''Helsingin Sanomat'', abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest

subscription The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century, and ...

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sport ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

and the Nordic countries, owned by

Sanoma Sanoma Corporation (, formerly SanomaWSOY) is Finland's largest media group. The company has media business in Finland and a learning business in Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Norway and Spain, among others. The company is headquarte ...

. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that of the Finnish capital,

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, where it is published. It is considered a newspaper of record for Finland.

History and profile

The paper was founded in 1889 as '' Päivälehti'', when Finland was a Grand Duchy under the

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the te ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

. Political censorship by the Russian authorities, prompted by the paper's strong advocacy of greater Finnish freedoms and even outright independence, forced Päivälehti to often temporarily suspend publication, and finally to close permanently in 1904. Its proprietors re-opened the paper under its current name in 1905. Founded as the organ of the

Young Finnish Party The Young Finnish Party or Constitutional-Fennoman Party ( fi, Nuorsuomalainen Puolue or ) was a liberal and nationalist political party in the Grand Duchy of Finland. It began as an upper-class reformist movement during the 1870s and formed as ...

, the paper has been politically independent and non-aligned since 1932. During the Cold War period ''Helsingin Sanomat'' was among the Finnish newspapers which were accused by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

of being the instrument of US propaganda, and the Soviet Embassy in Helsinki frequently protested the editors of the paper. ''Helsingin Sanomat'' has a long history as a

family business A family business is a commercial organization in which decision-making is influenced by multiple generations of a family, related by blood or marriage or adoption, who has both the ability to influence the vision of the business and the willin ...

, owned by the Erkko family. It is currently owned by the

media group which also owns ''

Ilta-Sanomat ''Ilta-Sanomat'' () is one of Finland's two prominent tabloid size evening newspaper and the second largest paper in the country. Its counterpart and biggest rival is '' Iltalehti''. According to the National Media Research done in 2019 ''Ilta- ...

''. The relationship between the owners of ''Helsingin Sanomat'' and Finland's government have sometimes been close. For instance, during the run-up to the

Winter War The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...

, Eljas Erkko was at the same time the paper's publisher and Finland's foreign minister. ''Helsingin Sanomat'' strongly advocated Finland joining the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

in the run-up to the decision to do so in 1994. It has also openly expressed support for Finland's membership of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

. In fact, it supports the participation of Finland in all Western institutions. Mikael Pentikäinen was the

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

until May 2013 when he was fired from the post. Riikka Venäläinen replaced him temporarily in the post. After Riikka Venäläinen the post has been held by Kaius Niemi. After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the newspaper established a Russian language news website to cover the war. In May 2022, Russian authorities blocked access to the website of the newspaper.

Format

''Helsingin Sanomat'' is published daily in Finnish in compact format with the exception of the days after public holidays when the paper does not appear. Subscriptions make up 97% of the newspaper's circulation. The front page is usually devoted to advertisements. The newspaper was published in broadsheet format until 6 January 2013. The paper also has a monthly supplement named ''Kuukausiliite'' (Finnish for ''Monthly Supplement''), and a weekly TV guide and entertainment-oriented supplement named ''

Nyt ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' (meaning ''Now'' in English). Between 1999 and 2012 there were also both Finnish and English-language online newspaper editions. Content of ''Helsingin Sanomat'' can be accessed also through mobile devices.

Circulation and influence

The circulation of ''Helsingin Sanomat'' was 476,163 copies in 1993, making it the most read newspaper in Finland. In the period of 1995–96 the paper sold 470,600 copies. Its circulation was 446,380 copies in 2001, making it the largest paper in the country. In 2008 the paper sold 412,421 on weekdaysFinnish Audit Bureau of Circulations Statistics
(a change of −1.8% from 2007) and 468,505 copies on Sundays (−1.3%). In 2011 the daily had a circulation of 365,994 copies, making it the most read paper in the country. The same year it was also the largest paper in terms of readership. Approximately 75% of households in the

Greater Helsinki Greater Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin seutu, Suur-Helsinki, Swedish: ''Helsingforsregionen'', ''Storhelsingfors'') is the metropolitan area surrounding Helsinki, the capital city of Finland. It includes the smaller Capital Region (''Pääkaupunkiseutu ...

region subscribe to ''Helsingin Sanomat'', and it functions as the region's local paper. Its total daily circulation is well over 400,000, or about 8% of Finland's total population, making it the biggest daily subscription newspaper in the Nordic countries. This reaches about 14% of all households in Finland. The paper is a significant factor in

Finnish society The culture of Finland combines indigenous heritage, as represented for example by the country's national languages Finnish (a Uralic language) and Swedish (a Germanic language), the sauna, with common Nordic and European cultural aspects. B ...

and in

public opinion Public opinion is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to a society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them. Etymology The term "public opinion" was derived from the French ', which was first use ...

. Pertti Klemola, a Finnish journalist and scholar, once called it a state authority, an institution with its own independent social and political will. In June 2009 the site was the sixth most popular Finnish website. In 2010 it was the seventh most visited website in Finland in 2010 and was visited by 1,236,527 people per week.

''Helsingin Sanomat International Edition''

The

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to t ...

section of the ''Helsingin Sanomat'' website, the ''Helsingin Sanomat International Edition'' (''HSIE''), ran for thirteen years. The ''International Edition'' launched on 14 September 1999 with the aim of informing readers of news from Finland during the Finnish

presidency of the European Union The official title President of the European Union (or President of Europe) does not exist, but there are a number of presidents of Institutions of the European Union, European Union institutions, including: * the President of the European Coun ...

. It continued after the European presidency owing to the quantity of readers it was getting became one of the major English-language sources of news regarding Finland—making it popular with English-speaking immigrants to the country. The ''Helsingin Sanomat International Edition'' closed down on 26 October 2012. English material is now published in cooperation with '' Helsinki Times'' weekly newspaper. For a while, ''Helsingin Sanomat'' also published some of its material in Russian, but the service was discontinued on 6 October 2014.Русскоязычный сайт ”Хельсингин Саномат” закрывается.
5 October 2014.

References

External links

Helsingin Sanomat

Helsingin Sanomat International Edition (English)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Helsingin Sanomat 1905 establishments in Finland Daily newspapers published in Finland Finnish-language newspapers Newspapers published in Helsinki Liberal media Publications established in 1905