Finnish enterprises abroad
Foreign enterprises in Finland
Material on ownership in the media industry

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Top 100 in Finland

By turnover 100 largest media enterprises in Finland (from 1 to 100) are listed by the M&M  magazine (remarks on the relevance of the list). Even the largest of the enterprises in Finland is small compared to the global media giants. However, two leading media enterprises, based in Finland, play now a role on the Northern European scene. This is a new phenomenon.

Unchanged is that the global media giants have not become significant media owners. This probably will change, sooner or later. The internationalisation of the media ownership is accelerating. That concerns, in both ways, also Finland.

SanomaWSOY (1)

In July 2001, the leading media enterprise in Finland SanomaWSOY bought CIG, the publisher of over 250 magazines in several Western and Central European countries (CIG in Brief by SanomaWSOY in July 2001). Just a single acquisition raised radically the internationalisation rate of the whole Finnish media industry. Since the purchase, more than a tenth of the turnover of the media enterprises, based in Finland, is made abroad. SanomaWSOY, making about a third of the industry's turnover, has now over 40 per cent of its business abroad.

What and where SanomaWSOY owns abroad can be studied from the corporation's organisation chart of July 3rd 2002. Major operations take place in Holland, Belgium, Czech Republik, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia and Norway, where SanomaWSOY owns 29,6 per cent of A-pressen (read below), one of the largest media groups of the country.

Before the CIG acquisition SanomaWSOY had implemented cautiously its strategic direction to become more international. The CIG deal changed abruptly the pattern. In the fourteen months after the CIG acquisition SanomaWSOY's leadership has mainly focused on adapting to the new situation. It has had to deal with businesses in several new countries, with a rapidly expanded turnover and with a new emphasis on magazine publishing.

Now this stage, characterised by adaptation to the CIG deal, seems to be over. When writing about the SanomaWSOY's September 18th 2002 merger with its daughter company Rautakirja, Helsingin Sanomat (owned by SanomaWSOY) wrote: "By the merger SanomaWSOY gathers its strength to speed up its internalisation".

The management has not given clear announcements about the directions of the corporation's future internationalisation. Options are both geographical and concern different areas of the media business. The moves after the CIG acquisition do not give strong hints about the most probable directions in SanomaWSOY's near future investments abroad. As in CIG's case, much depend on what will be available. SanomaWSOY's financial position allows, but does not urge, rapid new openings neither in Finland, nor in other countries. 

SanomaWSOY has been a stock company since May 1999. Major shareholders are listed on the corporation's site. About half of the shares are in the hands of minister Aatos J. Erkko and his close relatives.

Main owners of the rest of the shares are Finnish cultural financial institutions and Finnish insurance companies. The corporation does not have any significant foreign owners. Trading with SanomaWSOY's shares at the Helsinki Stock Exchange is minimal, largely due to the, until now, unwillingness of the major shareholders to sell their shares, experts say.

2. Alma Media (2) / Bonnier

By turnover the second largest media enterprise in Finland is Alma Media. It is listed at the Helsinki Stock Exchange. The leading Swedish media enterprise Bonnier owns 33 per cent of Alma Media's shares and has the same part of the votes. Approximately a fourth of the shares and the votes are at the hands of Finnish insurance corporations. In Finland the business experts tend to believe that it is only a question of time when Bonnier will acquire a majority position in Alma Media. The debts of Bonnier's major acquisition in Sweden (Marieberg in 1998) may, however, slow down this prediction to materialise.

Bonnier is overwhelmingly the largest foreign owner in the media world in Finland. In addition to its third of Alma Media it has since 1996 wholly owned Tammi (27), one of the major book publishers in the country. Last year Bonnier's reach in Finland was further increased by Alma Media's acquisition of almost a third of Talentum (7). July 31st 2002 Alma Media had 32,8 per cent of Talentum shares. Other large owners of Talentum were unions of academic professionals and investment funds. In addition Alma Media owns 25 per cent of Suomen Lehdentekijät (57), a big player in customer magazine production in Finland.

An interesting cross border ownership case is TV4 in Sweden (read below). Alma Media owns 23,4 per cent of its shares and in May 2002 Bonnier increased its possession of TV4 shares to 21,7 per cent.

Alma Media owns Baltic News Service, the leading news bureau in the Baltic region.

