Vartti.fi Will Deliver News About the Helsinki Metropolitan Area in Real Time
On 17 October Sanoma Kaupunkilehdet (Sanoma's Free Sheet Business Unit) will launch a completely new kind of internet service at the address www.vartti.fi that will deliver local news in real time. At the same time, Sanoma Kaupunkilehdet will start to provide local news content on the internet pages of the tabloid Ilta-Sanomat.
"You can find out from Vartti.fi what is happening in the Helsinki metropolitan area right now. Local news, and news photographs and text messages sent in by readers will be constantly updated on the service. We already receive several hundred local news photographs from readers every month and I believe the new service will increase that number many times over," Editor-in-Chief Janne Kaijärvi says.
"We will also bring the editorial process to the internet. Readers will have the opportunity to comment on story ideas and discuss them beforehand on the pages of the service."
The new service will result in an increase in the number of pages in the newspaper and bring more interesting content with a more local flavour. The number of different regional versions printed in the Helsinki metropolitan area will increase from five to seven. In the future, the newspaper will be delivered to homes once a week on Wednesdays. The Sunday edition will stop being printed in the Helsinki metropolitan area on 14 October.
"Vartti has had an excellent reception from our readers twice a year. Through this change, we will develop the newspaper and the internet service into a completely new kind of local media, which among other things will make possible the real-time transmission of ultra-local news to the reader's mobile phone free of charge," Kaijärvi adds.
In addition to the new internet service, the editorial staff of Sanoma Kaupunkilehdet will start to provide local news content for Ilta-Sanomat.
"We will get a completely new kind of news content for Ilta-Sanomat really fast, providing our readers with better service on the Internet, especially in the Helsinki area," Senior Editor-in-Chief Tapio Sadeoja says.
The popularity of free sheets has grown steadily both among readers and as an advertising medium.
"In a tight competitive situation Vartti's advertising sales grew by 40 % from the previous year and this autumn also looks good," Niko Ruokosuo, President of Sanoma Kaupunkilehdet Oy, says. "Under these favourable conditions, we are responding to changing media consumption, in other words, to the needs of readers to receive and provide content and discuss these issues on the Internet. As all of the newspapers we deliver to homes are included under the Vartti brand, we will be able to do this nearly everywhere in southern Finland."
Sanoma Kaupunkilehdet and Ilta-Sanomat are part of the Sanoma Division of the SanomaWSOY Group.