| Statistics | |
| Population | 5m |
| Internet | 97% |
| Trust in news | 68% (1st out of 12) |
| Interest in news | 64% (10th out of 12) |
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 TV news and have a wide reach via digital platforms.
The two afternoon tabloids Ilta-Sanomat and Iltalehti top online news usage with a mainly free offering but elsewhere the move to paid news is growing. Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s best known national daily, has been using a paywall online since 2012, and now half of its subscribers pay for online content, either by bundled subscriptions or pure digital subscriptions.1
Online
TV, radio, print
Digital reach
| Newspapers | 79% |
| Broadcasters | 55% |
| Pure players | 24% |
Cross-platform reach
| Newspapers | 93% |
| Broadcasters | 88% |
Traditional (offline) reach
| Newspapers | 78% |
| Broadcasters | 82% |
Some of the regional dailies have already erected paywalls – either metered or freemium. The rest are planning to do so in the near future. The Finnish regional press is also looking to cut costs – creating a new joint venture Lännen Media to create shared non-local content for syndication across 12 newspapers.
New initiatives for 2015 include Flou, a personalised app from the Sanoma group which aggregates content from newspapers, TV, and magazines for €12.99 a month. Prejkfast is a home-grown Finnish start-up that is looking to create a widely used micropayment system for newspapers.
Digital weekly reach is up to 79% for traditional newspapers and 55% for broadcasters – only 24% for pure players. The most popular pure player is a national news aggregator Ampparit. The Finnish language and small market seem to shield national news brands somewhat against international competition.
Smartphone use for news has grown considerably. A quarter (24%) say the smartphone is the main way of accessing online news (15% in 2014).
Apple devices vs the rest (news usage)
Top social networks*
Facebook has retained its leading position as a top social media platform for news in all age groups. Suomi24, which ranks third, is the most popular general discussion forum in Finland. The use of Google+ seems to be decreasing sharply (now 5% compared to 12% in 2014) while WhatsApp is gaining popularity (weekly use now 4% for news and 32% for any purpose).
ER
- Ongoing subscription for print Helsingin Sanomat for one year costs €349/year, bundled €397. Online subscription with all services costs €178.80, and a more restricted online subscription at €118.80. Total circulation is 331,551 (of which only print 51%, bundled 35%, and only digital 14%). Total digital subscriptions are 163,826. This is a significant proportion of digital circulation (242,518) of 17 dailies that took part in a media audit in Finland in 2014 (http://mediaauditfinland.fi/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Levikkitilasto20141.pdf). ↩