According to Bonnier's Annual Report 2001 (page 9) in 2001 the corporation made 39,5 per cent of its net turnover outside of Sweden. The country division of the total net turnover of 16 839 million Swedish crowns (1 Swedish crown = 0,11 euros) was as follows:

Sweden 10,190
Denmark 1,747
Norway 1,509
Germany 1.374
Finland 748
Great Britain 357
Latvia 235
Spain 139
Lithuania 117
Netherlands 80
France 65
Other markets 278

Swedish language information about the type of Bonnier's ownership abroad is presented on the corporation's organisation chart.

Otava-Kuvalehdet (5)

Otava-Kuvalehdet, in Finland a big producer of magazines and books, publishes in Estonia four magazines and has a book club. In its Annual Report 2001 the enterprise, owned by Reenpää family, is more secretive than open.

Edita (6)

Edita has foreign production units in Sweden, Estonia and Latvia. In the Annual Report 2001 the 2001 purchase of Graphium in Sweden is described on page 4 as follows: "The acquisition means that Edita has taken a significant step towards its target of covering the Nordic markets." In 2001, Edita made of its 179 million EUR turnover 49 million EUR in Sweden and 3 million EUR in Estonia.

Helprint Quebecor (8)

Helprint Quebecor is part of Quebecor, the largest graphical industry enterprise in the world. In Europe Quebecor has production units also in Sweden and five other countries.

No other significant graphical industry plants in Finland are wholly owned by foreign enterprises. The major minority ownership is due to Bonnier's 33 per cent of Alma Media's shares. In the Finnish graphical industry Alma Media belongs to the big ones.

JCDecaux (13)

JCDecaux Finland Oy is part of the global JCDecaux Group.

Janton (14)

Janton has published since March 2002 in Oslo, with Norwegian Gekko Publishing, the magazine City.

Other Top 100 list's
enterprises with foreign ownership

Major Top 100  list's
enterprises without foreign ownership

Twelve enterprises of the Top 20 -list have no publicly known foreign owners or any publicly known ownership abroad. The enterprises are:

Nordic country media enterprises

Nordic Information Centre for Media and Communication Research (Nordicom) has published a table of the largest media companies in the Nordic region by turnover in 2000.

  • Bonnier (read above). Bonnier family's ownership in the media industry in Autumn 1999: chart1 / chart2 (by Nordicom).
  • SanomaWSOY (read above).
  • Egmont has 4,300 employees in 24 countries. In 2001 its revenues were 1,14 billion EUR out of which 71 per cent was made outside of Denmark. Annual report 2001. In Norway Egmont owns together with Orkla Media Hjemmet Mortensen, a major magazine publisher in the country.
  • Schibsted ASA has most of its activities in Norway and in Sweden. "At the end of 2001 Schibsted had 4900 employees, of whom 2860 work outside Norway", sums up the Annual Report 2001. It had 31st July 2002 almost 6,000 shareholders. Over 36 per cent of the shares were controlled by foreign investors, most of them being institutional investors. Blommenholm Industrier, meaning Tinius Nagell-Erichsen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Schibsted ASA, was the biggest owner (26,11 per cent of the shares). Company Overview lists and links different units of the corporation.
  • Orkla Media (in Norwegian) is part multi-industry Orkla Corporation, one of the largest stock companies in Norway. At the end of year 2001 Orkla Media had 8,531 employees (3,384 in Denmark, 2,571 in Norway, 1,900 in Poland, 498 in Sweden, 94 in Lithuania and 84 in Ukraine). Orkla media 2001 (in Norwegian).
  • Modern Times Group (MTG). Annual Report 2001 - the top 20 shareholders on page 16. In 2001 over 67 per cent of the group's income was made by Viasat Broadcasting. Family Stenbeck's ownership in the media industry in Autumn 1999: chart1 / chart2 (by Nordicom).
  • Alma Media (read above).
  • Aller is a big magazine publisher in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. It has magazines also in Finland. Structure of Aller family media ownership in Autumn 1999 (by Nordicom).
  • SVT (About Swedish Public Service Television Company).
  • DR (About Danish Radio).
  • NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Company) (in Norwegian).
  • YLE (Finnish Broadcasting Company).
  • TV4 (Sweden). Annual Report 2001 (in Swedish) - largest owners at the end of year 2001 are listed on page 45. Since then Bonnier has increased its share to 21,7 per cent and the vendor's (MTG) share has dropped to 15,1 per cent. Alma Media owned MTV Oy is with its 23,4 per cent of the shares the largest shareholder.
  • A-pressen had in 2001 a turnover of 2,3 billion Norwegian crowns (1 Norwegain crown = 0,136 EUR). At the end of 2001 it had over 2,500 employees. The enterprise has invested since 1999 in newspapers and printing plants in Russia. "The goal is to become a central player at chosen targets in Russia", A-pressen states (in Norwegian) on its site. Annual Report 2001 (in Norwegian).
  • TS Group (Finland). Annual Report 2000.
  • TV 2 (Denmark) (in Danish) will be privatised. Bonnier and MTG have expressed their interest to become co-owners of TV 2.
  • Politiken (Denmark) decided in September 2002 to merge with Jyllands Posten (read below).
  • SR (Swedish Radio).
  • SBS Broadcasting is an exchange-listed company. It has radio and TV stations in eleven countries in Europe. In 2000 the Nordic market represented 41 per cent of its volume.
  • Tidnings AB Stampen's main product is the daily Göteborgs-Posten. Hjörne family controls by Tidnings AB Stampen also several other newspapers.  Hjörne family's ownership in the media industry in Autumn 1999 (by Nordicom).
  • Otava-Kuvalehdet (read above).
  • Jyllands Posten (Denmark) decided in September 2002 to merge with Politiken (read above). Corporation structure of Jyllands Posten (in Danish).
  • Wolters Kluwer, based in the Netherlands, had in 2001 a turnover of 3.8 billion EUR and 19,000 employees. Europe's share of it was almost 50 per cent. In 2000 the Scandinavian market represented 4 per cent of Wolters Kluwer's volume. At the end of 2001 US investors had 45 per cent of the shares, Dutch 29 per cent and British 16 per cent. The remaining 10 per cent was spread in several countries. Internationale Nederlanden Group had 9,4 per cent of the shares, being the only shareowner having more than 5 per cent of the shares.
  • KF Media is owned by the Swedish Cooperative Union. KF Media has about 1,000 employees. 

