Sanoma Magazines, Finland’s leading magazine publisher, is to expand its portfolio with a new title aimed at a broad range of people in their fifties and sixties. To be known as Iiris, the magazine will offer a unique combination of quality journalism and glamorous features. Edited by Leena Karo, the magazine will appear for the first time in March 2012.Iiris has been designed to appeal to the some 1.5 million women and men in Finland aged between 50 and 64. Its concept represents a novel mix of the best aspects of women’s magazines and general interest titles, and will combine strong visuals, great writing, and powerful emotions with topical social issues and other developments shaping the modern world. The plan is to develop a strong media brand around the title, including online services and events.“With Iiris, we want to create a community that really connects with women and men in their fifties and sixties,” says Leena Karo, who has been appointed the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief. “This generation is surprisingly invisible in the media at the moment, and Iiris is all about changing that and developing a completely new category in the magazine world that will give them a voice and a face.“Our target readers have already achieved and experienced a lot in their lives, but are still very much interested in planning their futures as well. Compared to earlier in their lives though, they now have more freedom, more time, more money, and more self-confidence to live their dreams. In many respects, you could say that they are in the prime of their lives.”The content of Iiris will mainly focus on topical developments and people in the news, fashion, beauty, travel, the arts, health, and wellbeing.“We want Iiris to offer a real sense of community for readers and be adventurous and full of life, with a personality all its own,” continues Leena Karo. “We want to be as interested in the world around us and open to new ideas as we believe our readers are, and offer a unique combination of quality journalism and glamorous features. Iiris will be about encouraging readers to live life to the full.”Iiris’ very broad target audience has traditionally been a heavy user of print media, and offers the title the opportunity to achieve a significant position on the magazine market in terms of both readership and advertising. The long-term goal is to reach a circulation of over 100,000.“In today’s market, we want to focus on brands with the potential to achieve significant circulation and market share,” says Sanoma Magazines Finland’s Managing Director, Clarisse Berggårdh. “Our goal is to make Iiris a favourite with readers in their fifties and sixties in the same way that ET-lehti has become for the 60+ segment and Kodin Kuvalehti is for families. We are committed to putting a lot behind the sales and marketing of the new magazine to ensure that it gets a great start.”Iiris will appear for the first time on 8 March 2012 and the first issue will have a print run of 150,000; in all, nine editions will be published during the first year.Further information:Managing Director Clarisse Berggårdh, Sanoma Magazines Finland, tel. +358 (0)9 120 5020Publisher Riitta Pollari, Magazines Unit, tel. +358 (0)9 120 5305Editor-in-Chief Leena Karo, Iiris, tel. +358 (0)9 120 5435Sanoma Magazines Finland is Finland’s leading magazine publisher, with a portfolio of more than 40 titles read by over 3 million Finns. We are the market leader in women’s and family magazines, children’s and juvenile publications, and consumer IT titles. In addition to magazines and books, a growing amount of content and services is also available online today. Our Custom Publishing Unit produces multichannel communications services for many of Finland’s leading companies.Sanoma Magazines Finland is part of the Sanoma Group, a major European media company active in over 20 countries.