• Improved adjusted operating profit in both businesses in an increasingly volatile operating environment
  • Well-positioned for accelerated growth in Learning
  • Acquisition of Vicens Vives on 30 April further strengthens our position in Spain
  • Outlook for 2026 unchanged

”We had a good start to the year resulting in improved adjusted operating profit in Learning and Media. The increasingly volatile operating environment was reflected particularly in the advertising demand, where we expect the softness to continue. In the first quarter, we were successful in mitigating its impact.

In a seasonally small quarter, Learning’s net sales grew driven by a larger spring order in the Netherlands, phasing between quarters in Spain and continued growth in digital learning platform sales in Poland. Learning’s adjusted operating profit improved as a result of the net sales growth and cost efficiencies following Program Solar, which will become fully visible this year. The positives were more than offsetting the slightly higher cost base in Poland and Spain, which is typical ahead of curriculum renewals.

At the end of April, we strengthened our position in Spain by acquiring Vicens Vives, a highly respected K12 learning content provider. The acquisition is in line with our strategy to grow our K12 learning business in current operating countries and to build on our existing scalable foundation. We have a well-established market leading position in Spain, and we continue to see great potential there, supported by the new funding cycle of the ongoing curriculum.

Looking closer at our growing learning business, the Sanoma Learning European Teacher Survey – with a record of more than 20,000 participants – continued to show stable and consistent value placed on high-quality learning materials throughout our markets. In the latest survey conducted early this year, 84 % of teachers agreed that Sanoma’s learning materials help students reach curriculum objectives. The teachers are at the helm when choosing the learning materials used. And they have a strong preference in working with well-curated blended materials, with the benefits of digital tools on improved inclusiveness among different learners, for instance.

In both Learning and Media, AI has become an increasingly integral part of the way we work and we always emphasise its responsible use and human oversight. Across Learning, we see great opportunities for AI to enhance the way we support teachers, students and parents through increasingly personalised learning pathways and resources. This spring, we have launched our AI Teacher Assistant in seven markets, helping teachers create exercises, tests, lesson plans and other materials grounded in our trusted content and pedagogy. Our AI Student Assistant will be enhanced with Mr. Chadd, a Dutch tutoring platform combining AI-based guidance with academically trained coaches, that we acquired in March. In Media Finland, we have for example built a set of B2B sales AI agents that support sales representatives throughout different phases of sales pipeline management and free up more time for meaningful customer engagement. In journalism, we continued to leverage AI both to automate processes – such as news detection and transcription – and to augment the high-value journalism through customised AI tools for teams. AI also plays a growing role in increasing customer value: article summaries and text-to-speech are already well-established ways for our audiences to consume media.

In Media Finland, growth in digital subscription sales continued driven by Ruutu+ and digital news media subscriptions, while our advertising sales decreased. A great example of our innovativeness in adding value for our digital subscribers was including access to The New York Times in all Helsingin Sanomat Digi+ subscriptions as of March this year. Media Finland's adjusted operating profit improved as a result of higher subscription sales and continued successful cost containment, including in personnel expenses.

During the seasonally small first quarter, our free cash flow was relatively stable, and as anticipated, our net debt and leverage (net debt / adjusted EBITDA) increased as we refinanced the EUR 150 million hybrid bond with senior debt.

At this early stage of the year and particularly given the importance of the third quarter in the learning business, we keep our Outlook for 2026 unchanged, managing the emerging implications of higher inflation and interest rates, and indicating a significantly improving adjusted operating profit compared to 2025.

After the first three months, we are in a great position to leverage the exciting growth opportunities across our business, deliver increasing adjusted operating profit and create value for all our stakeholders. I would like to extend my warmest thanks to all Sanoma employees for their work in delivering this good performance in the first quarter, and for their strong commitment and passion in supporting our customers.”