Back in 1986, after living in Finland for
four years, I returned to the States to study journalism at the University of
Georgia. One of the courses I took on my way to a non-existent future job in
the Fourth Estate was “International Communications”, a course that surveyed
what passes for journalism in different corners of the globe.
Part of the coursework for this class
involved each student giving a presentation about the media of some foreign
country. Naturally, I chose Finland.
Luckily, I happened to have a prop I could
use for my presentation, an actual copy of a Finnish newspaper, in fact the
country’s premier paper, the Helsingin Sanomat.
Hesari, as Finns like to call it, is
something of an institution here, a 124-year-old broadsheet that is practically
revered by a nation that is one of the most voraciously literate in the world.
Looking at it in an American context, Hesari enjoys the gravitas and pedigree
of The New York Times, but with 15 times the readership on a
per capita basis).
The paper is said to have the biggest
circulation of any in the Nordic countries, amazing when you consider that,
population-wise, Finland is smaller than Denmark and roughly half the size of
Nordic heavyweight Sweden. Another way to look at it is that Hesari enjoys a
near-monopoly status not matched by say, Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s
biggest broadsheet daily.
In Finland, some 400,000 (or 8% of the
population) subscribe to Hesari, which supposedly reaches 75% of households in
the home market of Greater Helsinki. That’s something I’m sure the Times could
never even aspire to. In short, it’s damn near ubiquitous.
So, it’s no surprise that it was a big
deal this week when the Helsingin Sanomat switched from a
broadsheet format to tabloid size. I’m sure there was some trepidation about
what the change would mean for this icon of Finnish media. TV news crews were
on hand at the factory as the last broadsheet copies came off the presses, and
the nation had to wait a full day without Hesari in any format before it,
reborn as a not-so-broadsheet, again hit the streets early Tuesday morning.
From what I’ve heard, mostly second-hand,
the Finnish public has adjusted well enough to having its printed news squeezed
into a narrower space. I haven’t seen the new version myself, since we took the
opportunity to move completely from paper to an on-line subscription (with the
bonus of giving us an excuse to finally buy an iPad).
Even with its new size, Hesari still
follows a policy that's unique when it comes to deciding what goes the front
page. Basically, it comes down to money. Page One content is always determined
by who’s willing to pay for it.
I still remember how, when I made my
little presentation in Athens almost thirty years ago, even the professor was
somewhat surprised when I held up my copy of Hesari. The reason is that the
front page was covered with nothing but advertisements (and costly ones, too).
That’s how Hesari does it. Journalistic content starts only on page two, making
this paper probably the only national daily anywhere to take this, um, “up
front” approach to advertizing.
And so, in keeping with this tradition,
the front page of the very last broadsheet edition, issued on Sunday, featured
an appropriately traditional ad, one for an 80-year-old brand of cheese called
“Koskenlaskija” (which translates roughly as “rapids skier”).
The full-page ad, with its vintage graphic
of a rather determined-looking blond-headed log driver navigating through
whitewater rapids, seems like a perfect way to evoke the long history of a
venerable newspaper willing to rock the boat a little by making a big change --
and sell a little cheese at the same time.
