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Newspapers vs. Web: a Finnish Perspective

  • Heikki Pölönen
  • September 20, 2012
  • 2 minute read
Image: Anu Asmala, 23
“Thanks to a recent marketing campaign, I’m getting Aamulehti newspaper for free for a couple of months. Otherwise it would be too expensive for me to subscribe, especially when I can just read news on the internet for free. But, I don’t see myself paying for online news. I much prefer print. Why? It is just so nice to browse through the paper while having the breakfast.” Anu Asmala, 23 (Heikki Pölönen / ONA Student Newsroom)
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Googling Finland elicits some basic clichés: thousands of lakes, the home of Santa Claus, a mobile phone company called Nokia (that used to be big) and, after drinking a lot, Finns have been known to run completely naked between a sauna and a frozen lake.

What’s less known about Finland is the strong tradition of reading newspapers. According to a recent national survey, nearly 95 percent of Finns still read newspapers on paper (this statistic doesn’t include reading the same content online).

Finnish media companies have a difficult time letting go of traditions. During the past year newspaper readership has dropped only two percent. Yet, newspapers are increasingly facing the challenge of convincing young people that it’s worth paying for what feels like yesterday’s news delivered daily to their porches.

The survey shows that, even though Finns read newspapers a little less than before, the use of the digital media seems to be increasing. Almost 10 percent of the Finns already have — or are planning to buy — a tablet computer in the near future. This should create an incentive for Finnish newspapers to further develop digital content. One question still remains, one that plagues media organizations around the world: how do news organizations get people to pay for that digital content? Young people on the streets of Tampere say cost is one of the main reasons they don’t read newspapers as much as in the past, so why would they pay for digital news?

What else do young Finns have to say about their news reading habits?
(Click on a photo to view as a slideshow.)

Image: Tia Alen (left), 16 and Bea Heikkonen, 14
“We will probably start reading newspapers when we’re older to know what people are talking about. At the moment we don’t really read news, because it is so depressing. The only exception is when someone shares an article on Facebook. There are a lot of happy things going on in the world. Why can’t the newspapers write about them?” Tia Alen (left), 16 and Bea Heikkonen, 14 (Heikki Polonen / ONA Student Newsroom)
Image: Harri Jussila (left), 24 and Martiina Vainikainen, 23
“We don’t feel like newspapers have anything to offer us. Why subscribe to a paper when you can get news on the internet for free? Neither of us has enough time to follow the news more than occasionally reading it on the internet. And if news weren’€™t free, we would just stop reading it altogether. If something important happened, we would see it on the headlines of the tabloids while grocery shopping.” Harri Jussila (left), 24 and Martiina Vainikainen, 23 (Heikki Pölönen / ONA Student Newsroom)
Image: Sami Okkonen, 23
“I’m not interested in subscribing to a newspaper. It is so much faster to read the daily news on the internet, where it is published instantly. However, I could subscribe to a magazine. I’m much more interested in reading longer, well-written articles about science and history, for example, than reading general news.” Sami Okkonen, 23 (Heikki Pölönen / ONA Student Newsroom)
Image: Teemu Hilpinen, 27
“I see no point in subscribing to a newspaper because I’m never at home. I work in a restaurant and go fishing about five times a week. That really leaves no time to follow the news. The only things I read on the internet are stories related to fishing. I regularly read peoples’ fishing diaries, because they tell you the best places to go fishing.” Teemu Hilpinen, 27 (Heikki Pölönen / ONA Student Newsroom)
Image: Laura Perasalo, 27
“I mostly read news on the internet at the moment. I use different news sites for different kinds of news. For daily news I use Yle (Finnish public broadcasting company), because they’re well written and because I like the simplicity of the web page design. I hate pages where you don’t instantly find what you’re looking for.” Laura Perasalo, 27 (Heikki Pölönen / ONA Student Newsroom)
image: Laura Perasalo, 27
“If it weren’t so expensive, I would subscribe to a newspaper. It is so much easier to focus on reading the paper while having the breakfast than it is to read the news on the internet, where you easily get distracted by Facebook. I believe that media organizations should use their resources now to develop their online presence further. Look at children: They already do everything on the computer. Digital media is where the future is.” Laura Perasalo, 27 (Heikki Pölönen / ONA Student Newsroom)
Image: Anu Asmala, 23
“Thanks to a recent marketing campaign, I’m getting Aamulehti newspaper for free for a couple of months. Otherwise it would be too expensive for me to subscribe, especially when I can just read news on the internet for free. But, I don’t see myself paying for online news. I much prefer print. Why? It is just so nice to browse through the paper while having the breakfast.” Anu Asmala, 23 (Heikki Pölönen / ONA Student Newsroom)
Image: Taru Lepisto, 21
“As a student, I find it way too expensive to subscribe to a newspaper. I do read a lot of news on the internet though. I believe that in five years everyone is going to read their news mostly on tablets and smartphones. To me, the most important things about news articles are good headlines and transparency. Headlines shouldn’t be misleading. I hate it when I feel like the article is biased in one way or another.” Taru Lepistö, 21 (Heikki Pölönen / ONA Student Newsroom)
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