the strong Finnish reading tradition.

The Finnish language and small market seem to shield national news brands somewhat against some international competition. For example, Google News has only 2% reach of weekly online news usage.

Newspaper reading via smartphones and tablets is growing fast. New digital platforms for newspaper reading are being developed in Finland. For example, a prototype of the thin, flexible ‘LivePaper’ platform is now in a pilot phase. Online delivery is especially important in Finland because of its sparse population and the long distances involved in physical distribution.

Social networks and digital participation

Facebook is widely used for news in all age groups. News-aggregator Ampparit ranks second. It lists links to the newest and most popular news items of the Finnish news media. Suomi24 is the most popular general discussion forum in Finland. For journalists, the most important social media services are Facebook and Twitter.

ER