Sanoma Corporation will establish its own line of free sheets in 2005. Sanoma's free sheets will appear twice a week and will be distributed free of charge through direct distribution in the Helsinki metropolitan area and in some municipalities of the Uusimaa province.
The papers of the new product family will appear at least in Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen as well as in western Uusimaa. The names and detailed circulation numbers will be announced later.
Kellokas, distributed in Tuusula, Kerava and Järvenpää as well as Hyvinkään Kellokas will start appearing twice a week towards the end of this year. Becoming a twice-weekly publication is a natural sequel to the dynamic growth of Kellokas in recent years. The circulation of Kellokas is 46,500, and that of Hyvinkään Kellokas 26,500 copies.
The Kellokas line of papers will be extended to cover also Nurmijärvi in the spring when Nurmijärven Kellokas will become operative. Like the existing papers, also the Nurmijärvi edition will lean on strong local editorial content.
- Led by Helsingin Sanomat, traditional newspapers continue to be the backbone of Sanoma. However, we also need free sheets to be able to offer a versatile product range both to our advertisers and readers, explains Sanoma Corporation's President Mikael Pentikäinen.
The free sheets will be part of Sanoma Kaupunkilehdet Oy. Niko Ruokosuo, M. Sc., has been appointed Managing Director of the company as from 1 December 2004. He is currently President of Recycler Classifieds, a subsidiary of Los Angeles Times.
Sanoma is the newspaper division of SanomaWSOY Group.