You can read some background information about the closing down here. Among the main points:
-          Taloussanomat counts 80,000 print readers and about 280,000 weekly online visitors (hoping to be above 400,000 by the end of 2008).
-          The closing down of the print version is a business decision, as the paper has historically trailed behind business daily market leader Kauppalehti and has been losing money since it started publishing 10 years ago.
-          Despite the closing down of the print version, no job cuts are expected – staffers will be repositioned across Sanoma, not laid off (currently 70 newsroom staffers, about 40-50 in the future).

 

The closing down of the print edition was solely a business decision, based on several trends and realities:
-          Contrarily to the overall ad market (growth 6% per year), the Finnish business ad market has been declining, down by nearly 9% a year.
-          Readership to the online edition of the paper has boomed, growing 70% this year, up to about 280,000 weekly unique (whereas print readership has remained stable).
-          By nature, business news is more adapted to be consumed online, due to the speed and reactivity of the Web, but also due its increased functionality and interactive graphic capacity.

 

The shuttering of the print version shouldn’t be perceived as a harbinger to the closing down of the Taloussanomat though. But will the Taloussanomat’s online business model be sustainable? Considering that it will save about 30% of costs by not printing, and lose about 70% in total revenue initially, Pentikainen hoped the lines will cross within a few years.

 

Now one may wonder whether Taloussanomat’s fate is a foretaste of what may happen to other Sanoma papers, and print newspapers in general. According to Pentikainen, Taloussanomat’s transition definitely fits into “more of a general trend,” within Finland and Scandinavia as a whole.

 

“It’s in a way a warning” of what may happen to other papers, he said, although he doesn’t see the Helsingin Sanomat – Finland’s leading quality paper – as ever being online-only. But he did seem to suggest that some of the smaller papers, like political newspapers, may eventually follow that path. Also tabloids are, as business news, very popular in digital form, and the overall readership of tabloids is starting to decline (although  tabloids are still very strong in print).

 

Fear not, print die-hard fans, Pentikainen also said that “I believe until I retire (18 years) we will have all the major print versions we have today.”

 

Nonetheless, in recent months, there have been numerous examples of online-only or Web-mostly publications being launched or proving to be successful.

 

More and more, the newspaper is now conceived as being defined by its purpose and professional standards, rather than its medium. In the US, several veteran newspaper people have left print to join online ventures (The Politico, MinnPost.com). Former Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger is to head a new type of ‘mercenary’ journalistic project, Pro Publica. In France, the online news site Rue89, staffed by former Libération journalists, has also gained huge credibility in the media landscape. Le Monde interactif is tackling an all-new – very new-media – approach to online ‘news’ with Le Post. And Arianna Huffington, founder of the influential Huffington Post, has stated that she wishes the site to become a full-fledged online newspaper – despite the Post’s clearly opinionated blog style.

 

But the Taloussanomat is one of the first European examples of an important newspaper going online-only. As print costs rise, more (most) readers migrate to online, and since online costs are extremely limited, it seems to simply make business sense to move towards online-only – if the online ad revenue model proves sustainable.

 

This posting about a US non-profit online-only news site, VoicesofSanDiego.org, rose the question whether online-only news sites pose a threat to newspapers. Perhaps they do, from a certain perspective, if they lead to decreased standards and quality. On the other hand, maybe this is a misled approach altogether. Professional online-only news publications, as demonstrated by the number of print journalists joining them, may be the pioneers of newspapers’ evolution into the digital world.

 

“This is not the end of the newspaper. It might be the end of the beginning,” said Pentikainen.

 

Source: Mikael Pentikainen, chief executive Sanoma newspapers (link to Taloussanomat)