Classified advertisements for homes, jobs, and cars in seven Finnish papers, including SanomaWSOY's flagship daily, Helsingin Sanomat, will be grouped under a single identity, Oikotie, as of January 10, 2002. Oikotie will appear in the same format in all the print editions of the papers covered and online at www.oikotie.fi.
In addition to Helsingin Sanomat, Oikotie will be available to readers of Turun Sanomat, Etelä-Suomen Sanomat, and Hämeen Sanomat, together with Etelä-Saimaa, Kouvolan Sanoma, and Kymen Sanomat, produced by Sanoma subsidiary, Kymen Lehtimedia. The combined readership of all seven papers is over two million, while the online service will add even more readers.
The online dimension of the service, www.oikotie.fi, which has been pioneered by Sanoma, features editorial content, guides, and other useful information covering selected fields, in addition to its core advertising content. The software platform underpinning the service has been designed to be capable of further scale-ups in user numbers, and offers a number of advanced search, update, and comparison features.
"We expect the number of weekly users of the online service to reach 150,000 by the end of our first full year," according to Pekka Soini, who heads up marketing at Helsingin Sanomat.