Helsingin Sanomat will produce all news and entertainment content for Microsoft's online services in Finland as concluded in a cooperation agreement with Microsoft. The most popular net service in Finland, MSN.fi will have HS.fi on its front page.
The MSN.fi pages, totally refurbished today, is the largest internet service in Finland by the amount of visitors, 850,000 unique visitors per week. Its front page will from now on include an HS.fi section with the latest news and entertainment releases.
"We wish to provide the MSN.fi visitors with as versatile and good content as possible. Also in other countries around the world, the leading media houses are responsible for the journalistic content of the popular MSN pages, says Martti Mehtälä," CEO of Microsoft Finland.
The HS.fi service of Helsingin Sanomat has currently more than 650,000 unique visitors weekly and the amount is increasing fast. As a result of the Microsoft cooperation, the amount of visitors will increase significantly.
"We have focused on developing our electronic service as part of the HS services. The cooperation agreement with Microsoft gives us an excellent opportunity to develop our online service further," says Reetta Meriläinen, Editor-in-Chief of Helsingin Sanomat.
"For Helsingin Sanomat, the MSN.fi cooperation also gives the chance to reach new kinds of target groups, the Messenger generation for example, which do not necessary read a conventional newspaper," Meriläinen continues.
The parties do not comment on the financial value of the agreement.
Helsingin Sanomat is part of Sanoma, the newspaper Division of the SanomaWSOY Group.