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Remarks on the relevance of the Top 100 list:

  • In this connection the criteria of being or not being a media enterprise is not an important question. M&M magazine's list of 100 largest media enterprises applies a wide definition of being a media enterprise. That is perfect for the purpose of this study, aiming above all to give media enterprise employees and other concerned people information about the international ownership of the media.

  • Another remark is made by the creators of the M&M's list. Not all enterprises replied to their inquiry. However, the list includes all major and medium size media enterprises in Finland.

 

nelio2.jpg (633 bytes) Who Owns What, by Columbia Journalism Review, is a most practical and useful directory on media ownership

nelio2.jpg (633 bytes) Media Concentration, special site of Mediachannel.org

nelio2.jpg (633 bytes) Hoover's online has a free mini data bank on media ownership.

nelio2.jpg (633 bytes) In 2000 the value of the mass communication market in Finland was 20.91 billion Finnish marks (1 Finnish mark = 0,17 euros). The table on its division between graphical, electronic and other mass communication segments is published in Finnish language by Statistics Finland. 

nelio2.jpg (633 bytes) In 2001, according to M&M magazine, the turnover of 100 largest media enterprises in Finland was 4,871 million euros. The number one SanomaWSOY made 35,5 per cent of it. Next five (Alma Media, Yleisradio, TS-Yhtymä, Otava-Kuvalehdet, Edita) had 41,1 per cent of the total sum. Enterprises ranking from 6th to 20th place made 16,9 per cent of the top 100 enterprises' turnover. Thus top 20 enterprises make more than 90 per cent of the whole media industry's turnover. One can safely say that in the media industry in Finland ownership is highly concentrated.

nelio2.jpg (633 bytes) In the Finnish graphical industry exports and imports played a minor role in 1980-1998 (click "Graafisen alan taloustilasto 1998", pages 42-46, explanations in English) 

nelio2.jpg (633 bytes) Finnish Mass Media by Virtual Finland (updated November 16th 2001)

nelio2.jpg (633 bytes) Mass Media / Fact Sheets on Sweden by Swedish Institute (October 1999)

nelio2.jpg (633 bytes) Ten largest media owner groups in year 2000 in Sweden. Swedish language tables published by

nelio2.jpg (633 bytes) Swedish ownership of foreign TV-stations in 1999 (in Swedish by Nordicom)

nelio2.jpg (633 bytes) Owner spheres in the Swedish media market in 2000 (click tabell 1-01.htm, text in Swedish)

nelio2.jpg (633 bytes) Media in Norway by Ministry of Cultural Affairs

nelio2.jpg (633 bytes) Denmark - Culture - Mass Media by Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

nelio2.jpg (633 bytes) European media landscape by European Journalism Centre: analysis of the media in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and over twenty other countries